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#1167909 - 04/22/09 03:13 PM Promoting Internal Audit within the Organization
Banker27 Offline
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Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 114
For each person that understands the purpose and value of internal audit at our Bank, there is another who fears and is resistant to the audit process. During each audit we try to communicate that we are all on the same team and trying to keep the bank and employees safe and in compliance. The audit process doesn't have to be painful, instead it can be a great learning tool.

I was trying to come up with any way to increase our "public relations" with the bank and have people better understand what we do and increase positive attitudes toward audit. One thought was to put up an audit page on our company intranet that answers frequently asked questions about the audit process or explains what we do. Our Bank is great about recognizing people and sharing success stories, but audit is never mentioned.

Do any of you have ideas or experience with promoting the internal audit department within the organization? How to promote audit as a useful asset to the bank and not just a thorn in its side??

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

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Audit
#1168209 - 04/22/09 06:43 PM Re: Promoting Internal Audit within the Organization Banker27
BlueEyedGirl Offline
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BlueEyedGirl
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 50
somewhere between here and the...
Our IA department is in the exact same situation. During every audit, we stress that we are here to help, we are on their side, etc. Most of the time the line-level folks appreciate us taking time to really understand what they do day in and day out. Some act like we are a pain, but oh well. Personally, I try to make fun of the "Oh no, here comes the auditor." knee-jerk reaction.

After all of our efforts, I have recently been informed that some management level people don't think we do as much to help as the Compliance Officer. Their perception is misguided. The Compliance Officer is a member of management and does not audit any compliance area. Their current responsibilities are to help develop the compliance area. Therefore, they help create and implement management solutions and there is no need for independence.

So our goal is to educate management on the appropriate roles of internal audit.

I plan to approach each entity's President/CEO and ask for a time to present a brief overview of our role in the organization. I want to focus on senior-level management. Those who receive our IA reports and are named as responsible parties. I will not mention the mispreception noted above. Rather, I will play up the fact that May is Internal Audit Awareness Month. The IIA has plenty of brochures, FAQs, and powerpoints to build a brief presentation on what we can/cannot do as internal audit.

Good luck! Unfortunately, our best allies are usually the Audit Committee members - the ones who don't work with us each day.

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#1168617 - 04/23/09 01:38 PM Re: Promoting Internal Audit within the Organization Banker27
RR Sarah Offline
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RR Sarah
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 2,505
Up North
Originally Posted By: Banker27
Our Bank is great about recognizing people and sharing success stories, but audit is never mentioned.



This, in a nutshell, is the problem. It all comes from the top down. If management treats you a certain way, the rest of the bank will follow.
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Sometimes you have to burn a few bridges to keep the crazies from following you.

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#1169597 - 04/24/09 01:15 PM Re: Promoting Internal Audit within the Organization RR Sarah
DerrickAuditor Offline
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Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 91
USA
It's all how senior management reacts to your audit reports and findings. It's a delicate balance because you want senior management to support you and take the audit findings seriously, but if they blast people every time you issue an audit report, no matter what you tell people, they will fear your audits.
Last edited by DerrickAuditor; 04/24/09 01:16 PM.
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#1170074 - 04/24/09 07:06 PM Re: Promoting Internal Audit within the Organization DerrickAuditor
Jayhawker Offline
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Jayhawker
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 93
I recently took the Audit/Compliance Office position. I worked on the other side of the bank for years and we all viewed our Auditor as you all mentioned above. I want to try to change the perception of Audit--it has helped being on the other end and knowing the employees and knowing what they go through. I know one thing--they hate always being written up--and I see their point. I always thought Audit could be more of a helpful, positive tool instead of all about writing up issues they found wrong. I have started including an article from the Auditor in our monthly newsletter. That helps all employees to understand where I am on issues. Hope this helps.

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#1170925 - 04/27/09 09:12 PM Re: Promoting Internal Audit within the Organization Jayhawker
Banker27 Offline
100 Club
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 114
Thanks for all the ideas!! I talked to my audit manager with some of this stuff.

I feel like a large part of being an auditor is effective communication and social skills. How you say something is just as important as what you are actually saying! I've seen auditors give sugestions in a positive way and get the employee excited about making changes. And I've also seen auditors be abrasive and accusatory where they employee gets mad and defensive.

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#1171052 - 04/28/09 12:41 PM Re: Promoting Internal Audit within the Organization Banker27
Dazed Auditor Offline
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Dazed Auditor
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 637
Acceptance, USA America
My experience has been that our regulator has been complementary of Internal Audit and relied heavily on our audits and as a result, limited their testing. You may want to point this out as a positive from having a strong and competent Internal Audit Department.
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I overstand.

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#1177565 - 05/06/09 10:55 PM Re: Promoting Internal Audit within the Organization Dazed Auditor
Banker27 Offline
100 Club
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 114
Great ideas! Thanks! We are going to do an announcement on our Bank's intranet about May being Internal Audit Awareness month and info on how audit is a team player and adds value to the bank. To be followed by having our audit intranet website with a monthly or quarterly newsletter. We also want to go to branches and departments and give a little spiel on what audit does and answer questions.... and pass out candy smile

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#1179843 - 05/08/09 09:20 PM Re: Promoting Internal Audit within the Organization Banker27
JustMe! Offline
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Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 428
wishful thinking ...
Check out the IIA website for other ideas for Internal Audit Awareness month. Below is the link to that section of the IIA website.

http://www.theiia.org/theiia/about-the-profession/promoting-the-profession/awareness-month/
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