Outside the box: If you ask one question this week, make it this one: What can I do to make internal audit attractive to the next generation?
The future of any profession is only as strong as the calibre of the people who seek to enter it now. This issue has risen to the fore in the past year as organisations struggled to fill all types of roles, but internal audit functions face particular challenges attracting interest from those with no prior experience in corporate governance, especially when compared with professions such as accountancy and law.
Why is this?
Some might point to the fact that internal audit is a “hidden” function, deeply buried within the organisation. Corporate governance and risk is not a topic of general conversation and may be perceived as arcane and specialist. Internal auditors have been perceived negatively as the organisation’s police and their work has even been accused of being “boring”. Again, why is this?
Law, accountancy and management consultancy are widely respected and seen as attractive career options that offer talented recruits a variety of enticing roles. So does internal audit.
Law, accountancy and management consultancy offer a rewarding career with the prospect of being able to “do something good for society”. So does internal audit.
Law, accountancy and risk management offer a broad understanding of business operations and the potential to move into the most senior positions in a wide variety of sectors. So does internal audit.
Furthermore, while internal auditors may be prevented from discussing the details of their role publicly, this also applies to lawyers, accountants, consultants, HR professionals, civil servants, doctors and many others. Yet most school and college leavers think they know what a lawyer or a doctor does for a living. How many understand internal audit?
One reason may be publicity – why are there no films or TV dramas about internal auditors? The minutiae of conducting an internal audit may not be exciting viewing, but who watches a medical drama for the paperwork? Organisational risk and corporate governance are vast subjects and encompass everything from office politics and crime to disaster recovery. Why don’t people write about courageous internal auditors?
Other professions have reputations for being exciting and creative – think marketing, journalism, PR and politics. But where are the sitcoms showing internal auditors presenting unwelcome information to hostile boards or revealing hidden risks? Why not? Malcolm Tucker (The Thick of It), Sir Humphrey (Yes Minister) and Charles Prentiss (Absolute Power) may not be accurate representations of professionals in politics, the civil service or PR, but people knew enough about these roles to appreciate them. The stakes when corporate governance goes wrong are high, so why are there no famous TV internal auditors?
One reason for this may be that the role and the type of people who work in internal audit functions has evolved rapidly. Once a remote province of finance, the profession now comprises people from all kinds of backgrounds, from HR to engineering. However, most of these people are enticed into the function from elsewhere in an organisation. They meet internal auditors at work and find out about vacancies via personal connections and secondment schemes. These are great, but they do not extend understanding of the role beyond the confines of large organisations.
What can internal auditors do about it? For a start, talk about what internal does – the big picture, high-stakes side. Corporate governance is no more complex than law or neurology, yet lawyers and doctors tend to have a good line in anecdotes, stories about averted disasters and interesting “wins”. Think about how you explain what you do – if you mention your job title and move swiftly on after encountering a blank expression, try changing the way you frame it.
Also think about how you communicate with, and inspire, young people. Kids often follow their parents into medicine, law or the armed forces. How do your children and your friends’ children perceive your job? What do they tell their peers? Schools and colleges are the cradles of ambition. If you volunteer to speak at a school careers evening or take on a role as a school governor, you can spread the word at grass-roots level.
Offer to give sixth-formers holiday jobs or work-experience and inspire them with an inside view of what internal audit can contribute to an organisation’s green agenda, or how corporate governance enables vital services. Talk about emerging AI developments and their potential risks.
Establishing links with teachers at schools and colleges could also enable you to ensure they understand the opportunities of apprenticeships and the different routes into the profession. Internal audit functions need to attract diverse candidates. Teachers speak to pupils from all backgrounds, and a better understanding of internal audit’s contribution to furthering diversity and inclusion in organisations may also help to attract a more diverse range of candidates to apply for roles.
Beyond personal contacts, consider broader ways of promoting the opportunities and reputation of a career in internal audit. How does your organisation talk about itself in public – if it boasts of strong corporate governance, does it mention internal audit? A position of trusted invisibility may be fine for now, but people who are invisible externally won’t build up status and reputation more widely.
Organisations may be wary of talking about internal audit for fear that it draws attention to risks. More often, they may never think of mentioning it at all. This won’t change unless internal auditors highlight the reasons why they should be named.
Ask too how you advertise the profession – in hospitals, you often see notices saying “Do you want to be a nurse?”, while some deliveries include leaflets inviting customers to apply to join the company. Does your HR department understand what a profession in internal audit can offer? Is internal audit included in any promotional recruitment activity it undertakes or on social media campaigns? If not, why not – and can you provide any support that would encourage HR to put internal audit roles on the radar?
And, of course, if you know a budding author or scriptwriter, make sure their next work includes a prominent internal auditor. The world needs new heroes. Why shouldn’t the 21st-century Indiana Jones or James Bond be an internal auditor? It could happen.
This article was published in July 2023.