Working virtually means doing business differently, but it doesn’t mean that internal auditor development should stop. Team learning is as critical and attainable as ever.
Developing the skills of the internal audit team is critical to executing the audit plan and contributing to auditor satisfaction. Internal auditors who feel their company is investing in them are more likely to be committed to the job, and those companies have higher retention rates. Simply put, audit staff development is good business.
While everyone agrees training is a necessary and beneficial activity, curating a comprehensive internal auditor training program and then making time to complete it is a daunting task. COVID-19 has further complicated this process by constraining communication and the availability of traditional training outlets, such as live classroom learning and in-person conferences and seminars. Nonetheless, internal audit leaders must continue to prioritize team development in order to maintain relevance and develop skills appropriate to address the audit plan and deliver value.
While the Coronavirus Crisis has influenced aspects of professional training, the basics of adult learning haven’t changed. First, adults want to be involved in the planning and execution of the curriculum, favoring “self-directed” learning programs and courses. The current work-from-home environment gives audit team members more time to put together their own personal development plan if they do not already have one. Although individual internal auditors should own their development plans, they should be developed with the input of audit leadership, taking into account the competency requirements of the audit plan, the auditor’s interests, and the auditor’s areas in need of improvement. Fulfilling this self-directed planning starts the development off right.
After determining the audit team’s learning needs, internal audit leaders then need to curate the training curriculum either independently or with the assistance of human resources. Another consideration when creating development plans is the different “learning styles” of participants. Programs that include a variety of training modes will have more success reaching the entire team. Adult learning styles are broken up into three categories: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (experiencing the content). Learners will naturally favor one or more of these approaches, so a comprehensive training program that combines different types of delivery methods is critical.
Adult learning principles also suggest that contextual motivators are important to ensure the training hits the mark. Adults want to understand the purpose of the training and the practical application of the course material. How will it benefit them in their jobs and in achieving their career aspirations? Where possible, incorporate real life examples into the content and experience-type learning, such as role playing and case studies. Emphasizing both theory and practice will strengthen the power of the training.
Looking for internal audit training options? Check out the CPE courses and offerings of our partners on our CPE /Internal Audit Training page, including courses in Data Analytics, Agile, Ethics, Project Management and more.
A well-rounded training program also includes a variety of learning opportunities with relevant, practical applications. Fortunately, internal audit leaders have a wide variety of training options to choose from, including traditional and progressive approaches. Keep in mind that COVID-19 may affect these options differently.
1. Classroom Learning
There will always be a place in the training arsenal for traditional classroom learning, albeit now online. Department training can be customized from the many online choices already in existence to the specific needs of you and your team. Topics may include practical knowledge, such as how the audit department fits into the broader company or how to use a piece of workpaper software, or they could convey soft skills, like interviewing best practices or audit report writing. Fortunately, there are many virtual classes to choose from, and more advanced providers offer the option of creating your own.
Your company’s training department may already have on-demand versions of some of these topics. If you have specific needs, such as onboarding training, you can easily create your own training courses using online technology such as Camtasia, Biteable, or Soapbox. The Institute of Internal Auditors, accounting firms, software vendors, and others also offer lots of online training options, some for free and some with a cost.
Local colleges and universities provide another option for fulfilling your training needs. You can either match up their online course catalog with your requirements or even work with them to develop an online certificate program of curated content in an area of interest such as data analytics. And don’t forget some of the online learning content consolidators that come with little or no cost such as coursera.org and edx.org.
2. On the Job Training
On the job training is sometimes overlooked but is one of the most highly impactful learning opportunities. Applying concepts in real life settings checks the box on several of those adult learning concepts, making it an important tool. Also, this tool gives you two for the price of one: promoting learning while getting the audit work done.
In order for this training mode to work, appropriate manager input and oversight is needed to ensure the auditor is achieving objectives, maintaining efficiency, and enhancing the departments relationships and reputation. In a work-from-home world, this critical oversight can be more difficult since physical cues of frustration, work stalls, and misdirection can go unnoticed for longer, and inaccurate assumptions can creep into audit work. Internal audit leaders should not shy away, however, from providing auditors with on the job training for fear of losing control of the work product. The auditor and the audit manager need to actively plan time to communicate. To enable on-the-job training success, major platforms like Microsoft Teams and Spark have tools that promote formal and informal conversations. In addition, many audit management software platforms have progress tracking features.
