AI for HR: Improve Policies, Compliance, Investigations and Drafting with Contract Cloud

HR work is demanding. The team must interpret policies, manage performance issues, run investigations, handle grievances, navigate restructures, and maintain accurate records that may be reviewed years later by auditors, regulators or tribunals. At the same time, HR sits in the middle of corporate compliance, legal compliance and employee experience.

Contract Cloud is built for that purpose. It is 100 percent Australian owned, keeps data in Australia, and uses retrieval augmented generation (RAG) to ensure that every draft and answer is grounded in your organisation’s documents. It operates as a focused document library, working alongside your HR Information System (HRIS), contract management software, compliance management software and risk management software.

Key benefits of using AI in your HR function

• Faster drafting of letters, policies and HR documents that reflect your actual frameworks

  
  

• Consistent, policy aligned advice to managers on common HR questions

  
  

• Better documented and more defensible performance and conduct processes

  
  

• Clearer planning and documentation for investigations and grievance handling

  
  

• Improved visibility of HR documents and commitments through bulk review and registers

  
  

• A single, secure document storage environment that supports HR in its daily operations

1. Using AI to speed up HR document drafting

Start with the right inputs

Strong HR outcomes start with strong source material. Typical HR teams maintain documents such as:

• HR and people policies

  
  

• Enterprise agreements and awards

  
  

• Standard employment and contractor legal contracts

  
  

• Position descriptions and capability frameworks

  
  

• Performance management and Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) templates

  
  

• Disciplinary and termination procedures

  
  

• Hybrid work, flexible work and leave guidelines

  
  

• Diversity, equity and inclusion policies

  
  

• Internal guidance notes for HR business partners

These are examples only, not an exhaustive list. Every organisation and every HR matter will have its own mix of supporting material.

Traditionally, a HR practitioner or in house lawyer reads across these documents, adapts past letters and tries to ensure that each new document is consistent with the latest policy and agreement. That is slow and can be inconsistent, especially when there are multiple HR business partners and many different business units.

With Contract Cloud, you upload these documents once into a secure HR workspace, where all data is stored in Australia. For a new HR matter, you:

• Select the documents that are relevant to that issue

  
  

• Ask Contract Cloud to prepare a first draft, based on those documents

The AI draws on your policies, enterprise agreement clauses, procedures and approved templates to produce a draft tailored to your organisation, rather than a generic letter from a search engine.

A short example

Imagine a HR business partner preparing a PIP for a manager.

Without AI, they may:

• Review the performance policy and any related guidance

  
  

• Search for previous PIP examples that feel similar

  
  

• Manually adapt wording, check timeframes, and confirm with legal that the document aligns with policy and enterprise agreement requirements

With Contract Cloud, they can:

• Select the performance management policy, the relevant enterprise agreement and the PIP template

  
  

• Paste in a short summary of the performance concerns and the role description

  
  

• Ask Contract Cloud to prepare a PIP that is consistent with those documents, including clear expectations, timeframes, support measures and review points

The HR business partner reviews and amends the draft, rather than starting from a blank page. The judgment still comes from HR and the manager. AI removes much of the mechanical drafting work and helps enforce consistency.

For employment, contractor and secondment arrangements, the same workspace can support AI contract review of engagements anywhere HR has an interest.

2. Using AI to triage and respond to HR queries

Most HR functions deal with a constant flow of questions from managers and employees. For example:

• Can we extend this probation period and, if so, how should we do that in writing?

  
  

• What process do we need to follow for redundancy in this part of the business?

  
  

• How should we respond to this flexible work request?

  
  

• What is the correct approach to managing repeated minor misconduct?

  
  

• Is this party an employee or an independent contractor?

