Description
HR Process & Compliance Specialist
What to expect when you join Sikich Team members at Sikich have a lot in common while also being part of a rich and varied group of contributors, creating a distinct and thriving culture. Chief among our commonalities is a desire for growth and a shared unity of purpose in our professional lives. We believe that through diverse perspectives, challenging the status quo and rewarding action, we accelerate innovation and drive growth – for our clients, for ourselves and for our communities.
The professional services landscape continues to evolve. For Sikich, this means we have an opportunity to further cement our leadership position in this industry and continue to grow our organization in increasingly exciting ways. This growth is meaningful for every team member at our company because larger companies simply see more interesting client opportunities and can attract impressively talented individuals like you. Through a dedicated focus on key business priorities and intentionally creating a rewarding employee experience, Sikich has developed into a highly regarded provider of professional services and a sought-after employer of choice. Do you want to work with other skilled practitioners and serve clients in a way that makes a difference? Are you seeking a supportive environment backed by a deep and extensive set of skillsets? Are you ready to make an impact and be acknowledged for your contributions? If you answered yes to these questions, we see a mutually beneficial and gratifying relationship on the horizon!
Are you ready to grow with us?
Position Summary: The HR Process & Compliance Specialist supports a compliant, efficient, and well-governed HR function by coordinating regulatory activities, maintaining policies and standard operating procedures, analyzing HR processes and data, and supporting continuous improvement initiatives. The position partners across HR Operations, Total Rewards, HR Systems, Payroll, Talent, and business leadership to monitor compliance requirements, execute audits and corrective actions, improve workflows, and support HR-related mergers and acquisitions. The role uses process mapping, project management, data analysis, and automation tools to help ensure HR operations are accurate, scalable, measurable, and aligned with organizational standards.
Essential Job Duties:
HR Compliance
- Support compliance with applicable employment laws and requirements, including FLSA classification and recordkeeping, ADA processes, EEO and affirmative action requirements, Form I-9 and E-Verify, pay transparency, immigration, personnel-record retention, benefits-related operational compliance, and HR data privacy and access controls.
- Manage employee handbook content and updates.
- Conduct and support compliance audits, including Form I-9 and E-Verify, Affirmative Action Programs and related nondiscrimination requirements, EEO-1, benefits, HR technology, and data integrity; document findings and coordinate corrective action plans.
- In conjunction with the Compensation Specialist, assist with job classification, FLSA exemption, pay transparency, and pay equity reviews.
- Prepare reports and handle regulatory audits or inquiries.
- Develop and provide HR compliance training, job aids, and manager guidance as needed.
- Maintain compliance metrics, supporting records, control documentation, and audit-ready evidence.
- Maintain a structured employment-law monitoring process; assess operational impact and coordinate required policy, process, system, training, and communication changes.
- Maintain a compliance calendar covering recurring federal, state, and local reporting, notice, audit, and filing requirements.
- Track identified compliance gaps through corrective action plans that document owners, deadlines, evidence of completion, and residual risks.
- Partner with Legal, Payroll, Benefits, Compensation, HR Systems, and other stakeholders to translate regulatory requirements into operational controls.
- Conduct reviews of applicable subcontractor arrangements to identify potential co-employment, worker-classification, or dual-employment risks and escalate findings for appropriate review.
HR Processes
- Document, map, and actively enhance HR processes such as onboarding, offboarding, benefits, and HCM transactions.
- Create and update comprehensive standard operating procedures (SOPs) for all HR functions.
- Periodically review HR workflows and data accuracy, offering recommendations for improvements.
- Develop current-state and future-state process maps, risk-and-control documentation, and stakeholder responsibility matrices.
- Identify opportunities to reduce manual work, handoff delays, processing errors, and duplicate data entry.
- Develop business requirements, test scripts, user-acceptance testing plans, and implementation documentation for HR process or system changes.
- Establish baseline and post-implementation metrics to measure the effectiveness of process changes.
- Maintain a centralized inventory of HR processes, SOPs, controls, owners, dependencies, and review dates.
- Monitor and share process performance indicators like cycle times, error rates, and service levels.
