Summary
External audits are often a cause for panic — especially for heavily regulated organizations. But this doesn’t have to be the case. In this article, we’ll help you juggle conflicting priorities and achieve year-round audit readiness, all with the aid of 6 convenient digital workplace tools.
Another annual audit lurks around the corner. Your CIO has circled the dates in their diary. Your teams have a vague idea of their responsibilities. You think you know where the correct documentation is…
Yes, you’re aware, but you’re completely unprepared. There’s very little transparency and cohesion. On the “audit readiness” scale, you’re nowhere near a 10/10. And you dread the moment the auditor comes knocking.
Does this sound a little too familiar?
If so, take a moment to breathe. We’re here to transform your last-minute, frantic audit preparations into a prepared, well-oiled machine.
Why do organizations struggle with audits?
We can’t talk about audit readiness without acknowledging the ever-shifting regulatory landscape.
Consider the growing buzz around ESG regulations and reporting requirements. New standards, such as the proposed UK SRS framework, are popping up more frequently than ever. Yet, according to research by KPMG, a staggering 75% of organizations are unprepared for ESG audits.
This is just one example in a sea of many. From HIPAA audits to ISO 27001 audits, there are now countless different standards and regulations to juggle, and this makes preparation all the more difficult.
But it’s unfair to place all the blame on regulations and the people who pen them. A lack of readiness is often a result of a failure to adapt to change. And this is something that rests on your shoulders alone.
Common traits of unprepared organizations include:
- Undermining the importance of internal audits
- Failing to establish routes for reporting or escalating problems
- Relying on manual workflows that hinder transparency and traceability
- Storing evidence and documentation on scattered, disparate platforms
- Miscommunications and/or a lack of knowledge sharing
- Nonexistent corrective and preventative action (CAPA) after instances of non-compliance
- Poor employee training programs, as well as unsubstantial proof of training records and policy acceptance
If any of these bullet points ring true, now’s as good a time as any to turn things around.
6 tools to ensure audit readiness
At its core, audit readiness requires a mindset shift. In order to jump from panicked to prepared, you must embed compliance throughout your culture and everyday workplace practices. Every employee, from your latest recruits to your c-suite executives, must buy into it.
That being said, technology can help you achieve audit readiness faster — and without needless stress. This is what we’ll be focusing on today.
In the following section, we’ll list 6 tools that will help you iron out your compliance processes and develop a reliable system for preparing for audits.
1. Centralized knowledge and document management
Tech sprawl is a growing problem in the modern business landscape. In order to fill functionality gaps and satisfy capability needs, organizations patch together multiple disparate tools.
This results in siloed information that’s difficult to locate and update. (Precisely what you don’t need in the lead-up to an audit.)
To avoid getting stuck in this web of confusion, consolidate your knowledge, documents, and policies in one centralized software. A digital workplace solution like Claromentis acts as one source of truth for all your workplace information. It’s easy to search, secure by design, and contains built-in version-control functionality. So you’ll never have to scramble for up-to-date audit evidence again.
2. No-code e-forms and workflows
Handling regulatory processes manually will only slow your organization down and increase the risk of human error, data inconsistencies, and non-compliance.
To make your life easier, use no-code e-forms and automated workflows to manage all the busywork for you. With the right business process automation software, you can standardize evidence capture, simplify incident reporting, log and track CAPA tasks, streamline employee onboarding, and more. All of which will help you stay audit-ready 365 days a year.
3. AI-powered policy management tool
Business-wide compliance hinges on the accessibility of your policies. Not just whether employees can open them on their mobile devices, but whether they can actually understand them.
After all, you can say all the right things in writing, but if your people can’t give auditors the answers they’re looking for, you’re in trouble.
This is where an AI-powered policy management tool becomes an invaluable resource. Take Claromentis as an example. Our policy manager contains a helpful Q&A assistant that ingests each individual policy document and generates relevant ‘suggested’ questions based on the context. Employees can select one of these questions or write their own. In both scenarios, the AI produces pithy, accurate answers and summaries.
It’s an easier way to guarantee employee understanding and get them ready for potential audit interrogations.
4. Learning management system
Training is another fundamental part of increasing employee understanding and investment.
A learning management system empowers you to build courses and pathways centered around compliance, policies, and your regulatory obligations. Interactive quizzes provide granular insights into user pass rates and areas that need improvement. Training records act as evidence for auditors to scrutinize. And course tutors encourage employees to seek help should they need it.
It’s a surefire way to establish and refresh compliance knowledge. Not just in the lead-up to your big external audits, but continuously.
5. Project management tool
When audit season rolls around, it can be all too easy to drop the ball on certain tasks — especially when you have your regular work activities to factor in, too.
Project management tools keep you organized during these busy periods. With the right software, you can build dedicated work spaces for each audit, assign tasks, and keep track of milestones via helpful progress bars. This is perfect for organizing policy updates, scheduling in CAPA, and gathering evidence for auditors.
6. Internal communications tools
Internal communications tools ensure your compliance and audit procedures are clear, transparent, and up-to-date.
Although every organization has its own comms preferences, we’d recommend using:
- News articles to communicate regulatory changes, share audit details, and distribute convenient AI summaries and updates.
- RSS feeds to pull through blogs and announcements from relevant regulatory bodies and compliance experts.
- Announcements and pinned broadcast messages to remind employees of upcoming internal and external audits.
- Discussion forums for sharing insights and solving problems collaboratively.
Ideally, all of these internal communications tools should live within the same platform. That way, you maintain one designated hub for sharing and ingesting important audit information, all while reducing the challenges of tool fatigue.
How Claromentis keeps you audit ready, always
No business plans to fail an audit. But many businesses fail to plan.
This isn’t as simple as forgetting to jot down dates in your workplace calendar. It’s a lack of organization, cohesion, and standardization across your operations, technology, and culture. This is what hinders audit readiness.
Fortunately, with the right mindset shift and technology, you can turn this around.
Claromentis is a secure digital workplace solution that centralizes all of your communications, training, documentation, and processes. Boasting powerful intranet, e-learning, and automation capabilities, our software empowers you to consolidate and streamline your end-to-end audit workflows — from sharing regulatory updates to scheduling remedial action.
If you’re ready to cure your audit headaches, why not book a quick consultation with one of our experts? We’ll assess your requirements, discuss pricing, and arrange a bespoke demo of our digital workplace for heavily regulated industries.
