Auditing social risks and responses: An ESG masterclass

Presented by: John Chesshire

Throughout 2023, regulators and governments have progressed action and activity for enhanced ESG reporting and much of this focuses on organisational social, employee and wider stakeholder-related activity.

The Chartered Institute’s Risk in Focus 2024 survey has once again highlighted ESG as a key area of concern for increasing numbers of CAEs across Europe, whatever size, sector, or scale of internal audit team. The survey reports that, “human capital, diversity, talent management and retention also retained its 2nd place ranking in the report as many businesses find themselves out of sync with post-pandemic culture. This is a vital area to tackle as both strategic goals and risk management require a broad and deep base of talent and skills for success”. Health, safety, and security, as well as communications, reputation and stakeholder relationships also feature in the results of the survey.

Building on the coverage in the CIIA’s popular “Auditing ESG: A strategic overview” training session, this new course for 2024 puts the “S” into ESG! Spend a full day thinking about social, people, employee and community-related concepts, best practices, and current developments from across the private, public and third sectors. Consider internal audit’s role in these areas in an interactive and participative style. This course will improve your ability to provide effective, professional insight and internal audit assurance that moves beyond a tick box approach, identifying the real underlying ‘S’ risks faced by organisations.

Who should attend?

This course has been designed to be relevant to internal auditors, audit managers and chief audit executives from every business sector – private, public, and voluntary – and for delegates with varying levels of practical experience. It is of most relevance to those about to embark upon an internal audit of social, employee or stakeholder-related risk(s), for those who manage audits in this area or for those wishing to stay up to date with topical developments and emerging areas of internal audit interest.

Course programme

A blend of theoretical, technical, discursive, and practical approaches covering:

• social responsibility - where are we today?
• social, employee and wider stakeholder-related risks, both direct and indirect, threats and opportunities
• organisational awareness and preparations
• what can we audit here?
• assurance or advice?
• developing insightful internal audit social-related engagements
• delivering professional insight and internal audit assurance over your organisation’s social-related risks, activities and countermeasures
• topical issues and developments in climate change assurance
• practical problems, obstacles and barriers when auditing this evolving topic

The course includes facilitator input, topical examples, short practical discussions and task-based exercises to build upon existing knowledge and reinforce your learning.

CPE competency areas covered

• Performance (Engagement planning)
• Performance (Engagement Fieldwork)
• Performance (Engagement outcomes)
• Environment (Social responsibility and sustainability).

7 CPE points