Conducting a risk assessment is one of the most important tasks for internal auditors, yet it is often one of the most time-consuming and complicated processes. A common pitfall is the complexity that auditors build into their risk assessments. We typically combine subjective measures with past audit results, data from various systems, and hours of interviews with management. While these elements are all intended to provide a thorough analysis, they often add unnecessary layers of complexity and subjectivity to the process, leading to frustration and inefficiency.

When you dig deeper and ask who designed the risk assessment process, the answers are often unsatisfactory. The process may have been created by someone who has long since left the organization, or it may have been recommended by an external consultant who no longer has any connection to the company. Yet, the risk assessment process often continues to be used simply because "it has always been done that way," even if it no longer serves the organization’s needs effectively.

The problem with this complexity is that it can divert significant time and resources away from the actual auditing work that auditors should be focused on. Instead of conducting meaningful audits that add value, auditors are spending hours, if not days, simply completing the risk assessment. The question becomes: when does this process become too complicated and counterproductive? Is it time to re-evaluate and streamline the risk assessment process to make it more effective and efficient?

In this webinar, we will explore how to evaluate your risk assessment process to ensure that it is both effective and aligned with best practices, as well as the Standards. We will discuss how to simplify your approach without sacrificing quality or reliability. By examining real-world examples and lessons learned, we will provide strategies for improving your risk assessment processes, ensuring they add value and contribute to the overall audit function.

Areas Covered

Who Should Attend    

Senior Internal Auditors, Internal Audit Managers, Internal Audit Directors

Why Should You Attend

Risk assessments are crucial for internal auditors, but for many of us, they are also the most complex and frustrating part of the job. The reason for this frustration often lies in the complexity we’ve built into the process. Risk assessments combine subjective measures, past audit results, and data from multiple systems, and add in management interviews that introduce more subjectivity. While this may seem like a comprehensive approach, it can be overly burdensome and time-consuming, detracting from the valuable audit work that could be accomplished instead.

If you find yourself spending more time completing risk assessments than conducting audits, it might be time to re-evaluate your process. During this session, we will examine the common pitfalls auditors face when creating risk assessments, as well as practical strategies for simplifying and streamlining the process without losing its value or effectiveness.

The complexity of your risk assessment may be consuming resources that could be better spent on actual audits, leading to less impactful results. This webinar will provide you with tools and techniques to evaluate your current process, ensure it adheres to The Standards, and identify areas where you can eliminate unnecessary complexity. We’ll also look at real-world examples to illustrate how others have successfully streamlined their risk assessments.

By the end of this session, you will have a clearer understanding of how to balance thoroughness with efficiency in your risk assessment process. You'll gain the knowledge needed to assess whether your current approach is too complicated and take actionable steps to improve it, ensuring you spend more time focusing on delivering valuable audit insights rather than getting bogged down in excessive process details.

Topic Background    

Risk assessments are a fundamental part of the internal audit process, but too often, they are overly complicated. The combination of subjective measures, data from different systems, and hours of management interviews can make the process more time-consuming than necessary. This complexity often leads to frustration and inefficiency, taking auditors away from performing actual audits.

In many cases, the risk assessment process was designed by someone who is no longer with the organization or an external consultant who has long since moved on. Yet, the process continues, even though it may no longer be serving its original purpose effectively. In this webinar, we will address the issue of overcomplicated risk assessments and offer strategies to simplify the process while maintaining its integrity and adherence to standards. We’ll look at real-world examples of risk assessments and discuss how to evaluate and improve your processes to make them more efficient and aligned with audit objectives.