In many ways, 2022 was a year of instability. Many individuals and organizations spent the year trying to put the pandemic, which had dominated every aspect of life in 2020 and 2021, behind them, even while still dealing with its lasting effects. Yet, the dark days that COVID-19 brought failed to recede. The face coverings, testing, and closed offices gave way to Inflation, economic upheaval, and political discord.
If 2022 was about getting back to normal, it was also a reminder that “normal” always seems to be more of a hopeful destination than an actual reality. At every turn, something always seemed to be there creating instability, whether it was the war in Ukraine, rising interest rates, or a bruising election that likely caused more rifts in the fabric of American life than repairs. Remember, the year started with the “slap heard ’round the world,” when Will Smith climbed the stage at the Oscars to confront Chris Rock. Under the surface, a political, economic, and social tension seems to be simmering and creating an unease and instability that can be felt throughout many aspects of our businesses, organizations, and institutions.
Top Internal Audit Articles of 2022:
- Making Internal Audit Recommendations that Get Results
Audit Recommendations that Get ResultsWhile auditors spend a great deal of time and energy scrutinizing processes, analyzing procedures and transactions, and identifying control weaknesses, the real value we add to organizations resides in our audit recommendations. In this article, we consider some approaches to provide management with recommendations that best demonstrate the consultant aspect of our profession. - How Some Teams Are Taking a Customer-Service Approach to Internal Auditing
Customer service internal auditIt’s no secret that internal auditors and the managers of the units, departments, and functions they audit don’t always get along. After all, it’s not easy to embrace the idea of strangers coming into your offices, looking over your shoulder, sifting through your documents and data to find all the things you’re not doing right, and then writing it up in a report for your boss and your boss’ boss to read through. Some internal audit leaders, though, are taking an approach that views auditees as clients and customers and are working to ensure the audits they conduct work for internal audit’s most important stakeholder. - How to Deal with Difficult People During Internal Audits
Internal audit difficult PeopleAwareness is at the forefront of working with difficult people and realizing what is in and completely out of your control. In this article, we consider a few steps you can take to mitigate difficult work relationships, including building rapport, taking inventory of your feelings, using empathy, and many others. Nobody ever said internal audit was going to be easy, but when it gets tough, it’s helpful to fall back on some strategies for smoothing the tension that is sure to crop up from time to time. - Internal Auditors, Use Your ‘Spidey Sense’
As internal auditors, we all have a “spidey sense” of what we should be auditing. Sure, we should, of course, conduct comprehensive risk assessments that drive our audit plan, and many of the usual suspects will end up on that plan: cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, financial reporting, third-party relationships, and you know the rest. But there are things, I would strongly profess, that should be audited, even if we aren’t formally auditing them and they never make it to the actual audit plan. - What Soccer Can Teach Us About Internal Audit and Corporate Governance
Soccer and Internal AuditThe way soccer players are positioned on the field provides an excellent analogy for sound risk management and governance structures in the modern corporation. Introducing the Soccer Field Governance Model…