A people systems audit asks whether the company is actually raising the bar or merely talking about it.
Start with the role. Are expectations clear enough to hire, onboard, coach, and evaluate against? Then inspect the evidence. Do interviews, performance conversations, calibration packets, and promotion cases rely on observable work or manager folklore?
Next, look at the loop. Does feedback happen close to the work? Does anyone check whether behavior changed? Are managers held accountable for developing people and protecting standards? Are consequences timely enough to teach the right lesson?
Then look for standard debt. Where are strong people compensating for weak systems? Which roles have vague bars? Which managers avoid hard calls? Which exceptions have become precedents?
Operator artifact: score the system from 1 to 5 across six areas: role clarity, hiring evidence, onboarding milestones, feedback loops, calibration quality, and consequence discipline.
Field test: pick the lowest-scoring area and make one visible system repair in the next 30 days. Not a policy rewrite. A working repair.
This is part 10 of 10 in People Systems That Actually Raise the Bar.
