Are your processes effective for operational risk management?

beSlick
May 2018

The Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) refers to operational risk as the “risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed processes, people and systems, or from external events”.

Often ‘loss’ is interpreted as a monetary cost, but this perception is wrong. When it comes to risk, the losses involved can take several forms:

  • Unhappy / de-motivated employees
  • Injury resulting in worker compensation claims, legal costs, damages
  • Fines / custodial sentences
  • Costs related to employee turnover
  • Loss of intellectual property (IP)
  • Lost market share / missed opportunities / lost revenue
  • Business disruption

And in turn, each of these effects will have an impact on your organisation. But despite the high stakes for poor operational risk management, 45% of British businesses admit they could be better at managing emerging operational risks (Management Today in association with DuPont).

Identifying operational risks

According to an article published by Risk.net, which is based on feedback from industry practitioners, there are ten key operational risks facing organisations in 2018:

  1. IT disruption
  2. Data compromise
  3. Regulatory risk
  4. Theft and fraud
  5. Outsourcing
  6. Mis-selling
  7. Talent risk
  8. Organisational change
  9. Unauthorised trading
  10. Model risk

It’s clear that operational risk is important and the threats are increasing. But operational risk management is difficult; it’s not enough to just note your risks on a spreadsheet, updating them every once in a while, and checking them off aimlessly to say you’ve complied regardless of whether you’ve actually completed an action. Operational risk management is essential to securing the future of your organisation and should be treated with the care and attention it deserves.

According to research by ORX, along with McKinsey and Co, there are many challenges facing operational risk management, including:

  • Reinventing and clarifying the mandate for operational risk management
  • Generating good quality, useful risk information
  • The potential for advanced analytics to improve capabilities
  • Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of controls
  • Increasing skill levels
  • Improving organisational risk culture

Here we look at how beSlick helps you address each of these challenges…

How beSlick addresses these challenges to aid with operational risk

Reinventing and clarifying the mandate for operational risk management

Risk management couldn’t be simpler with beSlick. It shows you one consistent version of process throughout your organisation. Users can get started quickly, creating, cloning and delegating tasks. And the latest version of all the information you need – descriptions, documents, images, videos and links – is stored within each step of your template, so people have it exactly when they need it.

Generating good quality, useful risk information

Using beSlick you can execute change in your business at the click of a button. Rather than forcing people to record information a certain way, beSlick empowers them by allowing them to suggest improvements and provide feedback when trying to complete a task. It means you can be reassured that everything is being done and you can demonstrate compliance if/when required.

Improving your capabilities, effectiveness and efficiency of controls

beSlick’s reporting capabilities can show you the status of each step in each process so nothing is ever missed. Furthermore, where templates have been updated to incorporate user feedback, you can analyse how well these changes are working. Overall, beSlick reassures you that your business is constantly and consistently improving.

Increasing skill levels

When new staff join your organisation, beSlick ensures they’re up-to-speed quickly, educating them on the way your organisation handles process, or in this case, risk management. By empowering your users, beSlick motivates and engages the team, encouraging them to improve their own skills, and identify areas for improvement within your organisation.

Improving organisational risk culture

By simply recording the way you manage process within your organisation,beSlick gets everyone speaking the same language and working towards a shared goal. Through beSlick, visibility and accountability is increased so there can be no ‘blame’ culture within an organisation. Now your focus is simply on empowering users and continuous improvement for all.

Find this article useful?

beSlick software makes delivering difficult process elegantly simple. Less errors, more visibility.

Try for free, and see how.

14 day trial, no card required.

What happens on a call? In 30 mins we’ll show you exactly how beSlick solves your specific issue – just send your workflow ahead of the call so we can map it in.