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Blog > Why Does Any Organization Need An Effective GRC Program?

Why Does Any Organization Need An Effective GRC Program?

Devi Narayanan
October 20, 2022
4 minutes

Business involves managing all internal and external factors that may hinder success. Chief compliance must dodge obstacles constantly in their business to complete every task. Prioritizing tasks can be challenging at times.

 

Along with process completion, new assets, user, employee, and process integration are unavoidable risks following each change.

This is where GRC software comes into play for risk assessment and eliminating them.

Today, a larger number of organizations are turning to adopt GRC risk compliance tools in organizations.

GRC governance programs help manage all tasks more efficiently and spend more time on important business.

GRC tools can do more than just these. Read on to learn why organizations are adopting GRC programs.

What is a GRC system?

Combining Governance, Risk, and Compliance strategies into a single GRC system can streamline and simplify busy enterprises’ processes. A GRC management tool should contain the following functions and operations:

●      Governance

●      Performance management and strategy

●     Managing risks

●      Managing compliance

●      Policies and procedures within the organization

●      Driven content for the enterprise

●      Cybersecurity & corporate security

●      Protection of personal data

●      Operational and legal aspects

●      Information Technology

The current landscape of GRC

The Governance Institute of Australia 2020 Risk Management Survey reveals that its 393 respondents considered regulatory and legislative changes to be the top five risks for the next five years. Organizations’ top risks include disruption/failure to innovate, brand damage, and cybercrime. A significant risk for the next three years is damage to the brand and reputation, followed by regulatory/legislative changes and cybercrime.

Regulatory and legislative changes and staff conduct were reported to be the most efficiently managed risk issues. As a result, talent management, disruption/inadequate innovation, environmental risks, and economic shock pose the most significant risk.

The survey ultimately showed a substantial value for governance and risk professionals. Efforts are being made to focus on risk management and the tools and strategies used.

What is the GRC Capability Model?

To implement GRC and achieve principled performance, companies should follow the GRC Capability Model. Ensures that all understand policies, communications, and training. To integrate GRC operations across organizations, they must use a structured and cohesive approach.

Learn

Understanding a company’s context, values, and culture can define objectives and strategies to achieve them effectively.

Align

Plan actions, determine objectives, and align strategy. A decision can be made by considering opportunities, threats, values, and requirements.

Perform

As an organization, GRC encourages compliance officers and managers to take actions that lead to positive results, skip those detrimental to their goals, and keep an eye on their operations to detect sudden changes.

Review

Strategy and action plans should be reviewed regularly to ensure alignment with business objectives. It could be necessary to change the approach in response to a change in regulatory requirements.

Key Roles in GRC

Development and management of GRC programs in an organization require the involvement of several roles.

Risk managers

Controlling risks, identifying them, and minimizing their impacts should be part of the policy-making process.

Compliance officers

Organizations should develop a compliance framework that specifies legal and regulatory responsibilities they must meet and creates processes for ensuring they are met to safeguard their integrity.

Auditors

Maintain documents that describe the scope, resources, and schedule for audits for stakeholders at all levels of the organization so they can be assured of the continuous quality of the audits.

Why do organizations turn their way to effective GRC software?

Taking steps toward implementing an effective GRC program within the organization is vital in mitigating any risk that comes its way. Here is how an effective GRC program is highly beneficial to every organization.

Improved Visibility

An effective GRC tool can provide increased visibility over businesses, allowing them to zoom in to pinpoint specific employees and departments, and identify gaps between current and expected performance. Through this, they can increase collaboration within the GRC platform by involving everyone involved in the business.

As a result of these changes, the GRC tool can help organizations manage their projects more effectively by setting up the duration from start to finish, assigning people to accountable, responsible, consulted, and informed teams, and analyzing the performance of each team member. Insights from GRC software can be used to allocate resources for projects.

To get started with the GRC software, auditors and risk manager can subscribe to VComply to manage the risks that come their way.

