Addressing Australia’s auditor shortage requires forward thinking
The joint bodies have called for policy changes to combat the critical shortage of external auditors.
A recent report has cast a spotlight on Australia’s auditing profession, which has been described as having a “critical shortage”. Now, there are calls for organisations to put measures in place to turn these issues around.
Despite heavy investment in sourcing and developing auditors across the country, a recent report from CA ANZ and CPA Australia has outlined just how dire the skills shortages are in this essential profession.
Consultations with Australia’s big six professional service firms revealed how there has been progress made to improve recruiting, onboarding, training, and development to turn the shortage around, yet problems persist.
According to CA ANZ and CPA Australia, the lack of domestic students taking up accounting, management, and commerce degrees is only further widening the skills gap.
Employment in accounting occupations is predicted to grow by 8.5 per cent in the next five years, and 16.8 per cent in the coming decade. This forecasted growth ranks external audits in the top 30 per cent of all occupations in the model.
Training has been identified as a key area of focus for reducing the skills pressures affecting the profession. According to the report, effective internal training curricula cover areas such as:
- Audit training
- Accounting training
- Quality and risk management training
- Digital and analytics training
- Identifying and addressing fraud
- Sustainability and climate reporting and assurance
- Ethical and professional obligations
CA ANZ and CPA Australia noted that learning and development must be ongoing, and organisations should go above and beyond the bare minimum to increase effectiveness.
Further to this, benefits like study leave and financial support can help people get through their learning and development while reducing the stress that comes with it.
Recruitment and retention are two more issues plaguing the auditing space. Domestic hiring has been recognised as a major challenge as many candidates are based overseas. A lack of experience in Australian auditors is harming recruitment, the report said.
CA ANZ and CPA Australia said: “It is critical to the ongoing operation of their auditing and assurance services and the stability of the capital markets that the occupation of External Auditor is included on the Final CSOL.
"This will allow the firms to continue to supplement their local workforce with external auditors from the global talent pool. With all the firms recruiting from within an extremely limited pool of local skilled talent, it has been challenging to sufficiently resource audit teams to meet clients’ statutory reporting deadlines," they said.
