Name: Ranald Brown
Job Title: Director of Assurance
Company: Wheatley Group
Location: Across Scotland
Background to Wheatley Group and my role
Wheatley Group (the Group) is one of the UK’s most dynamic, agile and best-performing large housing, care and property-management groups.
Owning or managing over 93,700 homes, Wheatley delivers award-winning services to over 210,000 people across 19 local authorities in Scotland. Wheatley employs 2,800 people directly and a further 2,000 as joint owners of one of Scotland’s largest repairs and maintenance companies, City Building (Glasgow).
As the Group’s Director of Assurance, I am responsible for internal audit services and all aspects of information governance. In summary, my team and I keep the Group safe. We provide confidence and reassurance that the Group’s thinking, decisions, plans and policy-making are sound and in the best interests – short, medium and long term – of the people we work for, Wheatley Group, our partners and stakeholders.
1. What does a typical day look like for you?
There are no typical days doing my job in an organisation like Wheatley.
As an organisation, we are constantly looking to improve and ensure the services we provide to our customers is sector leading. It is the variety which makes my job so enjoyable and rewarding.
2. What do you enjoy about working for Wheatley having been there for a long time?
Internal audit and information governance work across the whole organisation, which lets me get involved in a number of interesting areas. The Group has grown considerably over the last 11 years, both in terms of geographic presence and the services we now provide.
Nothing ever feels the same and there is never a dull day. Even after 11 years, I never feel bored or unchallenged. The Audit Committee expects me to adapt our approach to audit so we remain relevant and continue to help every part of the Group in delivering our challenging strategic objectives.
Defining the team’s role isn’t easy. When people hear the words ‘audit’ and ‘data protection’ they generally glaze over. They think it’s boring and it’s all about checking. This isn’t the case.
My team is passionate about working with colleagues across the Group to understand how they manage their processes and data. We are there to protect customers – and each other – and see it as a privilege to keep everyone safe.
Having the opportunity to speak with so many different people, delivering so many different services, is the best part of our job. We support other teams to deliver innovative new projects, work directly with customers to answer their Freedom of Information queries and act as a sounding board when colleagues are looking to improve the way they do things.
3. How has Wheatley Group changed over the last two years following the COVID pandemic?
We have all seen considerable change and challenges over the last two years. Rather than focus on the negatives, I like to look at the positives.
Two years ago, we all left our normal places of work to set up (for what we thought would be a short time) working from home. The Group responded positively to the situation.
Due to the nature of our care, repairs, and customer ‘life and limb’ focused services, we had staff who were still working in our communities. This included, for example, delivering 33,000 food parcels, providing a home for 2,500 people who were homeless while 6,700 customers got a one-off essential purchase like a fridge or mobile phone to help during lockdown.
For those of us who could work from home, we were provided with the required equipment to allow us to carry on delivering services.
The Group Chair said at the height of the pandemic said “what should define us is not the pandemic, but how we responded to the extreme challenges it posed”.
Having worked through the pandemic, the Group quickly realised this new way of working gave us an opportunity to accelerate some of our strategic ambitions in terms of maximising technology and working flexibly. As a result, our offices were changed to reflect some staff would be home-based workers.
In terms of my team, this new remote way of working has provided us with real efficiencies and has enabled us to adapt our audit methodology to reflect the new way we are all working. We are finding meetings with people are far easier to organise on Teams and we are using technology to help with the audit process. This has included more use of data analytics and use of video conferencing to check compliance by getting walk throughs of facilities.
4. What impact has this had on your team?
Like everyone, my team have found it challenging. But now that we are used to our new (and improved) way of working, we are continuing to see real benefits to what work we do, how we engage across the business and how the new flexible way of working gains rewards both at work and in our personal lives.
During the pandemic we needed an agile audit approach. We have now adopted this as part of our audit methodology where rolling internal plans are reviewed at each Audit Committee to give us the flexibility to focus in on what matters. We have also introduced shorter audit reports which are easier to write and, more importantly, more useful for our internal clients, and more focused on improving what the Group delivers.
The team is more productive as internal audit meetings are easier to arrange virtually (and reduces travel time considerably) and getting that “quiet uninterrupted time” to write reports we all craved in the office is now so much easier.
We all miss social contact and now that restrictions are easing, we are getting to collaborate on the audit plan in our new office environment. We are finding we are doing different things in the office and using that time to focus on problem solving. It is nice getting away from “the home office” and getting to see people in real life. And the occasional trip to our favourite coffee shops is an added benefit.
In overall terms, our audit productivity has increased and we are now able to provide a greater level of assurance to the Group. But don’t just take it from me, Rachael Shaw joined our team in 2020 as a graduate trainee and here is what she thinks about working in Audit in this new way of working:
“As a new graduate joining the Group, I have been in the ideal place to learn about the Group and make connections with colleagues across the business. The post COVID approach to internal audit has let me get involved in such a wide variety of areas quickly. Assurance is uniquely placed to do this.
I have worked on audits such as business continuity planning, fire risk assessments, PPE stock management and risk management. What keeps the job exciting is there is always something new to learn about.
I have also met (whether in person or virtually) Group colleagues from housing, care, Solutions and NETs. In the Assurance Team, we make sure we are mitigating against any risks facing the business and that we address any control weaknesses we identify through our reviews. It is good to know that our work is helping to keep the Group safe.”
5. How do you think internal audit professionals will have to change to be successful in “the new norm”?
We have all had to change how we deliver internal audit services, but I think this has been a massive opportunity for the sector which has let us re-energise what we do and move away from the previous approaches that have become out of date.
We have also thought about how identify risks and plan our work programme. Who had a pandemic on their risk register? This has given us the opportunity to look at new areas of risk and be more agile when planning our audits. We now plan for three months at a time to reflect the changing dynamics within the Group.
6. What opportunities do you think this opens up for new graduates?
The new way of working will enable new graduates to get more involved in different types of work. The virtual environment will enable them to work across wider geographic areas.
I have found the graduates are best placed to challenge the previous ‘normal’ way of delivering audits and offer new, dynamic ways of working.
As the Chief Internal Auditor, this has let the next generation constructively challenge and play a key role in developing news ways of working that, I believe, will make internal audit more relevant and a key part of any business.
7. Do you think people’s personal lives will be impacted significantly with more people at home for work?
Yes – both for the good and the bad.
I enjoy working from home, but you do need to get away from home and any other family members who are also working from home.
Most people are enjoying the flexibility hybrid working is giving us. I am not missing the daily commute and feel this is giving extra time to do productive work, rather than sitting on the motorway.
8. How would your colleagues describe you, and do you think the answer to this is different now that you are all working from home?
I have asked them, and, as usual, I received honest feedback! Their feedback was:
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keener to challenge ‘the norm’ and make changes to the way we are working
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more focused on outputs and maximising the team’s productivity
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keen that people embrace flexible working and improving work life balance
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people have not seen me in a suit and tie for over two years
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sadly, my jokes are still as bad!
9. What career advice would you give your younger self?
The main thing I would say to myself is:
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enjoy whatever career you decide to follow;
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be brave to make career changes and do different roles and work in different types of organisations;
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do not be caught up in salary – there is more to life than money
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work in an organisation and more importantly with people, that have the same principles as yourself;
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and treat everyone (all levels within the organisation) you work with respect.
If you are interested in discussing your career and would like to arrange a confidential conversation please contact [email protected]
