The challenges of starting a new auditing role, remotely

Joining any new organisation can bring out a host of different emotions, everything from mildly terrifying, slightly nerve-wracking, to pure dream-fulfilling excitement. With its inductions, onboarding, and rounds of meet-and-greets and shaking lots of hands, it can be a bit of a whirlwind.  

But joining during a pandemic? With everyone leaving the office and working remotely? Well, that puts a whole new slant on things, and new jobs in general. We spoke to one such colleague, Rebecca Carr, a Senior Auditor who joined us last year from a Big Four accounting firm.

On joining from a Big Four

‘So I joined a year and five months ago from Ernst & Young. I suppose when you move to another organisation, it’s really about getting to know everybody and understanding why things are done the way they’re done. I came from a non-financial services background. So, a lot of my work would have been with public sector clients, and private clients, with limited experience in financial services.’ 

We were curious to know what challenges Rebecca saw coming from a Big Four in terms of processes. ‘The bank is very structured, in terms of governance, business areas and different teams. With any job, it takes a while to get to know the organisation but there's so much information readily available on our intranet to support you through the process. In fact, any question you might have, you can actually answer it yourself, if you just look for it in the right place. And if not, you have lots of people to ask for help - everyone is of course very approachable. 

‘So I wouldn't call that a challenge as such. It's probably just more of a learning experience. Our audit methodology is very prescriptive, but in a good way, if that makes sense. It ensures consistency and quality in what we do and aligns to the professional standards. It gives you confidence and should certainly give our customers confidence, too. 

‘Moving from a Big Four, or any company that doesn't have such a methodology in place, may seem challenging for a new joiner. But once you realise that it's a better way of doing things, and that the work we do really does add value to the bank, it begins to make sense. It ensures that we keep the bank, our customers and our communities safe.’

A remote beginning

Rebecca gave us her thoughts on joining the team remotely. ‘So yeah, I joined the team, pretty much at the start of the pandemic, when everyone was already working from home. I got everything I needed posted to my home address before joining the team: my laptop, my phone, my additional screen monitor, and all my log-in details. And I was onboarded without any issues.

‘I had my induction virtually. And, at first, I suppose there was a bit of anxiety about that. But actually, the transition was really smooth for me, and I got to know the team really quickly. We have weekly catch-ups and team meetings and lots of different online social events as well. I’m still able to have that engagement day to day. Everyone was really, really welcoming. So friendly.’

Audit from afar

Lots of our newer colleagues have found our working practices across the teams, functions and departments, to be very fluid. We asked if Rebecca felt the same. 'Definitely. I quickly learned that location really doesn't matter. The teams are mostly spread out across Edinburgh, London, Belfast and Dublin. With the help of Zoom we are able to engage across the different teams regularly, whether that be for social events or for audit work. In fact, I think it has made us even more agile, less siloed. We have people in India, the US. The only difference is the time zone.’

‘We have people from specialist clusters that will support us in our audits and likewise I have had the opportunity to support other audit teams with their engagements. I know there's lots of opportunities for secondments if you express an interest with your line manager that you'd like to support a certain team or gain certain experience.’

Learning with an eye on the future

We’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Rebecca on recently becoming a fully qualified accountant. ‘Thank you very much! I’m a CIMA qualified accountant. I'd say on a personal level, when I joined the bank, I had already started my training to become a qualified accountant. The bank really supported me through my qualification. They've supported me financially, and also provided me with study days to complete all of my exams. I’ve already signed up for my next course which the bank is supporting me with – Certified Fintech Practitioner. I’m excited for that.

‘But the internal training courses we have are excellent as well. I haven't personally got to do too many of them just yet, because I have been focusing on getting the accountancy qualification out of the way, but I suppose the big push for us as an Audit function is trying to upskill in the area of data and data analytics. We have just launched our Data Camp and Data Academy, and lots of people are starting to train and participate in that. You’re encouraged to focus on your learning and development and afforded the time to do so. But it’s very much up to the individual, there’s no pressure, the bank knows that people have all sorts of other commitments outside of work, like childcare and things. And I know that NatWest is very mindful of us having a healthy work-life balance, especially since Covid and working from home.

‘But like I said, I really enjoy the courses, so there’s plenty of opportunities for me, like an Audit Academy each year; which we just had about three or four weeks ago. That's a time where basically everyone within the function comes together. We have different sessions hosted by internal and external speakers, talking about the key themes and things we need to think about as a function going forward, such as integrated auditing and incremental auditing. It’s always a great event and you really get value out of attending the sessions.’