Understanding Compliance Scores
Learn what Bounda's compliance indicators mean and how to improve them
Compliance at a Glance
Bounda uses several indicators to show how compliant your handbook and documents are. Understanding these helps you prioritise what to work on and track improvement over time.
Remember: Compliance scores are indicators, not guarantees. They help you identify issues, but significant changes should still be reviewed by qualified HR or legal professionals.
1. Gap Analysis Progress
The Gap Analysis shows which policies you have vs. which you need. Policies are organised into three categories:
Core (Legally Required)
Must have — UK law requires these policies
Includes: Disciplinary, Grievance, Health & Safety, Equal Opportunities, Sexual Harassment Prevention, Whistleblowing, all family leave policies, etc.
Recommended
Should have — best practice for most employers
Includes: Sickness Absence, Annual Leave, Data Protection, Working Hours, Bullying & Harassment, Mental Health, etc.
Optional
Could have — depends on your business needs
Includes: Dress Code, Expenses, Training, Social Media, Remote Working, Company Property, Anti-Bribery, etc.
How to Improve
- • Prioritise Core policies — these are legal requirements
- • Use Policy Studio to generate missing policies
- • Aim for 100% Core completion before Optional policies
- • The percentage shows overall progress across all categories
2. Policy Risk Ratings
When you analyse a policy with the Section Analyser, each finding gets a severity rating. The overall risk rating is based on the most serious finding.
Must fix immediately
Serious legal non-compliance. Missing statutory requirements, unlawful provisions, or high tribunal risk.
Should fix soon
ACAS Code non-compliance (risks 25% tribunal uplift) or significant legal gaps.
Plan to address
Best practice gaps or unclear wording that increases risk but isn't immediately dangerous.
Minor improvements
Minor issues, formatting suggestions, or clarifications that would enhance the policy.
Nice to have
Optional improvements for clarity or employee experience. Not required but beneficial.
3. Finding Types
Each finding is also categorised by type, which tells you the source of the requirement:
Legal Non-Compliance
A hard legal breach — a statutory requirement is missing or violated.
Example: "Missing right to be accompanied at disciplinary hearings (ERA 1999 s.10)"
ACAS/Guidance Risk
ACAS Code violation or official guidance not followed. Non-compliance can result in a 25% uplift in tribunal awards.
Example: "No investigation stage before disciplinary hearing (ACAS Code para 5)"
Best Practice Gap
A recommendation based on HR best practice, not a strict legal requirement. Good to address but not legally mandated.
Example: "Consider adding examples of gross misconduct for clarity"
Type vs Severity
Type tells you where the requirement comes from (law, ACAS, best practice).Severity tells you how urgent it is to fix. A legal requirement is usually Critical or High, while best practice gaps are usually Medium or Enhancement.
4. Document Compliance Scores
When you check a document (contract, letter, etc.) against your handbook, you get a compliance score out of 100. This shows how well the document aligns with your policies.
How the Score is Calculated
Starting from 100 points, deductions are made for each issue found:
Good
Minor or no issues
Needs Attention
Some corrections needed
Review Required
Significant issues to address
Before & After Scores
After you redraft a document with AI, you'll see both the original score and the improved score — showing exactly how much the redraft helped.
5. Policy Compliance Status
Each policy in your handbook has a compliance status showing whether it's up to date with recent law changes:
Current
Policy is up to date with recent law changes. No action needed.
Review Needed
Law changes may affect this policy. Review and update if necessary.
Update Required
Policy needs updating due to law changes. Action required.
Bounda monitors UK legislation and automatically flags when your policies are affected by law changes. Run a compliance check on any policy to get detailed findings.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the compliance score mean in Bounda?
Compliance scores in Bounda indicate how well your content aligns with UK employment law and best practices. Scores above 90 indicate strong compliance, 70-90 suggests review needed, and below 70 means updates are required. Scores are calculated based on the number and severity of issues found during analysis.
How is the Gap Analysis progress calculated?
Gap Analysis progress tracks how many of the recommended policies you have in your handbook. Policies are categorised as Core (legally required), Recommended (best practice), and Optional (nice to have). Your progress percentage shows how complete your handbook is across these categories.
What do the different risk ratings mean?
Risk ratings indicate issue severity: Critical (immediate legal risk, must fix), High (significant compliance gap), Medium (should address soon), Low (minor improvement needed), and Enhancement (optional best practice). Critical and High issues should be prioritised for resolution.
What are the different finding types?
Bounda identifies three types of findings: Legal Non-Compliance (missing statutory requirements, outdated legal references), ACAS/Guidance Risk (procedures that don't follow ACAS codes), and Best Practice Gap (improvements that reduce tribunal risk but aren't legally required).
How do I improve my compliance score?
To improve your score: address Critical and High issues first using the AI redraft feature, add missing legally required policies using Policy Studio, review and update policies marked as 'Review Needed' or 'Update Required', and ensure all policies reflect current UK employment law including ERA 2025 changes.
How to Improve Your Compliance
Complete Core Policies First
Use Gap Analysis to see what's missing. Generate any missing core policies with Policy Studio.
Address Critical & High Findings
Run Section Analyser on existing policies. Fix Critical and High severity issues first.
Check Documents Against Policies
Use Document Checker to ensure contracts and letters align with your handbook.
Monitor Legal Changes
Check the Legal Changes page regularly. Run compliance checks when alerted to updates.
Publish Updated Handbook
After making updates, generate a new handbook version to keep everything current.
📊 Check Your Compliance
Ready to see how your handbook measures up? Run a Gap Analysis to get started.