Easier implementations

Every business must manage governance, risk, and compliance. To make the organization’s expectations a reality, they must qualify these key areas whenever minor changes are introduced to the business. Business changes take place with time, and businesses must adapt to changing market conditions to stay competitive.

To integrate new plans with current ones, the organization will need a GRC tool. A GRC tool allows them to integrate any plan and enact it quickly to determine how well new changes are working.

The plan and implementation can be tracked individually to track the effectiveness of new initiatives about the organization’s objectives. It is worth purchasing any GRC tool and assisted tutorials to help compliance officers make their business more productive and lively.

Tracking, monitoring, and reporting live

GRC platforms offer several capabilities necessary to balance businesses in this digital era.

Monitoring an organization’s KPIs using GRC tools effectively identifies risks in business resulting from non-compliance, non-conformity, and new plans. Live monitoring and reporting ensure that no issues are left to fester without being addressed before severe harm is done. They can better understand processes with real-time tracking and identify which areas need improvement.

A recent study found that fewer than three-quarters of the organizations (69%) were utilizing technology to support compliance initiatives as part of their compliance management program. According to another survey report, more than 72% of organizations use an integrated GRC tool.

In comparison, 89% report that the results have met or exceeded their expectations regarding the benefits they have experienced from GRC.

Based on the data from these surveys, investing in a GRC tool can be a wise decision for the organization to perform well. By being armed with better information and controlling the various aspects of their business.

The impact of the unexpected

Unidentified risks, threats, or opportunities can cause serious and disruptive damage to some businesses. GRC programs can be agile and comprehensive to help meet these challenges.

Automation around the clock

With GRC management tools, organizations comply with regulations and reduce the need to input data manually. These tools can help them flag compliance gaps and automate actions concerning flexible workflows.

Integration & Onboarding that is smooth

Companies looking to adopt enterprise GRC tools fear a difficult adoption process and complicated implementation. They should not only receive a step-by-step onboarding process with any modern GRC management tool worth investing in, but they should also receive the resources required to get started.

Their onboarding journey should be as smooth as possible, with webinars, detailed tutorials, certified support, and training designed to make their experience seamless.

A modern GRC management tool is also designed to divide silos and provide users with a unified interface that allows them to manage their compliance data across teams regardless of where they are located.

What are the best practices for implementing GRC strategies within organizations?

Implementing GRC requires integrating different parts of the business. An effective GRC must be continuously evaluated and improved. Here are some tips to make GRC implementation easier.

Establish clear objectives

GRC starts with deciding what organizations want to accomplish. It is advisable to address the possibility of non-compliance with laws governing data privacy in the organization.

Analyze existing procedures

Review the governance, risk, compliance processes, and technologies used in the organization. GRC frameworks and tools can then be chosen and planned accordingly.

Let’s start from the top

Senior executives lead the GRC program. We must implement policies with GRC in mind to enhance decision-making and create a culture of risk awareness. Top leaders should set a clear GRC-driven policy and encourage it within the organization.

Use GRC solutions

Enterprise GRC programs can be managed and monitored using GRC solutions. A GRC solution gives organizations an overview of their processes, resources, and records. The tools can monitor and meet regulatory requirements for compliance.

Test the GRC framework

Assess whether the chosen GRC framework aligns with the goals of the organization after testing it on one business unit or process. Before implementing the GRC system, conduct small-scale testing to make valuable changes.

Set clear roles and responsibilities

Governance, risk, and compliance are collective efforts. The corporate executive is responsible for setting key policies, but the legal, finance and IT departments also ensure the success of GRC. Each employee should clearly define his or her role and responsibility, and employees can report and address GRC issues promptly.

Business-specific GRC solution provides insight into risk exposure.

Embrace VComply and bid farewell to spreadsheets. With VComply at their disposal, organizations can efficiently manage the risk. With this GRC program, the Chief compliance officer and managers will not only be able to lead the organization from the front. Still, they will also be able to assess risks and eliminate them before they negatively impact the organization.

Discover what makes VComply a top G2 high performer in the GRC platform category. Book your demo now and explore its robust capabilities.