- Partner with teams handling HR Systems/Technology, payroll, and benefits to guarantee smooth process integration.
- Support system upgrades and lead approved workflow-automation efforts using HR technology and Microsoft 365 tools where appropriate.
- Provide training on newly implemented or revised SOPs and processes to HR team members and managers.
- Act as a go-to contact for questions or troubleshooting related to HR processes.
Project and Change Management
- Coordinate cross-functional HR projects by maintaining project plans, milestones, risks, decisions, dependencies, and action items.
- Facilitate project meetings and provide concise status reporting to HR leadership and key stakeholders.
- Support change-impact assessments, stakeholder communications, training, and adoption activities for revised HR processes and systems.
- Identify project risks or delays and escalate them with practical mitigation recommendations.
- Maintain complete project documentation and ensure appropriate operational handoff following implementation.
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) Support
- Serve as the primary tactical support to the Manager of HR Operations & Process for HR-related M&A activities, executing day-to-day integration tasks and deliverables.
- Assist with pre-close HR due diligence by gathering, reviewing, and organizing employee data, policies, benefit plans, and compliance documentation.
- Support the analysis of acquired entities’ HR practices, identifying gaps, risks, and integration requirements related to compliance, classification, payroll, benefits, and HR systems/technology.
- Coordinate and partner with other HR teams to execute HR onboarding and transition activities for acquired employees, including employee data conversion, system setup, policy acknowledgements, and benefits enrollment support.
- Prepare and maintain detailed integration checklists, timelines, and trackers to ensure HR tasks are completed accurately and on schedule.
- Work with the Integration Team to draft and distribute employee-facing communications related to HR process changes, onboarding steps, and compliance requirements during integration periods.
- Partner with HR Systems/Technology, payroll, benefits, and compliance teams to ensure accurate data migration, system alignment, and timely issue resolution.
- Support post-close audits and validation activities to confirm compliance with employment laws, benefit plan requirements, and internal HR standards.
- Document M&A-related HR processes and develop SOPs to support consistent execution across future acquisitions.
- Escalate risks, issues, or delays to the Manager of HR Operations & Process with clear recommendations and supporting analysis.
- Maintain acquisition-specific risk, issue, decision, and dependency logs.
- Support employee-population reconciliation across due-diligence files, payroll records, benefit enrollments, and the HCM system.
- Assist with Day 1 readiness, including employee data, organizational assignments, payroll setup, benefit eligibility, policy acknowledgments, access requirements, and employee communications.
- Coordinate post-close stabilization activities and track unresolved employee-impacting issues through completion.
- Conduct integration retrospectives and incorporate lessons learned into future playbooks, templates, and SOPs.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
- Bachelor’s degree in human resources, business administration, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience, required.
- A minimum of three (3) to five (5) years of experience in HR operations, compliance, or process improvement required.
- Experience supporting M&A, HR due diligence, or post-close integration preferred.
- HR certification, such as SHRM-CP or PHR, a plus.
- Professional services experience is strongly preferred.
- Thorough knowledge of employment laws and regulatory requirements.
- Experience conducting compliance audits and developing corrective action plans.
- Expertise in policy development and governance.
- Proficiency in analyzing data for compliance and pay equity reviews.
- Strong accuracy, confidentiality, and sound judgment.
- Advanced communication skills and the ability to deliver effective training.
- Ability to manage competing priorities in client-focused, deadline-driven environments.
- Strong skills in clear, precise process documentation and mapping.
- Experience assessing data integrity and process performance metrics.
- Knowledge of project and change management methods.
- Working knowledge of project management, including risk tracking, milestones, stakeholder coordination, and status reporting.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Excel for data validation, reconciliation, lookup functions, pivot tables, and compliance tracking.
- Experience using Microsoft 365 tools, including SharePoint, Power Automate, Forms, Planner, and Power BI, to document, automate, monitor, or report on HR processes.
- Ability to translate regulatory requirements into documented controls, procedures, system requirements, training, and workflows.
- Experience in creating audit workpapers, corrective action plans, control matrices, process maps, and executive-ready status reports.
