This blog post is part of five articles on organizational sustainability. Related articles are noted at the end of the post.
Stage One: Organizational Audits
An organizational audit evaluates areas of your organization that are considered vital to its functioning. It compares an element's performance to the desired performance to meet your business needs or goals. The focus of your audit may vary depending on your specific key issues or concerns.
The three most common organizational audits you may need to conduct are Financial, Legal, and Operational. Generally, audits like these are done by an external specialist (lawyer, accountant, etc.) to ensure objectivity, although they can be done in-house by a working committee of the Board.
It is important to note that these audits can be broken down into smaller components, to be completed independently (i.e. the Internal Controls and Human Resources portions in an Operational Audit).
Once completed, these Organizational Audits highlight areas of your organization that need to be addressed (your weaknesses) and frame priorities moving forward.  Â
What audits does your organization do regularly to manage risk? Tell us about them in the comments below.
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