Introduction
The modern business environment is facing enormous changes and constant challenges that result from human resource errors and production failures. Given the increasing demand for exemplary services by consumers, managers are continuously looking for new talents in the labour market to replace incompetent workforce and fill vacant positions (Kehinde, 2012).
While the increasing need for human resources is obviously pervasive, poor realisation of the impact of retaining talented workforce has placed organisations on high wage bills and low performances. Wing (2004) postulates that the technique of talent management has become one of the most incredible strategic plans of human resource management that has provided companies with the means of retaining talented workforce.
Talent management has recently proven to be effective means of empowering workforce, creating workplace motivation, and retaining workers (Kehinde, 2012). To expound on the talent management concept, this essay explores the talent management strategies and measures implemented by the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI).
Overview of Talent Management and INTOSAI
Traditionally, organisations mostly believed in constant retrenchments and replacements as a way of managing inefficient workforce and eliminating the incompetent workers in workplaces (Gubman, 2004). Due to the increasing complexities in the labour market with workers frequently seeking for more paying professions, the need for capacity building to maintain talented workforce has heightened (Wing, 2004).
Opposed to the traditional disorderly retrenchment programs, modern talent management has received an advanced technical approach and a new meaning altogether. Lewis and Heckman, define talent management as a systematic human resource practice of managing the supply, the demand, and the stream of talented workforce through the human capital parameters (2006).
The practice of talent management comprises of a set of practices initiated through the human capital management processes, to manage efficient human resource in organisations. According to Lewis and Heckman (2006), talent management ensures that the workforce aligns with business goals and is capable of driving corporate goals to a meaningful success.
Human Capital Management (HCM), as a human resource strategic plan ranges from a few motivational supports to a series of corporate strategies tailored towards ensuring effective capacity building and talent management (Romans & Lardner, 2005).
Being a succession planning technique where new and motivated workforce replaces retirees to retrenched workers, organisations have embraced the concept of talent management and have designed varied techniques of managing talent (Wing, 2004).
The International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions is among the modern organisations that have acknowledged the growing impetus of human resource management and talent retention. The company launched a capacity building committee predominantly to ensure that Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) make the most out of the talents available in their workforces (INTOSAI, 2013).
INTOSAI community as the custodian of the SAI advocates for capacity building as part of talent management techniques (INTOSAI, 2013). The organisation uses varied talent management strategies and measures to achieve capacity building through a mutual work plan.
Talent Management Strategies and Measures of INTOSAI
Companies have initiated various talent management strategies to nurture talents of workers and make them more useful to the corporate and individual development (Cappelli, 2008). The main objective of the INTOSAI organisation as a custodian of SAIs is to offer developmental support and advice on human capacity building through different measures of enhancing talent management in their human resource sectors.
INTOSAI has a Capacity Building Committee (CBC) that has placed a range of practices and measures for talent management to ensure that SAI workers and their institutions benefit from the capacity building initiatives (INTOSAI, 2013).
The CBC has four main committees, namely, the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI), the Professional Standards Committee (PSC), the Model International Organization (MIO), and the Knowledge Sharing Committee.
INTOSAI committees engage in talent management techniques, which include holding mutual workshops towards innovative strategies, employee training and development, employee certification, working on the knowledge sharing initiatives, and development of professional working standards.
The INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI)
Nurturing human talents through capacity building and talent management techniques requires a series of approaches to exhaust the abilities of individuals in a workplace (Lewis & Heckman, 2006). INTOSAI has a development initiative that works closely with the capacity building committee towards talent management of employees of the SAI communities across the world.
“The INTOSAI Development Initiative is an INTOSAI agency, which supports Supreme Audit Institutions in developing countries, in their efforts to sustainably enhance performance, independence and professionalism” (INTOSAI, 2013, par. 2). The development initiative has a series of activities and processes aimed towards harmonizing and facilitating efficient SAI capacity development agendas.
The agenda of the development initiative is to disseminate global public goods, empower regional bodies, develop supportive communities and networks, and assist in formulating effective support to the SAI groups (INTOSAI, 2013). Such initiatives intend to enhance talent management and capacity development among the workers of Supreme Audit Institutions and related agencies in developing countries.
As a human resource strategic plan that helps people improve their competencies, talent management and capacity development involve efforts towards enhancing the individual performance of workers (Wing, 2004).
INTOSAI enhances the performance of SAI through the IDI platform, with numerous talent management initiatives and professional development agendas. In practical professional development, the IDI is responsible for training, couching, and improving the skills of SAI professionals in issues related to the use of information technology in auditing (INTOSAI, 2013).
The IDI prepares the IDI Global Programme with a purpose of enhancing professionalism of workers through making them competent in the e-courses related to auditing.
The IDI Global Programme conducts training on the e-courses, undertakes online course support, and assesses the growth of SAI workers in e-courses through examinations and certification (INTOSAI, 2013). To enhance work proficiency, SAI workers undertake e-courses, engage in IT programmes supported by the IDI Global Programme, and receive results and certificates when successful in the courses offered.
