Audit Briefing for a Resource Lead
Audit Type: ISO/IEC 27001:2022 including human resources security lifecycle (recruitment to termination), awareness, training, access control, and disciplinary procedures.
Objective: Verify effective security control through human resources lifecycle (recruitment to termination) including security awareness, training, access control, and disciplinary procedures.
Your Role & Accountability
As Resource Lead, you are responsible for enforcing personnel-related security controls including background checks, confidentiality agreements, role-specific security clauses in employment contracts, security training logs, awareness initiatives, and ongoing refreshers, records of disciplinary actions related to security policy breaches, competency and performance management framework.
Key Evidence Auditors Will Expect
- Signed employment contracts with explicit information security responsibilities
- Background screening results and onboarding security checklists
- Training completion logs for all employees, contractors, and temps
- Exit procedures, including access revocation and asset return logs
Audit Readiness Advice
Make sure training and onboarding records are complete, traceable, and signed.
Be ready to walk through an example of an employee onboarding and offboarding.
Every workflow and policy must be backed by logs or documented outputs
Avoid abstract or off the cuff responses — show proof from source systems and dev tooling.
Prepare examples of controls and processes working effectively in advance of the audit
ISO27001 Internal Audit Questions
These questions can be used to conduct a mock audit or assess readiness for a conformity assessment.
Failure to provide a satisfactory response indicates a potential non-compliance.
Questions
| ☐ | Submit documented procedures for screening new hires, including evidence of background checks conducted. | |
| ☐ | Provide signed employment agreements including confidentiality clauses and information security responsibilities. | |
| ☐ | Show how job descriptions include role-specific security obligations and are approved by HR and management. | |
| ☐ | Show onboarding checklists and security induction training completion records. | |
| ☐ | Provide training logs and results for ISMS awareness programmes across all departments. | |
| ☐ | Submit proof of security briefings for high-privilege roles and signing of acceptable use terms. | |
| ☐ | Show documented linkage between job termination and system deprovisioning procedures. | |
| ☐ | Submit the disciplinary procedure for ISMS breaches and examples of enforcement. | |
| ☐ | Submit examples showing HR’s role in initiating the offboarding process securely. | |
| ☐ | Provide HR records confirming communication of post-employment confidentiality obligations. | |
| ☐ | Submit documented procedures for screening new hires, including evidence of background checks conducted. | |
| ☐ | Provide signed employment agreements including confidentiality clauses and information security responsibilities. |
Supplementary Higher Scrutiny Questions
- Submit examples of onboarding training specific to privileged access roles.
- Submit evidence of contractor or third-party HR due diligence, including confidentiality and onboarding controls.
- Provide documentation showing approval processes for contractor access to systems or premises.
- Submit logs of phishing or awareness campaign metrics and improvement tracking.
- Demonstrate escalation records involving HR, management, and ISMS leads.
- Show audit logs of user account removal with timestamps aligned to departure dates.
Below is a summary of select information security control objectives of particular note:
