Association of Local Government Auditors

However, for those of you who are inexplicably having trouble, I have a few ideas on how to let potential auditors know just how great this profession is.

The big picture

In a recent job interview, the CEO told me "We'd be lucky to have you, and you'd be lucky to have us". 

What a great message to send to a potential employee!  In that one short sentence, he gave me a sense of being valued and also made me eager to learn more about the organization.

This illustrates that you can help make the recruiting and hiring process easier by making your office a place where people want to work.  A good place to start is with the "tone at the top", the message you send both inside and outside the organization. 

Make it clear that your goal is to add value by working in partnership with other departments to make the organization work better.  Emphasize the public service aspect of the job to build pride in the fact that your office is helping improve government and the community in which you live.    Also, make sure employees are trusted and valued, and good work is recognized and rewarded. 

Communicate this internally to your employees through training, then following through in audit projects and the evaluation process.  Communicate it outside the organization via your web site, when networking in the industry, and in job postings.

Recruiting

The Sales Pitch

No one would say that the life of an auditor is glamorous or exciting, but that doesn't mean you have nothing to offer prospective employees during the recruiting process.  Auditing, and especially local government auditing, has attractions that are hard to match in entry and mid-level positions in other entities.

First of all, local government, more than almost any other endeavor, has the potential to positively impact the lives of citizens. This means local government auditors have a greater opportunity to positively impact the community than they would in almost any other organization.  Play this up when speaking with potential new hires.  For the people you most want in your organization, people who care about their community, this will be a strong selling point.

Local government auditing also offers a huge advantage in another key area:  access.  Can you imagine a newly minted internal auditor at a billion dollar company meeting with the CEO or Board of Directors to discuss key aspects of the organization?  Probably not.  But a government auditor might very well get a chance to meet with the Mayor, City Council Members or the City Manager to discuss important programs and activities.  Even when the auditor isn't leading the interactions, this level of access represents a tremendous opportunity for young people who aspire to leadership positions.

Speaking of leadership, when recruiting it can't hurt to play up the aspects of auditing that help train people to be leaders.  The auditing profession is all about critical thinking and problem solving.  Auditors learn how organizations work and conceptualize how they might work better.  They also learn to understand how various aspects of organizations are inter-related.  These are critical skills for leaders, and you should let prospective hires know that they will be learning these skills on the job as auditors.

For the attention span-challenged youth of today, auditing can also offer another benefit: variety.  Make it clear that in local government auditing you get to see all aspects of an organization's activities, and that you will be doing something different as you transition from one project to the next.  Public safety, health and human services, parks, street paving.  I personally followed garbage trucks on their routes to make sure they weren't missing pickups.  Our auditors also visited the South Texas Project nuclear facility, and donned hard hats to visit construction sites.  It's like an adult version of Dora the Explorer.  Who could resist the appeal of that?

The Target Audience

Once you have some ideas how to attract potential auditors, the obvious question is: where do I find people who might be interested in being auditors?

For entry level positions, colleges and universities are a natural place to seek candidates.  Universities are always looking to outreach to potential employers to provide a job network for graduates and soon-to-be graduates.  Contact them and find out how to be part of that network.

Universities also often have job fairs for upcoming graduates.  This can provide an opportunity to interact with students who might not otherwise have been considering a career in the public sector.  You can plant the idea of public service and auditing as a possible career path in their youthful, impressionable minds.

When you are searching for more experienced people, networking is a useful tool for talking up your organization and interacting with people who could be potential employees.  The audit profession has organizations like ALGA and the Institute of Internal Auditors that provide the opportunity to meet other auditors from around the country.  And these organizations have job boards that allow you to target your very specific audience when you have openings to fill.  There are also the more general professional sites such as LinkedIn. 

Training

Now, you've snagged your candidate.  What's next?

The reality of the situation is that you will probably have to train most new recruits on auditing standards and the auditing process because they will not come to the organization with this knowledge and experience. 

But I find it useful to think of training in terms of a college curriculum - where you have required classes, but there are also electives that provide the student an opportunity to choose a class they find interesting.  Likewise, while you can't necessarily make the required audit classes any more appealing, you can make training more palatable through the strategic use of electives.

There are all kinds of training opportunities out there.  Keep an eye out for ones that look interesting and that dovetail with organization needs or desires.  Talk to your staff, and survey their interests.  You can have a win-win situation if a staff member wants to pursue training in an area where your office is looking to add expertise.

It is a good idea to integrate your training plan with your long-term strategic planning process.  That way you can help staff acquire the knowledge, skills and abilities you believe will be necessary to meet future goals. Be on the lookout for horizon issues that may affect your organization in the near future.  Provide training to staff members and your office will be more ready to tackle the issues when they arise.

It will also help to provide incentives for staff members to expand their skill set.  This can be accomplished by making it a part of the evaluation process.  Reward employees who gain expertise in areas your office considers valuable.  You can also provide financial incentives such as paying for training or study courses, or paying for taking accreditation tests or the annual dues for certifications.  These costs will probably be a small part of your budget, but paying them can make a difference to the employee seeking the certification.

Retaining 

The first and probably most effective way to retain employees is to promote effective auditors and pay them more money.  If you have the ability to do that, stop reading and go cut the check.  You don't need my advice.

Otherwise, a good course of action is to provide auditors with opportunities to become more marketable on your dime.  Provide your staff with the opportunity and support (financial and otherwise) to acquire new skills and attain certifications.  For example, something as simple as providing four hours paid study time for certification tests is a tangible demonstration of support for the auditing profession.  Paying for test costs and annual certification fees is another way to show support.

You could also provide your staff opportunities to network with other auditors through professional organizations at local, state and national conferences.  Involvement in organizations like ALGA and the IIA help promote the value of the auditing profession and the idea of auditing as a career.  Involvement has the added bonus of giving auditors a chance to shamelessly steal ideas for high impact audit projects and hear about horizon issues that may soon affect their organization. 

Another key aspect of retaining employees is to set up a system of accountability.  Set up a good evaluation system with clear performance criteria and expectations.  Give informative, constructive, timely feedback.  When necessary, provide plans and opportunities for improvement.  Finally, recognize that it might be necessary to let someone go if they cannot or will not meet your expectations.

One key here is that top management must be on board for any accountability system to work.  It is demoralizing for people at all levels of the organization if there is not equal treatment or if employees are allowed to "skate" by with no repercussions.

For the top performers in your office, a good accountability system will let them know that you recognize their good work and appreciate it.  For borderline performers, the system provides you with an opportunity to motivate them and give them the opportunity to improve.   

Then what?

Finally, realize that if you do your job correctly, your auditors will be highly qualified, well trained, motivated and accomplished.  And you will lose them to other organizations that have promotions, money or a warmer climate to lure them away.