In the case of an external audit (independent 3rd party) or a government audit, compliance is nearly always the objective.
Why it is so Important?
In these instances, the criteria is usually an International Standard (ISO 9001, ISO 14001 etc.), or government guideline or legislation or a blend of these, and the organisation is checked against this to see how well they conform.
But with internal (1st party) audits we may want the auditor to be more specific, or perhaps more general. How about these audit objectives as an example?
- To determine the level of satisfaction with the communication processes.
- To determine the effectiveness of the information technology support.
- To review the existing staff rostering process and identify any improvement opportunities.
Once a management system is mature it can become difficult to see much value in continuing to undertake internal auditing in the traditional sense. However, if an organisation does not improve it can soon become tired and stagnate.
There are many ways in which an organisation can identify improvement opportunities and audits can be an effective way of helping with this. Conducted carefully with a collaborative approach audits can help to identify processes that are either; ineffective, inefficient or both.
However, the auditor must be clear on what the objective of the audit is, what is its purpose? The auditor will also need a certain level of experience, they are not there to solve any issues – we have consultants for that – their job is to help identify the issues.
If you like this idea but you are concerned that because they are still called audits staff will be concerned about opening up about potential issues, then you can call it something else. I always quite like process reviews, but you can call them what you like.