Because your HR policies, contracts and guidance notes are already in Contract Cloud, you can:

• Select the relevant policies, enterprise agreement and contract template

  
  

• Paste the manager’s or employee’s question

  
  

• Ask Contract Cloud to draft a response that is consistent with those documents

For example:

“Using our Performance Management Policy, the enterprise agreement for the Operations team and the employee’s employment contract, draft a response to this manager explaining the steps for extending probation, including any notice requirements.”

The HR adviser still reviews and applies judgment, but time spent searching, cross checking and re typing is reduced significantly. In addition, the advice is more likely to be consistent with what other managers are told in similar situations.

3. Supporting investigations and employee relations matters

Employee complaints, bullying allegations, misconduct investigations and grievances carry Employee complaints, bullying allegations, misconduct investigations and grievances carry material legal and cultural risk. Processes must be fair, thorough and consistent with policy and workplace law.

Contract Cloud supports investigations by:

• Automatically creating a clear chronology of events drawn from emails, meeting notes, attachments and statements

  
  

• Helping plan the steps in an investigation, based on your Investigation Procedure and relevant policies

  
  

• Reviewing relevant emails and correspondence to give clearer context around events, tone and timelines

  
  

• Reviewing large sets of documents in bulk using advanced reasoning AI, ensuring all contextual links are considered rather than isolated fragments

  
  

• Highlighting gaps, inconsistencies or points requiring clarification

  
  

• Drafting letters of allegation that reflect your templates and legal guidance

  
  

• Preparing interview outlines based on the issues raised and evidence available

  
  

• Providing practical, policy aligned advice on how the investigation should progress or whether escalation is warranted

  
  

• Assisting with outcome letters that clearly explain findings, reasoning and next steps

You can ask policy aware questions such as:

• “Based on our Investigation Procedure and Code of Conduct, have we followed all required steps in this draft investigation plan?”

  
  

• “From these emails, meeting notes and attachments, generate a chronology of events and identify any potential breaches we need to test in interviews?”

  
  

• “Do these proposed allegations align with the wording in our policy, or should any be reframed?”

  
  

• “Using our Disciplinary Procedure, what options are available if the allegations are substantiated at a ‘serious misconduct’ level?”

Because Contract Cloud uses RAG together with advanced AI reasoning models, it can read across emails, interview notes, policies and other documents in a single matter, surface key points, build a structured timeline, and provide guidance on next steps grounded in your organisation’s policies. This helps the HR team ensure that no material context is missed and that the investigation progresses in a defensible, consistent manner aligned with broader risk management system frameworks.

4. Managing organisational change, restructuring and consultation

Restructures, role changes and organisational design projects are some of the most sensitive HR activities. Errors in consultation, selection or documentation can create significant legal and reputational exposure.

With Contract Cloud, you can:

• Draft change impact statements and consultation packs based on your change management framework and enterprise agreements

  
  

• Prepare letters to affected employees that align with your policies and legal obligations

  
  

• Ensure selection criteria and processes are documented in a defensible way

  
  

• Maintain consistency of messaging across different business units and geographies

Example prompts include:

• “Using our Organisational Change Policy, the enterprise agreement for the Contact Centre and our template consultation letter, draft a letter for employees whose roles are proposed to be made redundant.”

  
  

• “Compare these proposed selection criteria with our policy on merit based selection and identify any areas of concern or bias risk.”

Again, the HR and legal teams remain accountable for strategic decisions and for final wording. Contract Cloud provides speed, structure and a stronger link between what the policy requires and what employees actually receive.

5. Building and maintaining your HR policy and template suite

Over time, HR documents can become fragmented. Different parts of the business may use slightly different templates, legacy policies may remain in circulation, and the underlying law may have changed.

Contract Cloud can help you:

• Run a bulk review across all of your contracts and templates to identify where wording, obligations or processes differ and provide clear recommendations to close those gaps, ensuring consistency across the organisation

  
  

• Draft new policies on topics such as hybrid work, workplace AI use, psychosocial safety or social media

  
  

• Harmonise multiple versions of policies into a single, current version

  
  

• Align employment contract templates with the latest organisational and regulatory requirements

  
  

• Produce guidance notes for managers that are consistent with the primary policy documents

For example, you can ask:

“Using our current Flexible Work Policy, Work Health and Safety Policy and this guidance note from our external counsel, draft a refreshed Hybrid Work Policy for approval.”

