Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance to customers around the world, through more than 9,000 stores, more than 12,000 ATMs, and online.
The Wells Fargo Audit Services (WFAS) group is comprised of approximately 500 employees who serve in the internal audit function. Audit is a provider of independent, objective assurance and consulting services delivered through a highly competent and diverse team. As a business partner, Audit helps the company accomplish its objectives by taking a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluating and improving the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes.
WFAS strives to be known as one of the world’s great audit teams and recognized as strong by all stakeholders including banking and financial services regulators. WFAS is committed to exceeding regulatory standards, including ensuring that internal audit management possesses significant industry expertise and knowledge to match the sophistication and complexity of the bank’s risk profile and operations.
Establishing the Skills Gap
The learning and development team’s first step related to skills-based learning was the development and implementation of Audit Services University (ASU). ASU offers role-based curriculum paths designed to develop highly skilled auditors who can assess risks, scope audits, test controls, and challenge management within the context of the assigned line of business.
The second step was to convene a group of audit subject matter experts to form the WFAS Learning Council, with the purpose of keeping the WFAS learning strategy focused on current business priorities and meaningful to business teams. In addition to a robust catalog of ASU learning opportunities, there was also a need to provide audit management an isolated forum to simulate challenging work scenarios, against the unique backdrop of Wells Fargo technical audit processes and activities.
Addressing the Gap
Wells Fargo audit managers function in very technical environments, on tight deadlines with multiple work streams and demanding leadership responsibilities. While these individuals are phenomenal team members, their career progression challenges them to take responsibility for managing organizational changes, navigating technology shifts, and working with virtual teams in a highly regulated and continually evolving industry. The audit manager role requires significant application of judgment, interpersonal skills, technical acumen, and leadership.
The Audit Leadership Experience is a blended learning program that immerses audit managers in a simulated audit, where they practice key skills including coaching, critical thinking, business partner interaction, negotiation and conflict management, performance assessment, multitasking, and raising tough issues in virtual and face-to-face environments.
This year, social media forms the backdrop of the emerging risk audit scenarios. The program is a 16-week commitment for 16 high-potential leaders selected through a nomination process. The following provides an overview of the program and timeline.
Week Event Location Description
1: Kickoff Virtual Classroom. During the kickoff, facilitators introduce the concept of the audit simulation, demo a scenario, and preview the upcoming assignments and time commitments.
2: Communication Skills Virtual Classroom. The communication skills refresher class targets key leadership communication skills that participants will need to demonstrate during audit simulations.
3: Conflict Management Virtual Classroom. The conflict management refresher class targets key conflict management skills that participants will need to demonstrate with team members and business partners during audit simulations.
4: Summit Onsite. Participants experience a day-in-the-life of an audit manager executing the Wells Fargo audit process in an emerging risk area. They participate in simulated meetings; coach junior team members; balance business partner disruptions with regulator requests; receive email correspondence that requires immediate, technically accurate responses; run out of time; and decide how to prioritize demands. Participants will feel the pressure of simultaneous priorities, and have to choose which task to address first, while applying audit skills in an emerging risk social-media scenario.
The program is facilitated by a seasoned audit leader and a professional trainer who lead discussions and actively participate in role-play simulations. Participants will be coached and assessed by newly promoted Senior Audit Managers onsite as they participate in the learning activities, including simulation role plays. While the audit managers gain valuable leadership skills, the senior audit managers have an opportunity to improve their coaching skills in a learning environment.
5-6: Post-Summit Coaching Manager’s Office. Post-summit coaching is an opportunity to involve managers in performance management discussions. During these scheduled meetings:
- Participant and manager review the Audit Leadership Experience assessment completed by the onsite senior audit manager.
- Participant and manager discuss the 30-60-90-Day Action Plan created during the summit.
7-16: Peer Check-Ins Virtual Classroom. Peer Check-Ins are opportunities to facilitate knowledge transfer across siloed lines of business. During Peer Check-In, participants:
- identify action items in 30-60-90-Day Action Plans
- discuss challenges and successes with executing plans
- share lessons learned.
The Results
The Audit Leadership Experience success will be evaluated using the Kirkpatrick Model. Informally and through performance management evaluations, WFAS leadership will observe performance of participants in leadership roles, as part of a continued effort to be viewed as strong by all stakeholders with leadership bench strength.
Note: This article is excerpted from June 2013 Infoline " Strategies for Narrowing the Skills Gap." Purchase it in the ASTD store.