From the Blog

Can technology help to manage conduct risk?

With a new year comes new resolutions and a commitment to improvement. Managing conduct risk continues to be a priority for organisations. The worst examples of improper conduct on the part of employees or leaders have seen organisations brought to their knees and serve as cautionary tales for today’s enterprises.

A common question we get asked at YakTrak is “can your risk management software help us manage conduct risk?” The answer is YES.

This is because YakTrak isn’t strictly just a risk management platform, it is also a tactical people development system. It not only manages compliance workflows, but also contributes to the development of a positive workplace culture through coaching, goal setting, performance tracking and regular reporting.

Culture is key

One of the strongest indicators of conduct risk is workplace culture. It can both drive and mitigate conduct risk. Remember that conduct risk is the “the risk of inappropriate, unethical or unlawful behaviour on the part of an organisation’s management or employees” according to Greg Medcraft, former chairman of ASIC. Behaviour can be deliberate or inadvertent, and the cultural norms as well as the systems and processes of a workplace all contribute to the risk of that behaviour.

Culture is key when it comes to mitigating conduct risk

A workplace culture that actively celebrates appropriate behaviour and encourages a sense of responsibility to manage conduct risk sends a message that risky conduct will not be tolerated. Putting a risk management system in place to identify conduct risks, and provide regular executive oversight, alongside support for continuous coaching in performance improvement will contribute to a positive workplace culture that minimises conduct risk. It is also important to make sure appropriate remediation is undertaken when a breach does occur.

YakTrak can do all this. YakTrak’s goal setting and coaching interfaces bring regular tracking of performance coaching to team leaders. The team leader can identify areas of improvement for each team member, set goals, schedule coaching sessions and record outcomes of those sessions in YakTrak. YakTrak quite literally tracks progress towards these goals and performance improvements.

Lack of process is a pathway to conduct risk

Conduct risk can be inadvertent. Lack of clear processes, flimsy induction programs and limited oversight can allow people to make mistakes. YakTrak has easy-to-use compliance workflows that allow different teams across the business to work together when they identify a conduct risk breach. This provides a clear process for remediation as well as tracking each step to deliver an audit trail for regulators.

Image spelling out how conduct impacts strategic plans, goals and compliance
Use compliance workflows to monitor and remediate conduct breaches

An example of a robust process for monitoring conduct and remediating breaches might look something like this:

  1. An organisation’s quality assurance (QA) team regularly reviews customer interactions and records the outcomes of those reviews.
  2. When a potential breach is identified in a customer interaction, the QA team notifies the team leader where the breach occurred.
  3. That leader coaches his team member on ways to mitigate the risk of such a breach occurring again. They document this and set a goal for performance improvement.
  4. At the same time, the customer remediation team follows up with the customer to ensure they are given appropriate customer service.

Watch this simple explanation of how YakTrak manages conduct risk.

This process provides remediation for the customer, coaching for the team member and an audit trail to look back over in future. Customisable reports are available across all touchpoints as well as at executive level for oversight.

If you want to start your year on the right foot and put your organisation’s conduct risk management solutions in place, get in touch with YakTrak today.

 

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