Once approved, that policy and its related templates sit in Contract Cloud as the single source of truth for future drafting and advice. This reduces the risk that an outdated policy or template is applied in a sensitive HR matter.

This avoids older templates being pulled from email archives or desktops, and creates a central point that works alongside existing HR systems, procurement software and other enterprise tools.

6. Ongoing management, reporting and risk oversight

HR leaders and in house counsel often need visibility across multiple matters. For example:

• How many formal warnings have been issued in the last 12 months, and on what grounds

  
  

• Which settlement agreements contain post employment restraints, and what those restraints say

  
  

• Where policies may be inconsistent with each other or with current practice

Contract Cloud can support this by:

• Performing bulk review across selected HR documents, including contracts, letters and policies

  
  

• Extracting information such as dates, types of action, notice periods and review points

  
  

• Feeding that information into simple registers that can be exported for reporting

You can then ask questions such as:

• “Which of our current settlement deeds contain non disparagement clauses, and how are those clauses drafted?”

  
  

• “Which performance improvement plans in the last 18 months included weekly review meetings?”

  
  

• “Do any current HR policies conflict with our Enterprise Agreement on redundancy benefits?”

Because the same platform may also be used by the legal team as contract management software, by risk as risk software, and by compliance as broader enterprise risk software, HR documentation does not sit in a separate silo. Instead, HR becomes part of an integrated AI management environment where an AI manager or risk owner can see how AI is being used across contracts, HR and other domains.

Practical tips when using AI and Contract Cloud for HR

1. Establish and maintain a single HR source of truth

Before you scale use of AI for HR, take time to:

• Confirm which versions of policies, enterprise agreements and templates are current

  
  

• Remove superseded templates from circulation or clearly mark them as archived

  
  

• Group documents into logical workspaces, such as “Policies”, “Employment Contracts”, “Investigations” and “Change Programs”

Contract Cloud will then draw from the right materials when drafting or answering questions. That reduces the risk that an old template or outdated policy drives a current HR decision.

2. Set clear approval points and boundaries

AI should assist HR decisions, not replace them. It is useful to:

• Require HR review before any AI drafted communication is sent to an employee

  
  

• Define which matter types must involve Legal, such as terminations, protected attributes, union disputes or complex grievances

  
  

• Clarify what information must never be entered into prompts, and when documents should be redacted before upload

  
  

• Provide short, practical training to HR business partners and managers on how to work with AI generated drafts

Contract Cloud will then draw from the right materials when drafting or answering questions. That reduces the risk that an old template, or a legacy contract manager spreadsheet outside your main legal contracts and contract lifecycle tools, drives a current HR decision.

Bringing it together

AI does not replace HR expertise, but it can remove a large amount of manual effort from HR work when used in a controlled, policy aware way.

By using Contract Cloud’s Australian hosted, RAG based platform, you can:

• Generate high quality HR documents that reflect your own policies, enterprise agreements and legal contracts

  
  

• Triage and respond to HR queries more quickly and consistently

  
  

• Plan and document investigations and employee relations matters in a defensible way

  
  

• Manage restructures, consultation and change communications with more structure and oversight

  
  

• Refresh and harmonise your HR policy suite and templates, supported by modern contract management software and compliance software

  
  

• Gain better visibility across HR documents and commitments through bulk review and simple registers, aligned with your wider risk management systems 

The result is a faster, more transparent and more defensible HR function, with better alignment between what your policies say, what managers are advised to do, and what is actually documented in each HR matter.

If you would like to see how this could support your HR team on its next complex matter, contact us for a Contract Cloud demo.