We would like to benchmark the time spent on "other activities" within our Internal Audit department (financial services sector). These activities make up 20% of our time spent each year. They include: team meetings, professional practices/QAIP, data analytics, issue follow-up, regulatory issue validation, strategic initiatives, risk assessment, and continuous monitoring.  Can you please share approximately how much of your department's time is spent on such activities? 

my organization estimates auditors have 75% productive time. The other 25% would include the other items you describe. Our GRC system allows us to create booking codes for all the items you describe as "other". Note that knowledge and education are big priorities and individuals obtain 3 weeks minimum training per year. Because all organizations are different how they manage staff time, suggest you create your own baseline once you have a few years of history. Also, any time the "other" bucket is over 10% of total time, create a new booking code for what is actually being done (e.g., increase in managing co-sourced audits).  Further, this 75% productivity is converted into hours, which are divided into audit plan hours to determine/ justify full time equivalent (FTE) workers.

For auditors we model 20-25%. We also have a dedicated function within our unit that is devoted to professional practice and digitalization. It includes about 6 or 7 FTEs