3. Experiential Learning
Many adults learn by doing, but opportunities to practice may be scarce because companies are currently in transition or the audit plan includes anticipated needs for topics that have not yet manifested. In this case, leaders can manufacture those experiences through case studies and role playing exercises to teach the needed skills.
Case studies are widely used, and thus widely available. The IIA, Deloitte’s Trueblood seminars, the American Accounting Association, EDPACS, and the Harvard Business Review are examples of rich sources of existing case studies. A Google images search for “audit case study with solutions” can yield an interesting array of options to fill unique needs. Alternatively, audit leaders can author their own case studies based on prior audit examples, perhaps even leveraging team members who participated in those original audits to teach the cases. Remote workforce technology is perfect for this kind of learning, as the case study content can be shared and discussed through chat features or in a live video dialogue.
Role play and case studies can go hand in hand. Internal audit team members who explore the case as actual participants in the scenario, rather than casual observers, stand to retain more. Role playing also gives auditors the chance to represent different perspectives in the discussion. Standing in as clients, vendors, regulators, and other stakeholders enable auditors to reflect upon and develop a healthy respect for many viewpoints.
4. Special Projects
Sometimes overlooked, projects that are outside of the usual audits are also a great way to educate team members. Sometimes mistaken for busy work, these opportunities enable auditors to work on developing skills they may not otherwise encounter on an audit. It is important to align the opportunity with an auditor’s learning needs, such as executive presence development or vendor management. Also, in order for this learning opportunity to resonate with the auditor, the internal audit leader will need to clearly articulate why the project is relevant and important as well as the expected deliverables.
For example, refreshing the audit department’s testing workpaper format is a special project that could provide great development benefits. Giving this piece of work to an internal auditor or group of auditors to champion gives them the chance to practice skills and prove they have mastered them in a safe environment. Overhauling a workpaper format would require project management skills and the ability to obtain and integrate best practices, user needs, and software limitations. It would require solution development and recommendation advocacy. Internal auditors would also have an opportunity to practice written and verbal communication skills and change management would need to be delivered across the organization. The auditor at the helm of the project could demonstrate leadership capacity and the capability for future audit managerial roles.
5. Other Learning Opportunities
A feature of many online courses is communication “threads,” a post of question or fact by the leader followed by comments and additional ideas posted by other members of the team. Why not leverage this approach in these virtual times, using the communication capabilities in team platform software to challenge teams to evaluate hot topics, trends in the audit profession, and other thought provoking ideas? For this learning mode to be most effective, internal audit leaders need to set ground rules such as expected level of participation and appropriate levels of disagreement and debate. This exercise is ideal for remote auditors, when watercooler discussions and lunchroom debates are missing, and time availability is dispersed throughout the day. These topic discussion vines enable an audit team to consider multiple perspectives, work through the ramifications of certain actions or types of thought, and develop their audit, communication, and persuasion skills.
Another self-directed learning opportunity is a literature study. Pick a business book with a solid topic and relevant messaging. It could be a book about skills such as networking or powerful presentation delivery. Perhaps it is an industry-related topic such as the changing nature of regulations or market shifts in consumer behavior. Maybe the team would benefit from a general business book or the biography of a recognized business leader. Choose a book that will resonate, ask your team to read it, and then set up a series of team discussions on certain chapters or key points. This learning medium is a great way to leverage the periodic downtime auditors may have during work from home and pair it with online collaboration tools to bring the group back together as a whole for connection and learning through discussion.
There are many enriching auditor development opportunities from a variety of sources. First, make sure your team has training plans. Then, look to fill those needs with methods that appeal to different kinds of learners. Include traditional, in-person—or more likely online these days—classes in the curriculum, but make sure to embrace the myriad of other learning vehicles. And finally, make time for training on the department calendar to demonstrate your commitment to department growth.
Though COVID-19 is changing the way we work, applying creativity and new tools to learning options makes training not just attainable, but as critical as ever. 
Karen Begelfer, CIA, CPA, CRMA, is an internal audit and risk management executive specializing in value delivery using strategic business insight and well-developed audit teams.