The IDI platform acts as an employment network for assisting qualified employees to seek working opportunities within the Supreme Auditing Institutions. Since several accountants across developing countries are seeking opportunities to enhance their professional experience in established accounting firms, IDI platform acts as a professional breakthrough for aspiring workers (INTOSAI, 2013).
The IDI has an open website for the SAI workers who have interest in understanding networks and communities of professional accounting. The website supports SAI employees to have access to capacity development programmes that are essential in the development of employee careers in the accounting and auditing fields.
Proper governance is an important aspect in INTOSAI, as leadership is important in management of SAIs (INTOSAI, 2013).
The IDI enhances governance in SAIs through providing professional training to SAI managers strategically to improve accountability and transparency. Public accounting requires professional and effective leadership, and through enhancing corporate governance, IDI makes SAI managers competent to lead public accounting firms.
The Professional Standards Committee (PSC)
The modern workplace environment requires proper understanding of the regulations and the practice standards that govern a professional field (Cappelli, 2008). The INTOSAI organisation understands that SAI workers in developing counties need professional standards that guide their practices in the field of financial auditing.
As part of their capacity building initiative, INTOSAI has an effective professional standards committee that oversees the practices of SAI agencies to ensure that professional auditing standards are efficient (INTOSAI, 2013).
The main objective of the Professional Standards Committee is to initiate and maintain international auditing standards that Supreme Audit institutions should utilize. Professional standards in auditing are essential, since they improve the credibility and competence of employees working in public accounting firms (INTOSAI, 2013).
Additionally, the PSC assists members of the INTOSAI community to ensure that their audit teams develop effective communication strategies and policies. The PSC also advices and promotes efficient leadership behaviours through providing support on formulating policies towards good governance.
In enhancing standards of public sector auditing, the professional standards formulated by the PSC normally assist INTOSAI members to create policies and regulations of ensuring standard performance in the audit activities and report making.
INTOSAI (2013) believes that such approaches act as basis for establishing professional auditing skills to workers, which subsequently help in enhancing individual proficiency in public auditing. PSC further assists INTOSAI members to understand the need for undertaking public auditing in accordance with the ethical principles of auditing (INTOSAI, 2013).
The professional competence of finance auditors lies in their ability to practice auditing while observing the required business ethics governing the auditing practice.
Through ensuring that SAIs work in accordance with the professional auditing standards, the PSC helps workers and managers to become efficient, competent, and independent in their public auditing practices (INTOSAI, 2013). Therefore, INTOSAI achieves talent management aims through ensuring that auditing standards support SAI workers to work professionally in the sector auditing.
Talent management through capacity development in INTOSAI also entails formulation of various committees and groups to support SAI members to perform duties in accordance with the established auditing standards. The PSC has a financial audit subcommittee, a performance audit subcommittee, a compliance audit subcommittee, and an accounting and reporting subcommittee (INTOSAI, 2013).
The financial audit subcommittee is very essential to the performance of SAI workers in the public sector auditing. According to INTOSAI (2013), the subcommittee helps SAI workers to develop standard financial statements that are essential in the public sector auditing and documentation of public audit concerns.
The financial audit subcommittee formulates high-quality guidelines that ensure that the SAI members undertake the above audit mandates in the globally accepted audit standards (INTOSAI, 2013).
As a capacity-building strategy, the performance audit subcommittee is responsible for formulating guidelines for effective performance auditing, public sector audit reforms and developments, and the relevant evaluation or auditing methods.
In helping SAI workers to comply with the international auditing standards, PSC has a compliance audit subcommittee that elaborates and clarifies the terms of compliance audit (INTOSAI, 2013).
The compliance audit subcommittee helps SAI audit members to understand the different mandates governing compliance audit and provides them with a practical guidance on planning, execution, and reporting of compliance audit (INTOSAI, 2013). Such efforts have been crucial in supporting SAI members to perform their public auditing duties in a standardised and professional manner.
The work of auditors is never complete if the financial assessment does not end with an audit report. The accounting and reporting subcommittee is an efficient agency of PSC that helps workers to unveil audit reports in a standardised and professional manner (INTOSAI, 2013).
The subcommittee helps SAI workers to prepare auditing periodic reports in the desired accounting and reporting standards. All these practices help SAI workers to grow professionally in their auditing practices.
The Knowledge Sharing Committee
Modern talent management involves a number of strategies that entail empowering individuals professionally through knowledge acquisition and sharing on basic issues surrounding the professional practice of a certain field of work.
Likierman (2007) argues that having a high knowledge base is one of the critical aspects that contemporary human resources should have to cope with the changing dynamics of workplaces. INTOSAI organisation has understood the need to embrace knowledge sharing, cooperation, and mutual workplace growth.
The capacity building initiative of INTOSAI tailored towards knowledge sharing has several practices and activities that help SAI workers to share knowledge with great openness and cooperation (INTOSAI, 2013). The strategies of knowledge sharing agenda include establishment of new working groups and maintenance of existing-working teams.
Knowledge sharing also enables SAI workers to share ideas on best auditing practices, workplace diversity, and global communication strategies and policies. Such practices enable workers to share experiences and challenges in the field of public accounting.
