A solid enterprise risk management (ERM) practice can provide value across an organisation and instead of hampering performance, can help to improve it.

Adding value with an enterprise risk management (ERM) strategy

More organisations are adopting an enterprise-wide approach to risk management, helping them to identify, assess, prioritise, prepare and monitor for potential dangers. For businesses operating in highly regulated sectors, risks such as changing regulations and employee ‘work-arounds’ can be assessed from a strategic lens. Potential impacts across teams analysed and proactively managed.

Prevention is better than a cure

An ERM strategy adds value by helping to ensure the warning signs for risks and dangers don’t fall through the cracks. Businesses with a ERM strategy can proactively minimise or prevent dangers – rather than waiting for them to occur and scrambling to deal with them.

Will key results suffer?

A thorough ERM process doesn’t mean that objectives and key results will suffer. Incorporating ERM can mean that instead you’ll have early warning systems in place so dangers don’t escalate and become large scale issues.

Delivering performance safely

Delivering results in a regulated environment requires a commitment to safe performance.

Goal setting, performance indicators and performance improvement can lead to improved risk outcomes. An organisational commitment to ongoing improvement and development is key to achieving behavioural outcomes. Increasing visibility over staff performance, coaching and oversight of leadership activities will help to track the behaviours you want to see and monitor for potential issues. This approach should then be strengthened with systems that support and track remediation for risk behaviours as there will inevitably be occasions when things do go wrong.

So, how can you improve performance with this approach?

1. Tie strategy to behaviour
Yes, you can still drive a high-performance culture to improve business outcomes. But it’s not just about goal setting. Turn your strategy into actionable behaviours that you want to see from frontline teams and tactical managers. Then, commit to ongoing development to support your people and build the culture that focuses on strategic outcomes.

2. Make sure you’ve got visibility
Improved observation of conversations that team members have with customers is crucial. Having insight into your teams’ interactions with customers means you can see any over-steps or missteps. Team managers can intervene and follow up directly with a team member for isolated incidents and if there’s a larger pattern of behaviour requiring remediation and intervention, you can address it.

3. Identify and assess risks
Make sure you know where the risks are. Monitoring the landscape for ongoing regulatory changes means you’ll know what you need to change and what response risks require. This is where an ERM approach can deliver.

4. Fix things when breaches are reported
Coaching and training that focuses on remediation will help prevent future problems. An established workflow that identifies when breaches have occurred and then ensures remediation is instigated and tracked is essential.

5. Be ready to provide evidence
Make sure you’re able to pull data logs out of your system easily to provide to regulators when required. Reports that capture volume, category, trend information, and capture the activities that were taken to reduce risks such as training, customer remediation and coaching are what the regulators want to see.

Read about YakTrak’s ERM solution.

How YakTrak can help

YakTrak supports ERM programs by:

• Helping organisations to drive performance by supporting a culture of coaching, remediation and on the job development.
• Tracking remediation of conduct risk and compliance breaches.
• Giving leaders and compliance teams high visibility over coaching conversations.
• Providing touch of a button data logs and audit trails for regulators.
• Acting as an early warning system for conduct and performance risk.

We work with medium-to-large companies to report on conduct and performance daily, in real time, all the way to senior management and the board of directors.

Contact us today to find out how we can support your enterprise risk management.