Internal audit leaders as talent warriors

The battle for talent warriors

While internal audit’s core mission to provide assurance that risks and controls are being appropriately addressed remains the same, future-focused internal audit groups are also acting as trusted advisers to first- and second-line functions and working to anticipate risks before they emerge as events.

Considering digital disruption and emerging risks, internal audit leaders need to understand strategies and business models, as well as the uses of data and new technologies. To match today’s pace of business and internal audit 3.0, they need to move from rigidly planned rotational audits to more agile, timely approaches. They need to combine leading-edge skills with traditional audit capabilities to deliver the type, level, and timeliness of service that stakeholders now demand. Meeting these needs requires new skills and capabilities within internal audit. Traditional audit skills are still needed, but technology-enabled, nimble thinkers are also needed—those who can hold their own with business partners.

That leaves you with the need to tap the right people with the right skills in the right ways—with "the right ways" defined as those that enable your internal audit function to keep pace as the organization initiates new strategies, business models, and processes and encounters the associated risks.

The battle for those who fit this model is particularly intense; hence, the need for chief audit executives (CAEs), internal audit team leaders, audit committee chairs, and senior executives invested in the future of internal audit profession to think of themselves as talent warriors.

These warriors do what’s necessary to equip internal audit with the skills and capabilities required to meet organizational needs and stakeholder expectations while ensuring that these nontraditional professionals are appropriately rewarded and retained.

Onward toward victory with internal audit leaders and warriors

Whether overcoming challenges on the battlefield, the playing field, or other arenas, warriors set clear objectives, develop a plan of action, equip themselves accordingly, and execute with diligence and determination.

Given the risks and opportunities that organizations and their internal audit functions now face—and the strategic and financial stakes—there is little reason to accept lack of talent as a barrier to fulfilling stakeholders’ expectations, and every reason to use all the resources at your command.

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