Only by looking beyond dollars can an auditor determine how efficiency something is run and discover other problem areas that he or she will not come across during a financial review. Quality of Output. Quality means a department is producing all their items with minimum variation. In this area an auditor just has to ask how a department tracks its work from input to output. Only by being able to measure each aspect of the functions performed can an auditor obtain a clear picture of how well the deparment is doing its functions.
Productivity is a department's output compared to what is input.
To analyze productivity, the auditor must look at the resources used to get the desired output. An auditor should not be discouraged if there are no financial numbers involved because some of the most important departments involved in a newspaper can not be valued in dollars. An example is the newsroom. An auditor can review how much time is spent on developing and reporting a story, and with that data get an indication of how productive a reporter is. Quality of Work Life.