How the auditing profession is transforming to meet future challenges

The way that audit professionals work has recently undergone the biggest and fastest change that any of us have experienced in our working lives. COVID-19 has accelerated audit firms’ transition toward new ways of operating that will outlast the immediate effects of the pandemic.

The sudden shift to remote and flexible working by both audit firms and the companies they audit adds a new dimension to the challenge already faced in adapting the audit to a fast-evolving corporate world. Companies’ business models are growing more complex as they move through digital transformation, and this is placing new demands on audit professionals. However, new ways of working will bring important benefits as well as posing challenges that have to be addressed.

As digital technologies and data analysis become increasingly central to the audit process – as well as to companies’ business models – audit firms will require a more diverse range of skills. They have traditionally recruited people with business backgrounds but, in the future, all auditors will need an increased level of technological understanding.

In addition, audit firms will require more people with significant expertise in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) to enable them to leverage technology effectively for audit purposes. Not all these specialists will become qualified auditors, but some undoubtedly will, and their arrival will increase the diversity of audit teams.

The personal characteristics audit firms look for in new team members will evolve as well. Traditionally, firms have emphasized personal integrity and professional skepticism in audit professionals, and these attributes will undoubtedly remain vital. But in the new and fast-developing environment, auditors will also need to develop even deeper knowledge of business, a powerful curiosity about technologies and an agile mindset that embraces disruption.

The shift in people’s working lives has been extraordinary. However, the reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that, when the situation demands it, audit firms are capable of rapidly making significant changes to the way they operate.

Increased flexibility will bring other important benefits, especially if it results in firms placing more emphasis on performance in terms of output and productivity. More broadly, the changes brought about by COVID-19 will help to accelerate cultural change in organizations and make them more open to different ways of working.

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Source: Adapted from https://www.ey.com/en_

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