When to get a new job: For Audit Professionals by Terry Owen

What is the most important asset within your audit shop?

I hope you answered loud enough that you startled those around you, “It’s the people!”

Whether you’re a manager, a seasoned auditor or the newly minted MBA that just joined the team, you are an asset to the organization.

But how well you and your management harness your power and abilities and how effectively your entire team works together will determine how successful you and your entire organization become.

Contributing feels great. Dysfunction is draining.

There’s no better feeling as a professional than to feel like you’re fully contributing. You enjoy the camaraderie and you enjoy learning from those with which you work. You look forward to going to work each day and your organization is meeting virtually all its objectives.

On top of that, you’re getting compensated fairly for your contributions.

Both you and your organization are firing on all eight cylinders and work is great.

But what if things just aren’t clicking?

What if you feel as though it’s not a great fit; or you’re understaffed and overworked; or you feel as though you’re not being challenged and every day is the same old, same old?

Worse yet, what if you’re surrounded by toxic teammates, from the top all the way to the bottom?

As you step back and assess the situation, it looks like the entire team is dysfunctional.

Simply stated, you just aren’t feeling the love. I’ve been there.

To paraphrase Peter Drucker’s quote, you may feel like there is no “I” in “Team” but there is an “I” in “I Quit”.

So, now you have to consider when to get a new job.

In-between is tricky

But how can you be sure when to get a new job if things are sort-of OK?

Even if your organization isn’t dysfunctional, you might be wondering if the grass is greener elsewhere. Things aren’t great at work, but things aren’t terrible either.

This is the hardest place to be because the choice of whether to stay or go is not obvious. You are ambivalent and until something significant happens, you aren’t likely to make a move or feel at peace about your situation.

Gather some information before you make your move

The first step is to determine if the dysfunction of the organization is an isolated event or systemic.

An isolated event such as a new manager or a reorganization can often cause some unsettled feelings and it may take several months or an entire operating cycle for things to settle down, and that’s normal. You probably should just hold on a little longer.

If the dysfunction is systemic and there seems to be no effort by staff or management to make the kinds of changes required to improve the organization, your decision might be a much easier one.

An important second step is to take time for self-reflection and asking yourself if your job will provide the opportunities and growth in the long-term that you’ll need to feel fulfilled as a person and as a professional.

Everyone goes though ups and downs over the course of a career and this may be one of those down-cycles.

Also, ask, yourself, what else is going on in your life that – if it changed – would help you feel better about your life in general. The job might be the easiest thing to change, but you might take the same problems with you to your new gig.

As my grandmother used to say, “No matter where you go, there you are!”

It could be a good time to phone a friend! Gain input from a trusted ally such as a colleague, career counselor or perhaps even another manager if you don’t feel safe discussing it with your own management. A talented life coach can also help you get to the bottom of what is wrong.

It shouldn’t need to be said, but don’t forget to talk to your spouse, significant other or parents. I once knew a guy that forgot to tell his wife that he accepted a job in Panama until the day before the movers came. It didn’t turn out well for him, but on the upside his new employer only had to spend half as much for the cost of the move.

And as a third step, you should spend some time finding out what other jobs are out there. While you may want to leave, the job you want that fits all of your requirements may not be open right now. Start building your professional network so that when the job becomes available, you have a personal connection to those that are hiring.

4 indicators of when to get a new job

Indicator #1: High turnover of personnel

High turnover is a bellwether for problems within an organization. Obviously, some turnover is good and desired. New people bring in new ideas, techniques and skills that cross-pollinate into the audit organization.

But how much turnover is too much?

While there is no hard data, from experience, depending upon the size of the organization, turnover of more than 35% per year may indicate underlying problems.

There can be several causes such as conflicts with colleagues or management, mistrust within the organization and lack of challenging work. Or maybe auditing was not a good fit for those who left from the start.

Finding solutions to high turnover requires that management take an unflinching look at their team, their hiring processes and the work environment. Often, an impartial, objective outsider can help identify issues and provide workable solutions easier than those who are part of the organization.

Indicator #2: Your team is understaffed and overworked

You are overwhelmed and need help but backfilling open positions takes months.

You can’t even get candidates to apply and when they do apply, they don’t have the right skills. Or, after interviewing, they choose to accept an offer from another audit organization.

It’s as if your audit shop has a disease! But more likely the audit shop isn’t attractive to candidates because of the low pay or the larger organization’s reputation.

Indicator #3: Chaos is the norm rather than the exception

Every day you are putting out fires instead of making real progress and it’s causing breakdowns in communications, morale and audit quality.

Very few of those within the team, or only a select few seem to know what’s going on. Or, there are contradictory messages coming from various levels of the team resulting in confusion and frustration.

Developing consistent and clear communications plans, audit policies and audit procedures can make the difference between staff asking themselves about when to get a new job and asking how can they help their team be even more successful.

Indicator #4: Your team’s audits just aren’t meeting the quality standards

Your audits are subpar and your team isn’t doing the work they’re capable of or they’re not even meeting what the standards require.

Perhaps the skills and abilities of your audit team in certain areas such as fraud detection, information technology use or report writing are weak.

This can be frustrating for staff, management and those who are performing quality reviews.

If you are someone that really takes pride in your work and you feel as though you’re the only one, that’s a tough position to be in. Often, audit leadership sets the expectation for compliance and if they simply don’t care, the team will be fighting an uphill battle to achieve compliance.

But if it isn’t the leader, you could initiate a standards revival by mandating formal training, teaching-back, or mentoring.

Maybe this quiz will help you decide:

If you’re an audit manager and are wondering if your staff is thinking about when to get a new job, ask us how DART can help you and your audit shop find solutions to these issues and more. Contact Leita Hart-Fanta at leita@yellowbook-cpe.com, or call 979-4YELLOW (979-493-5569). We look forward to working with you.