With the increased innovation and growth in technology, workers possess different levels of abilities, knowledge, ideas, proficiency, and exposure in certain professional fields (Likierman, 2007). The contemporary knowledge base on professional practices and auditing is broad and dispersed among workers in organisations.
As a strategy towards capacity development among workers, the knowledge-sharing programme of INTOSAI promotes employee partnerships in undertaking academic activities and research on auditing practices (INTOSAI, 2013).
The partnerships allow SAI members to share ideas and opinions on the auditing research, and the requirements necessary in compiling INTOSAI audit reports to enhance consistency in accounting research. The knowledge accumulated and shared among workers of SAI is very essential in improving the service provision in the public sector audit (INTOSAI, 2013).
The knowledge-sharing initiative allows managers and workers to participate in holding mutual workshops towards innovative strategies. INTOSAI Workshops are centres of professional development and training, where audit consultants provide consultations on auditing issues.
Professional consultations help SAI workers to increase knowledge base on the present and emerging accounting issues. “A consulting perspective, often influential in the design and operation of capacity-building programs, tends to focus on the practical use of information to improve current and future performance” (Wing, 2004, p.154).
The knowledge-sharing initiative falls into various divisions, namely the public debt group, the IT audit group, the financial modernisation and reform group, the anti-corruption and money laundering group, and the task force that regulates and discusses issues of audit on procurement contracts (INTOSAI, 2013).
These knowledge-sharing groups have different mandates and objectives tailored towards assisting members of the SAI community to undertake auditing in a professional manner.
Workers engage in competency-building discussions, engage in research and discussions on IT audit practices, anti-corruption audit, the public debt audit, and in financial modernisation and reforms audit (INTOSAI, 2013). These practices are essential platforms of capacity development as they enhance employee competency in auditing.
Model International Organization (MIO)
Talent management is effective, when leadership, efficiency in practice, and decision-making are core values in a professional field (Romans & Lardner, 2005). Talent management strategies are also successful when firms consider supporting the development programmes with appropriate finance and resources.
A significant capacity-building component of the INTOSAI community is the Model International Organisation (MIO), which ensures effective governance and coordination of SAI public auditing activities (INTOSAI, 2013).
The MIO initiative promotes efficient, valuable, and economical working practices of SAI in the field of the public audit sector. Such efforts are appropriate as they enable SAI workers to engage resourcefully in the INTOSAI audit training and capacity development.
Talent management is part of empowering workforce, and financial stability in talent management programs is essential to encourage workers to participate in the initiatives (Frank & Taylor, 2004). The MIO initiative has a Finance and Administration Committee (FAC) that supports SAI members financially, to relieve them from the training and development expenses.
The most imperative contribution of the MIO initiative is its duty in enhancing effective decision-making on issues regarding empowerment, motivation, employee development, training, and other capacity-building agendas (INTOSAI, 2013).
The MIO board of leaders supports individual SAI agencies in making decisions that are essential in supporting the activities of capacity development of INTOSAI. Such approaches strengthen the bond between regional SAI agencies and the international INTOSAI system towards capacity development and talent management (INTOSAI, 2013).
The MIO system promotes effective auditing practices and ensures that decisions and activities of regional SAI agencies reflect actions that are essential for capacity development.
As part of knowledge empowerment, the MIO system carries out assessment on professional growth of individual workers in the public audit sector and provides certification to auditors on relevant public audit management courses offered through the global INTOSAI (INTOSAI, 2013). Such initiatives make auditors competent in the public auditing field and create professional confidence to SAI workers.
An efficient means of ensuring that capacity building is triumphant is through proper planning and designing of programmes that support the initiatives of capacity development (Gubman, 2004). The MIO system provides INTOSAI agency with means of enhancing their approaches through providing guidelines in strategic planning and coordination of activities and duties of the capacity building initiatives (INTOSAI, 2013).
The MIO system has a strategic FAC taskforce responsible for strategic planning on the effective development, monitoring, and implementation of the designed capacity building plans (INTOSAI, 2013). The team ensures that all activities, arrangements, methods, and targets of the capacity development initiatives are running in an orderly arrangement.
The INTOSAI governing body, the committee members, the director of INTOSAI strategic planning, and the regional working groups, merge together to formulate policies and strategies that ensure that preparation and implementation of the plans reflect the desired goals of capacity development (INTOSAI, 2013). Such efforts ensure that members achieve talent management efficiently.
Conclusion
Talent management is undoubtedly the most effective approach of attracting and retaining workforce in modern organisations where innovation seems to change in accordance with the rising business challenges. Companies have developed different strategies and measures of undertaking talent management in their organisations.
INTOSAI is a global auditing organisation that oversees professional growth and monitors the adherence of SAIs to the global professional auditing standards. Categorised in four main groups of capacity building, the four committees and task forces on different areas of organisation initiatives are generally responsible for capacity development.
The four task forces assist INTOSAI in developing professional standards of auditing that SAI workers use as guidelines in the public sector auditing. The committees also formulate policies, regulations, strategic plans, and norms that govern capacity development within the INTOSAI initiatives.
The INTOSAI agency also ensures professional training and growth of the SAI workers through relevant professional assessment and appropriate audit certification.
References
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