Beyond the Audit Report: Creative Ways to Communicate Audit Issues

We’ve all heard it: “I want this issue to be resolved even more than you do,” a senior member of management told me during a phone conversation following-up on an open audit finding. I was relieved, believing that the higher-ups had finally understood the gravity of not taking action on an important, long-standing issue.

After conducting another scheduled follow-up, however, I discovered, to my surprise, that no credible action had been taken to resolve the situation. The auditee seemed now to be comfortable with the status quo, which, in my opinion, presented an unacceptable risk to our organization.

Following our general audit approach, we promptly escalated the issue to senior management and the audit committee. We were taken aback, however, when we learned that management had decided to consider the situation as an acceptable risk within their risk appetite.

As internal auditors, we invest countless hours identifying the root causes of problems and developing practical recommendations to address them. When our recommendations fail to yield results, though, it is natural to question our hard work and dedication to internal audit. It’s easy to feel dejected.

While, feeling discontent with this particular situation, we decided not to give up on it. We brainstormed various ways to encourage action. After much deliberation, I decided to create a concise, yet impactful video audit report on the issue in question.

Time to Get Creative

I carefully crafted the video, condensing the primary issue into a two-minute presentation that shed light on the issue in a compelling manner. To my pleasant surprise, this approach proved to be highly effective. Management took the video report seriously, finally comprehending the true impact of the issue at hand. It was almost miraculous! What had been a problem for over a decade was finally remedied in just a short period of time.

The video report had captured and held management’s attention, helping them to grasp the true importance of the issue. This success reinforced my belief in the power of being creative and flexible as an internal auditor.

Visual mediums, such as infographics and videos, cater to the preferences of mobile users for visually appealing content, making a lasting impact and changing the dimension of attention. Infographics can be 30 times more likely to be viewed than text articles and can increase web traffic by an average of 12 percent, while videos improve conversion rates and increase understanding of a product or service by 74 percent. With over 2 billion monthly active users on YouTube alone, videos also increase social media engagement by 87 percent.

What You Tube has figured out is that video and graphic presentations can grab the attention of viewers in ways that just text can not. And we should remember too, that many people find they are “visual learners” and are able to grasp issues better when they are presented through images and other graphic mediums. It’s a lesson internal audit can use in its own communication of vital issues and topics in our everyday work.

As internal auditors, we must focus on innovative approaches to convey our findings. Sometimes, all it takes is a fresh perspective to solve even the most challenging problems. 

Abdullah Al Mahmun, CIA, is an internal audit and risk management expert based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has over 10 years of experience in a leading business conglomerate, and has gained knowledge in diverse industries, including pharmaceuticals, agribusiness, packaging, retail, and others.