View from the institute: Past and future – three years of change

As I pass on the baton to Anne Kiem, the institute’s new CEO, this week, I look back at the past three years with pride and affection. I wish her and the Chartered IIA great success and look forward to seeing future developments.

The institute, its members and I have been through tumultuous times together. When I arrived in 2019, my mission was to stabilise the institute’s finances and ensure it was sustainable for the future. At the time, rumours of an emerging epidemic in China were only just starting to appear in the news.

By the end of March 2020, everything had changed. Like everyone else, we had to work out how to provide our services remotely, what our members and our staff most needed from us and how we could meet these needs, while staying safe and obeying lockdown restrictions. 

Community

With plans and schedules thrown into the air, we reworked our training courses and events to make them relevant to, and accessible in, a new world order. Realising that our members needed unprecedented levels of support – and that no one had all the answers they required – we established forums where people could share their experiences and discuss ideas as well as speak to experts.

First of these was the Heads of Internal Audit Forum, which began in April 2020 and initially met weekly (it now meets once a month). We wanted to create a safe space for internal audit leaders to discuss the impact of global events on themselves, their teams and their organisations, and to exchange ideas about how to meet common challenges.

Feedback from those who attended suggests that they felt more connected to the profession and made useful contacts as well as gaining ideas. It can be lonely leading an internal audit function, and contact with peers in the same position across the UK and Ireland can help to alleviate this isolation.

We followed this up with a monthly Local Authority Internal Audit Forum. This also continues to meet today – recent sessions included discussions on effective communication and reports and on the challenges facing audit leaders who are also responsible for risk. 

Next, we put together a Data Analytics Working Group, which now has more than 300 members, representing more than 200 organisations. This aims to connect members who use, or wish to use, data analytics, so they can support each other and learn from experts attending and sharing their knowledge. This is particularly important for members in less well-resourced teams who are keen to start using data, yet are unsure where to start.

Our forums brought people together and provided the space for them to talk, while also drawing on our internal expertise and external contacts. Overall, we were the facilitators and helped members to connect and support each other.

Times have changed, but new existential challenges are emerging, from inflation and recession to geopolitical uncertainty and climate change. We are continuing to develop new groups to support members through tough times – most recently, we launched a Fraud Working Group and an Audit Committee Service.

Training resources

In addition to creating new groups, we relaunched our training courses in a virtual format and introduced “accelerated” courses to enable members to study three essential elements of a topic in flexible, “bite-sized” chunks at times that best suited them.

We made all our apprentice training virtual to support candidates to gain Internal Audit Practitioner accreditation and set them on course for the CIA. And we gained Ofqual accreditation, enabling us to be an apprenticeship end-point assessor.

For those already working as senior internal auditors, we introduced the Chartered by Learning route into becoming a chartered member of the institute.

Conferences and events

We re-imagined our conferences and events for the Covid-era and then again for the post-pandemic period. In 2020, we ran our flagship Internal Audit Conference in virtual format only – with avatar speakers and attendees. Since then, we have run hybrid conferences, allowing members to attend in person or virtually, to view sessions at the most convenient time, or watch concurrent workshops afterwards.

These developments were experimental and hugely successful. They have enabled us to support members regardless of where they live or work. We’ve increased the number of people who access our events and reduced travel time, cost and carbon footprint, while not diminishing the experience for those who attend in person. Our most recent Internal Audit Conference attracted over 1,000 attendees, compared with around 400 who normally attended our pre-pandemic conferences. Those who attend, either in person or via the hybrid option, can claim CPE points, so accessibility is crucial.

Many of our regional events also became wholly virtual during the lockdowns. They provided vital support, but it’s been great to bring these back as in-person occasions. I’ve spoken at the South West Conference and at the Ireland Conference, among others, and enjoyed the opportunity to meet members and hear their concerns and what they want from the institute.

We are still looking for new ways to offer flexible, dynamic support to meet these evolving needs. One such initiative is a drop-in clinic that takes place fortnightly on Fridays. Anyone can attend (members and non-members) and can ask for advice from Liz Sandwith, our professional practices adviser. Recent questions have concerned risk, external quality assessments (EQAs), qualifications, fraud and our Risk in Focus research.

A national voice

The Chartered IIA has a vital role in furthering the status and views of the profession on the national and international stages. I have overseen our response to the BEIS White Paper on restoring trust in audit and corporate governance and written letters to the government urging ministers to prioritise the new bill.

I have also responded to other national consultations – for example, on progress towards net zero commitments – and these responses have been picked up in the press.

Meanwhile, we have continued to produce a wide range of technical guidance, research and reports on issues affecting the profession in the UK and Ireland and globally. In addition to our annual Risk in Focus research, we have produced thought-leadership reports on fraud, Cultivating a Healthy Culture, Preparedness for Climate Change, and Human Capital, Diversity and Talent Management. Our most recent report was on data analytics and our next will focus on geopolitical risk and macroeconomics.

This work is essential to support members with the greatest challenges they face today and to raise the profile and influence of the institute. People will not value us if they do not understand what we do and what we can and do contribute.

Practising what we preach

Last, but not least, we are transforming the way we work as an organisation. We now work on a hybrid model, with staff operating everywhere from Ayrshire to the south coast of England, the west country to Wales and Leeds to Ireland.

We have joined Climate Action for Associations to support our journey to cutting our carbon footprint. Audit & Risk magazine and our reports and publications are now produced digitally and are available from our website, cutting our emissions, saving costs and preventing waste. Staff diversity, inclusion and wellbeing has been another priority for me during three tumultuous years. We have worked hard to recognise and understand the importance of inclusion and the diversity of our staff and our members.

We have supported a Women in Internal Audit community and the Aspire community for young internal auditors starting out in the profession. Within the institute, we have promoted awareness of diversity, inclusion and wellbeing by, for example, celebrating diverse occasions from Burns Night to Diwali and holding monthly wellbeing sessions for staff.

Many of the things we have achieved over the past three years are part of an ongoing journey. I cannot say we have arrived – only that we are progressing well along the road. One important area if we are to provide more services in future is to improve our digital capabilities. We have laid strong foundations and made plans, but are just embarking on the route to delivery.

Like all our members’ organisations, we have experienced the stresses of talent shortages. I am delighted for staff members who advance their careers using the experiences they have gained with us to move on, however this puts parts of the organisation under pressure. I am proud of the way the teams have risen to these challenges, but also realise that they need ongoing support.

I came into the Chartered IIA to manage a financial turnaround. After three turbulent years, I am proud to say that I believe I am leaving it in a stronger financial position and on course for further improvements. However, I am even more proud of how the institute, its staff – and its members – have weathered the astonishing events we’ve all been through together. The journey is not over, but we’ve come a long way in a short time. All my thoughts and best wishes are with the new CEO and the Chartered IIA staff as they continue along the next stage. 

This article was published in January 2023.