- Ability to analyze HR data, identify discrepancies or control failures, and recommend practical, evidence-based solutions.
- Demonstrated ability to handle sensitive employee information in line with privacy, confidentiality, retention, and access-control requirements.
- Commitment to attention to detail and continuous improvement.
- Ability to communicate and facilitate meetings clearly and professionally.
- Strong collaboration skills in fast-paced, deadline-sensitive environments.
In compliance with this state’s pay transparency laws, the base compensation range for this role is $58,768 (25th percentile) - $92,792 (50th percentile) - $126,815 (75th percentile). This is not a guarantee of compensation or salary, as final offer amount may vary based on several factors including but not limited to experience and geographic location. Compensation ranges for roles in our Government Services pillar are determined by contract with the specific government agency Sikich is servicing.
In addition, specific skills/experience required are as follows:
- Servant Leader – You are hyper focused on engaging employees, fostering their development, and building a positive culture.
- Solutions Focused – You see opportunities in every business problem and can develop, articulate, and implement solutions.
- Collaboration – You are a relationship builder across all levels of the organization and across all business units.
- Instills trust – You do what you say, and you follow through on commitments, you act with integrity, you are consistent and are perceived as credible.
- Impact & Influence Thinking – You gain support for ideas, proposals, and solutions, and get others to act, with or without formal authority, to advance initiatives/objectives.
About Sikich Sikich offers the public and private sectors a diverse platform of professional services across consulting, technology and compliance. Highly specialized and hands-on teams deliver integrated solutions rooted in deep industry experience. Our approach is strategically and thoughtfully designed to help our clients, teams, and communities accelerate success.
Sikich Total Rewards Our team members enjoy expansive benefits ranging from competitive compensation and insurance options to wellness programs and a flexible time off policy, to name only a few. Sikich also takes pride in prioritizing team members’ health, total wellbeing and time spent with family, friends and in the pursuit of personal goals, hobbies, and endeavors.
Some examples of our many benefits:
- Sikich maintains a Flexible Time Off (FTO) Policy. We encourage every full-time employee, as your role permits, to utilize paid time off (personal time, mental/physical health care, vacation, sick leave, etc.). Waiting for time off to accrue is common at other companies. At Sikich, you do not have to wait for this benefit to kick in. FTO is activated on your first day with our organization.
- Sikich will also recognize paid holidays during the year and strives to permit employees to have time off the last week of the calendar year when client and project work permits.
- Sikich offers a comprehensive wellness program to engage, challenge and empower team members to take responsibility for their wellbeing. Activities can be tracked through our wellness provider to obtain gift cards and other rewards.
We also offer:
- Flexible work arrangements
- Health, dental, vision, life, and accident/death/disability insurance options
- HSA employer contribution
- Nine (9) paid holidays annually.
- A robust paid Parental Bonding Leave program covering birth, adoption, and foster children.
- 401(k) with employer contributions
- CPA bonus with four (4) paid exam days & four (4) paid study days.
- Tuition reimbursement
- Generous employee referral bonus program
- Client referral bonus program
- Pet insurance
- FORCE – Sikich community volunteer program enabling each team member to use up to four hours of paid time annually to volunteer and make a difference in their local communities.
Want to learn more? Visit our Careers website or Glassdoor profile. Sikich is an Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/D/V
Sikich practices in an alternative practice structure in accordance with the AICPA Professional Code of Conduct and applicable law, regulations, and professional standards. Sikich CPA LLC is a licensed CPA firm that provides audit and attest services to its clients, and Sikich LLC and its subsidiaries provide tax and business advisory services to its clients. Sikich CPA LLC has a contractual arrangement with Sikich LLC under which Sikich LLC supports Sikich CPA LLC’s performance of its professional services. Sikich LLC and its subsidiaries are not licensed CPA firms.
“Sikich” is the brand name under which Sikich CPA LLC and Sikich LLC provide professional services. The entities under the Sikich brand are independently owned and are not liable for the services provided by any other entity providing services under the Sikich brand. The use of the terms “our company”, “we” and “us” and other similar terms denote the alternative practice structure of Sikich CPA LLC and Sikich LLC.