Cambridge defines an audit as “an official examination of the accounts of a business and produce a report.“
When we hear the word audit in the workplace, a lot of us flinch. We associate audits with an auditor hovering over our shoulders, scribbling down unknown words that we’re not privy to know what are – yet are all too familiar with how those words can be used to tear us down for simply having been targeted by an audit.
But that’s not a proper audit. That is a witch hunt, done to intimidate and target specific individuals, and a sure indicator of an abusive workplace culture that is cultivated and maintained by the employer.
Vilification of audits
Even if the purpose of an audit is as pure and simple as can possibly be within the business settings, audits have been used to intimidate personnel, even purposefully set up as witch hunts to gather data to flush out unwanted individuals.
But it isn’t the audit’s fault – with the right mindset, everything can be weaponized.
Understanding how an audit should be set up, and how it should be used to best optimize procedures or to support the business in making well informed decisions about changes and reforms, is also key for employees who want to push back against improperly used audits.
Pushing back against bad audits
A proper audit should look at a certain procedure, identify key objectives and study all associated processes with said objectives in detail in order to determine if the procedure is optimized.
Audits have nothing to do with individual humans, just procedures, processes, and data.
Understanding this is key for all employees who want to see reforms in their work places – whether it is to remove the use of audits as witch hunts, or simply to properly utilize audits for their intended use.