Earlier this month, Anitech, together with SAS IT, hosted a collaborative webinar, which discussed several important issues that business’ are currently facing. It was an engaging, informative session, in which three Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC) experts explained what steps companies should be taking to manage risks and achieve regulatory compliance. Guests gained first-hand knowledge and practical insight into this process, and got to hear about the experiences the hosts had in helping companies achieve their risk management goals. Anita Patturajan, managing director of Anitech, was one of the three hosts of this digital workshop, and she provided attendees with lots of insight into some of the risk management challenges business’ are currently facing, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic, and discussed the risk management processthat business’ can implement both now and in the future to develop effective risk mitigation strategies.

“For firms to survive and thrive in the post-pandemic era, they need to master agility in how they win, serve, and retain customers.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has completely transformed the way companies operate, and as a result introduced a significant number of operational business challenges. To address this, the digital workshop featured the expert insight of three GRC specialists, who spoke about what business’ can be doing to successfully address these issues. Patturajan explained that the pandemic has forced business’ to develop new risk mitigation strategies, stating that “COVID-19 has forced workplaces to adapt at a rapid pace… to effectively manage the work health and safety risks associated with COVID-19, workplaces had to reassess, review and implement new work health and safety policies to address these risks.” She went on to explain that an effective starting point for effective risk mitigation is for business’ to fully understand their new regulatory obligations, saying that they should “identify key components of risk and regulatory change management processes.”

This was elaborated upon, by stating that it would be advantageous for business’ to be utilising the framework of a certified Business Management Standard, to help them develop proven successful risk management strategies, noting that “the first step is always identification of the risks applicable to your business, or in the language of the ISO standards for ISO 45001, context and assessing needs and expectations of interested parties.” To clarify, ISO 45001 is an internationally recognised Business Management Standard that helps companies successfully meet their occupational health and safety requirements and develop effective OH&S strategies across their operations. Through implementation, companies will not only be able to meet all of their compliance obligations, they will also demonstrate a commitment to staff safety and effective risk management of work health and safety threats.

“Digitising and digitalisation of business processes lowers risk and sets foundations for data driven decision making.”

Another key point to come out of the digital workshop is how the digitalisation of operational processes reduces the number of risks business’ face, by making their procedures safer, faster, and more efficient. Anita provided an example of this to illustrate her point, explaining that “digitalisation isn’t about changing how you do business, or creating new types of business’. It’s about efficiency, faster and better now that data is instantly accessible and not trapped in a file cabinet somewhere in a dusty archive.” That is, by undergoing a digital transformation of their processes, companies not only ensure that their daily procedures are more efficient and reduce downtime, they also reduce potential risks, as all information is instantly accessible, and staff do not need to spend time and effort filing through an old, dusty file cabinet to locate important information. This is just one example of how digitalisation improves business processes.

Develop an effective risk management and compliance culture across your workplace

Anita concluded her discussion with an overview of some important steps organisations can and should be taking to achieve these goals. She explained that business’ should:

• Demonstrate a commitment to leadership: She noted that “this is the number one success factor in determining change initiatives success”, stating that companies should “conduct awareness training for your leadership team… you will need to communicate the importance of sponsorship to executives, and… build a network of support.”
• Conduct a readiness assessment: It was explained that to effectively develop risk management strategies, companies need to “assess the changes in risk and legal changes” to their organisation, and that all risks “need to be assessed and mitigated with consideration of the worker, the workplace, and the nature of work.”
• Take advantage of technology solutions: That is, they should “learn how technology and process enable effective regulatory change management.” A hypothetical scenario was used to illustrate the point, where “you have a largely paper based or a hybrid model risk management and compliance management system”, and you are looking to digitise these changes. A straight-forward action plan was discussed for what business’ could do to achieve this goal, whilst continuing to deliver a superior customer service experience.

Contact us for more information on how to achieve these goals

If, after reading this, you would like to know more about how to develop effective strategies across your operations to help it achieve its risk management targets, then please contact Anitech’s risk management specialists today at sales@anitechgroup.com or by phone at 1300 802 163. They will be able to explain the risk management process to you, and what risk mitigation strategies your business should be implementing to ensure it achieves its operational goals. Doesn’t that sound like the complete opposite of a risky endeavour?

Please click here to watch a video recording of Anitech’s March webinar on the benefits ISO 45001 implementation brings to business’.