Managing risk should be a priority for any company, regardless of sizeor industry sector. Most business owners and managers are aware of someof the potential threats to their productivity and revenue, but have not yet put a coherent structure in place for dealing with them.
Risks need to be identified, evaluated and prioritised according toseverity and likelihood of occurrence before a strategy can be plannedout an implemented. The goal is not only to avoid risks that wouldobviously hurt a business, but also to avoid any outcomes that couldprevent an organisation from reaching its full potential.
Opportunity cost
Actions taken to identify and mitigate risks can be weighed up as areturn on investment. Funds and resources expended on avoiding apotential risk must be in proportion to the potential harm. Otherwise,other productive activities may be neglected, which is a problem in itself.
One of the most common ways of evaluating these costs is by looking athow any particular risk could adversely affect the achievement of anobjective. If you have a good idea of the financial benefit of reachinga business goal, then you can put a more concrete figure on what you’rewilling to pay to avoid jeopardising its realisation.
Ensuring you have accurate, relevant data at hand is the foundation ofany effective risk evaluation.
The right people
Often organisations will assess risks from the top down, with a smallgroup (or even an individual) making all of the vital decisions. Thisway of working ignores the fact that employees are often much betterequipped to identify threats in their particular fields. For example, anIT worker is more often qualified than a general manager to understandthreats to IT infrastructure.
This raises the issue of who gets to assess risks, and when. A coherentsystem is needed to delegate risk management based on seniority andexpertise, at the most appropriate point in the business process.
The right process
A good risk management strategy should be transparent and work alongsideexisting business processes seamlessly. By breaking your organisation’sactivities down into stages, risks can be identified, delegated andmitigated more efficiently, with minimal disruption to everyday work.
Automation makes this activity more effective and accurate, with workersassigned to particular tasks and stages by predefined rules andconditions, reducing the potential for misunderstanding or human error.
SwiftCase is a powerful, cloud-based business process platform whichincludes features for more effective risk management.
- Evaluate risks with accurate business data gathered in real time
- Break business processes down into stages that can be more accuratelyassessed for risk
- Integrate risk management into your everyday processes with minimaldisruption to work
- Automatically delegate the right people to evaluate and mitigate risk atany stage
Get in touch with us today, for a free, no-obligation demonstration.
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