A recent report from the Institute of Internal Auditors focuses on how internal auditors view the value they bring to their organizations, even while many of their organizations have no performance measures in place for the internal audit function.
The survey, from the IIA Research Foundation, found that chief audit executives identify processes such as how much of the annual audit plan gets completed as the top performance measures in delivering value. While those measures are valued by many stakeholders, other important factors, such as client satisfaction and fulfilling specific expectations of key stakeholders, rated lower on the scale.
The report,
“Identifying mutually agreed upon measures of performance between internal audit and its stakeholders is crucial to establishing internal audit’s value,” said IIA president and CEO Richard Chambers in a statement. “There is opportunity to improve when nearly one in seven organizations have no such measures in place.”
The report concludes with a process to help internal audit leaders align performance expectations with stakeholders. It provides step-by-step directions on learning customer expectations, developing outward- and inward-facing performance measures, implementing tools and methodologies to measure performance, and reporting back to stakeholders.
The report bases its findings on the 2015 Common Body of Knowledge (CBOK) Global Practitioners Survey, which polled more than 14,500 respondents from 166 countries earlier this year. The survey is part of the CBOK study, the largest ongoing study of internal audit practitioners and their stakeholders. The CBOK reports can be downloaded for free at the CBOK Resource exchange at
