|
Who Are You?
Who, Who, Who, Who?
Who Are You?
Who Who, Who Who?
(With special thanks to The Who and CSI if you don't know The Who)
I can't believe it has almost been a little over 4 years ago since I finished grad school and started looking for a job. I remember it vividly...I was broke and living at home with my parents. I remember scouring the Internet daily looking at different city websites clicking away, trying to find the job that would suit me the most...or at least pay well. Finally one day I came upon a great opportunity. It was the chance of a lifetime. I completed the application process, and actually received an interview request. After the interview I thought to myself," I'm going to be the best budget analyst Kansas City has ever seen!"
So how is it that I became a performance auditor you ask? Well, as luck would have it, during the interview, I met a former student of my grad program, who introduced me to someone that was from my home state, who sent me a job listing for the position of performance auditor in the Kansas City Auditor's Office. I had no clue, what performance auditing was, nor did I know what they did. I did know, however, that the description sounded like program evaluation, a class I took in school, so I applied and 4 years later here I am.
Who Are You?
Who, Who, Who, Who?
Who Are You?
Who Who, Who Who?
So why the long, drawn out story? I believe this illustrates the need for increased marketing of the performance auditing profession. I'm sure many of you, like me, fell into the profession. I met someone that knew someone that sent me a job listing that happened to look interesting. When I tell people I'm a performance auditor I either get the "You're a bean counter," or I get a glazed over look that encourages me to further explain the job. Not many seem to understand our role in government, especially those in the governments for which we work. Proactively marketing our profession will give our auditees some understanding of our role before the audit begins, which hopefully will lead to a smoother audit process.
I took a non-scientific poll of 10 of my co-workers and 80% of them said they had never heard of performance auditing until they accepted a job to do such. If that high a percentage of auditors did not know about the profession, what makes us think those we audit will have any clue what we do. Marketing ourselves to those we audit and those we serve will increase the level of understanding of what we do. They will know that we are not out to get any one person, but are here to help locate inefficiencies that could help the department and municipality in the long run. Instead of fearing that we are looking to get someone in trouble, employees can know that we are just trying to understand the tasks they perform, the evidence to back it up, and how to make these tasks more meaningful to the department and the municipality as a whole.
Marketing can also help with recruiting upstart and experienced talent into the profession. When searching for new personnel, audit shops can be aggressive and seek out potential candidates at local job fairs sponsored by colleges, and other entities. Also, forging a relationship with colleges and universities, by making classroom presentations, and sponsoring interns is not only an excellent way to spread the word about performance auditing, but also acquire and test out potential employees for a discounted price. Furthermore, I see where audit shops that are able to hire outside consultants for their consulting services can also benefit from marketing. Audit shops can benefit from those who are already trained in one facet of auditing, but might be looking for a change of pace and want to move to the public sector from the private world. They may not currently be in a position to make the change, but by cultivating a relationship, performance auditing may remain fresh in their minds for when that time comes.
Who Are You?
Who, Who, Who, Who?
Who Are You?
Who Who, Who Who?
In auditing we sometimes tell the auditee to have proactive policies, not reactive. Well shouldn't we do the same? The Advocacy Committee does a great job of helping municipalities understand the importance of the audit function. However, once it's in place, it is the responsibility of the audit chief to further the cause of auditing throughout the government. We should make a push to tell people what we are about as opposed to letting ourselves be defined by those who don't like what we say, or those who have a natural fear of auditors. Like ALGA, the profession has been growing steadily, and with some strategic marketing, we can shed the image of the accountant and paint our own picture. Then when someone asks, "Who are you?" we can say "We are Performance Auditors." And they'll say, "Oh, Ok cool, I know what that is."
Who Who, Who Who?
|
Quarterly Articles