What is a Risk Management Plan?

Every organization faces certain types of risks in business. Any factor that threatens an organization’s ability to achieve its goal is considered a business risk. The major categories of risks to consider are: strategic risks, compliance risks, financial risks, and operational risks. Another important way to categorize risk is based on the source of the risk and see whether they are internal or external risks.

If your risks are not managed proactively, they can severely affect the success of your business. You can respond to risks based on the priority of the risks.

The strategies to respond to risks can be one of the following:

Accept

Accepting risks involves identifying and analyzing risks and bringing these risks to stakeholders’ attention so that everyone involved is aware of the risks and their consequences. The most common reason for accepting a risk is that the cost of mitigation options might outweigh the benefit.

Avoid

One of the options to do with risk to avoid it.  If the risk poses unwanted consequences, the organization chooses to avoid the risk. Not letting workers work in a construction site in bad weather is one example of avoiding the risk. 

Transfer

Another strategy to deal with risks is to transfer the risk or a part of the risk to a third-party. A conventional means to transfer risk is to outsource some services to a third-party. Outsourcing the non-core functions such as payroll, recruitment services to an expert agency is a typical example. 

Mitigate

Organizations can mitigate unavoidable risks. Businesses use this tactic most often in risk management. Risk mitigation involves implementing controls to reduce the risk exposure or the chances of the risk occurring. It will help reduce its adverse impact on the organization.

How do you overcome these risks and lead your company to success? Consider implementing a risk management plan!

What is a risk management plan?

A risk management plan is a well-crafted document that details how to deal with risks facing organizations and actions that should be taken to tackle these risks.

Coming up with a risk management plan consists of the following steps:

Identify risks

The first step is identifying the potential risks and adding them to a risk register. All the risks-small or big must be noted distinctively. You need to involve all of your stakeholders in the risk identification process so that if any of them have faced any risks in similar projects, they can help identify them.

Analyze the risks

At this stage, you need to analyze the risks in terms of their likelihood and severity. What is the frequency of these risks occurring, and what could be the impact of these risks on the business. You can use a risk assessment matrix to score it visually. 

Prioritize the risks

This becomes easy if you have a well-defined risk appetite statement. You can begin to answer questions such as:

• Which risks can the organization do without?
• Which assets demand the greatest amount of security?
• For how long can the organization delay taking on this risk?
• Do the risks align with the organization’s business strategy?
• What is the organization’s net level of operational risk?

Treat your risks

Once you identified and assessed your risks, you can treat the risks by utilizing your resources optimally. Start implementing controls  to treat high priority risks so that they are no longer be a threat to your organization.

A good risk management plan offers several benefits. It helps companies identify potential risks and make plans to avoid them or treat them as they pop up. It helps in improving operational efficiency and boosts the confidence of the organization.

While risks are an inherent part of every business, having a well written risk management plan helps minimize the impact of certain risks, while acknowledging and accepting others. VComply provides an effective way for businesses to track and mitigate risks. VComply helps manage and automate the risk management processes such as risk assessment and risk treatment. The best risk mitigation strategies involve maintaining a risk register, regular reporting, teamwork, and planning.