4 minute read
Governance, Risk Management & Compliance (GRC)
GRC is the foundation of a well-run business, it helps reduce risks, improve efficiency, and ensures compliance with industry regulations.
Many companies struggle with GRC, primarily because they haven’t integrated GRC activities, but manage them independently in silos, either in separate departments, teams, or by single individuals. This results in duplication, overlap and inconsistency that negatively impacts operational costs and time.
Having multiple versions or out of date of GRC information, can lead to Health and Safety at work risks, and fines for non-compliance with regulatory laws.
For example, inconsistent, or out of date operational processes, and work instructions can lead to staff not having and working to the latest, approved version.
Why integrating GRC is important
Integrating GRC gives organisations a structured, joined up set of processes and procedures that enables them to achieve business objectives, address uncertainty, encourage good business practices and the integrity to meet industry regulatory laws.
GRC Disciplines
- Governance – Aligns processes, procedures and actions with business goals
- Risk – Identifies and manages the organisation’s hazards
- Compliance – Ensuring all business activities meet legal and regulatory requirements
Each individual GRC discipline provides valuable information to the other two disciplines, all three disciplines combined has an impact to:
- Technology
- People
- Processes
- Information
Example
An organisation that is subject to GDPR data protection laws – a Compliance activity.
The organisation also has its own internal data protection controls – a Governance activity.
Both the above Compliance and Governance activities, help the organisation mitigate cyber risks – a Risk Management activity.
Your Legal Obligation
Governance
Governance is the set of policies, and rules a company uses to achieve its business goals.
Key people in the organisation including the board of directors and senior management use governance to manage and monitor business activities and ensure critical business information is accurate and timely communicated to everyone in the organisation.
Good Governance includes:
- Ethics and accountability
- Transparent information sharing
- Conflict resolution policies
- Resource management
Risk Management
Businesses face different types of risks, including financial, legal, technology and security risks.
Risk management helps businesses identify and assess the impact of these risks and find ways to mitigate, control, avoid, accept or transferring the risk to a third part and minimise losses to the business.
By law, organisations have to protect employees and others from harm in the workplace.
To do this, employers need to think about what hazards in the workplace might cause harm to people and decide what reasonable steps to take to prevent injury or sickness.
Businesses with five or more employees, should have appropriate risk management processes and procedures in place to meet the legal requirement, and at minimum have:
- A Health & Safety Policy
- Documented instructions and training for employees about the risks in your workplace, and how they are protected
- Access to competent Health & Safety advise
Compliance
Requires businesses to understand and follow the rules, laws and regulations set by industry regulatory bodies. Businesses should have their own internal guidelines, which everyone in the organisation must follow.
Compliance involves implementing procedures to ensure that business activities comply with the respective regulations such as:
- Health and Safety at work regulations if you employ 5 or more people
- Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulator of health and social care in England
- Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are safe to use.
Benefits of GRC
- Reduce operational costs
- Reduce duplication of business and operational activities
- Access to important information is easier and quicker
- Quality and accuracy of information
- Improved communication of information
