[nukkad] 1 -HR AND INTERNAL AUDIT-RAJABABU

["rajababu" <>]

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Excerpted from "The Nuts and bolts of HR and IR"-Volume 2 by Rajababu
and Nivedita, Nivraaj Publications.

As I was saying in some previous chapter, HR has to take to flying. It has
got huge wings, but has to now unfurl them to the world. Huge wings, on
which flies the mascot of Internal Audit as an additional job
responsibility. How come Internal Audit? Let me explain. Internal Audit is
the function performed to check the existing systems and methodologies of
the company, and to suggest improvements and to plug lacunae. Of course
there are more complicated definitions of Internal Audit by Professional
bodies the world over, but we are not interested in this right now. What
matters is that HR should smell a huge oppurtunity in this area.

An internal auditor is of immense value to both Brick & mortar as well as
ICE companies (ICE of course refers to the trilogy of Information,
Communication and Entertainment). He normally reports directly to te
Managing Director and is independent of any separate division, for reporting
purposes. For example, an Internal Auditor correctly would never report to
the Finance Divisional Head.

On the few occasions where Internal Auditor has reported to the Finance
department, it has led to a dilution in the powers of the Internal Auditor.
Why? Simply because, the Internal Auditor also has to audit the systems of
the Finance Department, and he is also reporting to its Head. You can easily
imagine how much he would be 'auditing' in the true sense of the term.

What qualifications does an Internal Auditor require? When I put this
question to a gathering of HR executives I was training, they cam out with
the answer "He should be a Chartered Accountant or a Cost Accountant. Sorry,
folks, but the truth is that an Internal Auditor does not need any Statutory
qualification. He simply has to have the quality of 'detecting' and
'improving',  as one HR executive put it so pithily.

Friends, today is the era of Cost Cutting. HR, like every other department,
has to innovate and survive or else, be consigned to the era of
forgetfulness. So, in a nutshell, HR has to start thinking whether they can
don the thinking cap of Internal Audit. If an Engineer or a Science graduate
from the Shop floor can become an Internal Auditor, HR could also don the
mantle.

We did a study at Nivraaj Consultants, and found that HR could easily slip
into the role of an Internal Auditor. We matched the attributes of Internal
Audit as a job function, and HR as the executive to fit the cog, and found 7
on 10 parameters matching. Of course, HR executives would immediately say,
What? When? and there would be an initial soul-searching and re-orientation,
but at the end of the day, this is one of the roles that HR would love to
play.














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