How to Automate Ongoing Risk Assessments, Audits and Monitoring
So your company has finally taken the plunge. Kawasaki ninja h2r bike Your team has begun to work on its risk management, and perhaps has even conducted a risk assessment and built a risk register. This is something to applaud! Risk management is an important, yet commonly overlooked, aspect of running a business.
It involves keeping track of all the potential risks and threats a company may face, both big and small. This management involves everything from reviewing your company’s relationship with unreliable vendors to keeping track of every potential cybersecurity vulnerability.
However, risk management doesn’t stop with the initial risk assessment and creation of a risk register. Though these are very important steps, risk management is an ongoing process that should never fall by the wayside. Regular risk assessments, risk monitoring and auditing should all be part of your business’s risk management processes.
Yet, keeping up with the risk management process can seem like a daunting job. It can be almost impossible for a team to incorporate that extra duty into their daily tasks. Automating the process is a great alternative to help a business stay on top of its risk management, while also not taking workers away from their duties. Here are some ways a business can automate the process.
1. Invest in Third Party Risk Management Software
The best way to automate the process of risk management is to have a software do it for you! Third party risk management software is a great investment for a company of any size to make. It’s a program that conducts risk assessments automatically, and should be integrated into your company’s day-to-day operations.
This software should be used by your entire team. By having eyes on what your company is doing, this software can keep tabs on every transaction, vendor relationship, contractor, and anything else that may contribute to a risk. As was mentioned above and will be discussed in more detail later, not every risk that a risk assessment uncovers needs to be resolved immediately. Sometimes, it’s more cost-effective to recognize that certain risks are simply too low-priority to expend the effort needed to resolve them.
Indeed, being too cautious and trying to resolve every risk could end up creating a lot of unnecessary costs, wasting unnecessary manpower, and could even damage vendor relationships.
As such, risk management software can be extremely valuable to a business. Not only does it automate the process of risk monitoring, but it also helps a business recognize which risks require monitoring, while pointing out which risks require more immediate action.
In addition to this, many third party risk management softwares also come with additional features. Some features commonly included in risk management software include auditing software as well as vendor onboarding programs. This makes it far easier for your business to automate not just risk management and monitoring, but also auditing and additional risk-related processes. By having these additional features in place, your company can automate several aspects of your business, thus saving plenty of time, money and manpower.
2. Keep Your Risk Register Up to Date
A risk register is a comprehensive document that keeps track of every risk that would have been uncovered during initial and follow-up risk assessments. This register should have an entry for every potential risk, no matter how unlikely it is to become reality, as well as a threat level for each risk. Having such detailed information will help your team know which risks need more attention than others, which need to be resolved quickly, and which can be monitored.
Your risk management software should be updating your risk register regularly, after subsequent risk assessments. The risk register should serve as an ongoing directory of all risks of all threat levels, with lower-priority risks being the ones still being monitored. It is up to every business to determine how often a risk assessment should be carried out, as well as who is responsible for overseeing the risk register and the changes made to it.
As mentioned above, higher-priority risks should, instead of being monitored, should instead be resolved as quickly as possible. Once these other risks have been handled, the register should be updated to reflect that. So others who have access to the register will know that more time-sensitive risks do not need to be monitored anymore.
3. Assign a Team
Even with the right programs, one person can’t shoulder the burden of risk management alone! Risk management should be a team effort, with multiple team members across several departments involved in the process. Having more hands on deck not only lessens the workload for all involved; it also helps to ensure that the work is more accurate. Although third party risk management software does a lot of the heavy lifting. There still needs to be eyes on the program to digest and distribute the data provided by it.
It’s also key to have the team in constant communication amongst that team. Chat and communication. platforms Slack are great for keeping a team in touch with each other during the workday. Team members in charge of managing. Ongoing risk management and auditing should be keeping each other updated regularly, as well as sending regular updates to superiors.
This team should also work to keep other team members up to date with various risks. This is especially important when your risk management program notes. That a low-priority risk seems to be becoming more of a threat. That open communication can make all the difference. When it comes to catching a threat before it becomes an even bigger issue.
Overall, the process of automating your business’s risk assessment. Risk monitoring and auditing processes can be done, and be done effectively. There are plenty of programs that your company can invest in to smoothly automate things. And these programs can be easily overseen by a team that your company puts in place. With the right programs and team members assigned to the task. Your business could end up saving plenty of money, time and work that would have otherwise been spent on conducting these processes manually.