Advantages to Conducting Risk Assessments Online

What’s life – or work – without a little risk, right? But in the world of business, thousands of different factors and a competitive landscape mean that your company should always be on the lookout for any factors that could pose a threat to your business. Every organization should periodically perform a risk assessment audit to ensure that all operations continue to run smoothly, that all potential hazards and risks are being monitored and mitigated, and that the organization is as safe as possible for the people it employs. 

In this article, we’ll delve into the importance of a quality assessment to a business, and why performing these crucial assessments online may be your best option.

Understanding Business Risk Assessment

Ultimately, the goal of risk assessment is for higher-ups within an organization to gain actionable knowledge about any risks associated with the company’s products, processes, and operations. Risk assessments, as a form of risk analysis, aim to determine what measures should be enacted in order to eliminate or control identified risks. Let’s take a look at the different stages in the process, and how they benefit your company.

Planning

The first, best step in any intensive process, including risk assessment, is knowing exactly what you and your organization want from the process. Determine what the overall purpose, timeline and scope of the risk assessment should be, and the resources required. It’s also a good idea to find out what employees and stakeholders may be useful and relevant to the process, and get them involved; An assessment is more effective with a strong network of key stakeholders who can identify issues, data, and possible solutions. Also be sure to establish how to maintain communication and transparency with everyone involved throughout the process.

Documentation

A good way to keep that sense of transparency and communication with all involved team members during risk assessment is through thorough documentation. Determine how risks will be evaluated, how data will be collected and reported, and who is in charge of which steps. You should also be ready to understand and report on how you assess risk, and what parameters you will be using to do so (for example, the likelihood or possible consequences of an identified risk). 

Identifying Risks

You’re doing risk assessment, right? Time to assess those risks! Risk identification is the process through which potential risks are recognized and documented. Some brainstorming may be required to figure out the best avenues through which to investigate potential risks within your corporation. You might want to look closely at any areas or subdivisions that might have opportunity for potential risk, like revenue, financial reporting, travel, or reimbursements.

Other ways to identify areas containing risk for the company are through reviewing existing company requirements, by conducting preliminary interviews with stakeholders, or by performing a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis is a tool businesses use to evaluate a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, which could come in handy when performing risk analysis.

Application and Reporting

Even more important than the results of a risk assessment are how those results are understood and analyzed by leadership within your organization. Analyzing the assessment data is vital; it helps leadership to understand the risks, their potential impact, and the required mitigation strategies. This understanding then paves the way for a robust action plan tailored to mitigate each identified risk.

Reporting, on the other hand, communicates the results of the assessment and the mitigation strategies to all relevant stakeholders. It should be clear, concise, and provide insights into the identified risks, potential impact, and the actions to be taken. This process promotes transparency and accountability across the organization. Remember, risk management is a continuous cycle that requires regular monitoring, reporting, and updating of strategies.

Benefits of Digitizing Risk Assessments Online 

Even with the steps outlined, conducting risk assessments can be a daunting task! It’s a lot of work, with a lot of moving parts. On top of that, managing risk assessments and organizing the creation, distribution and results of any risk assessment paperwork leaves a lot of room for errors to arise. Luckily, in today’s business environment, more and more critical processes are moving into the cloud. Conducting risk assessments online sets your organization way ahead of the competition. 

Stay Connected

One of the principal benefits of using digital technology to conduct risk assessment is that utilizing an online platform encourages transparency and teamwork by enabling information sharing. Many digital risk assessment resources offer centralized creation and collaboration, so that everyone involved in the process is editing one central version that can be viewed and updated in real time. 

Stay Organized

A higher degree of automation in the risk assessment process not only ensures greater communication, but greater organization, as well. Conducting risk assessment online eliminates the margin for error that exists when conducting assessments manually, such as information pileups, paperwork bottlenecks, and documents being lost or misplaced. Online tools come with handy features such as automated reminders, annual reviews, and automated report distribution, so you can be sure that information is sent out and received in a timely manner, without having to rely on a single person to take care of it. 

Get Actionable Information

Collecting information can take forever. Studying and analyzing that information effectively takes even longer. However, when risk assessment is done online, all incoming data can be immediately scored and organized by category, then subsequently displayed in easy-to-parse reports and graphs, letting your organization receive a highly accurate, no-transcription-required, real-time understanding of your company’s organizational risk. With information easier to view and organize, and available as quickly as possible, the information revealed by your online risk assessment will be easier to act on, as well.

Look No Further than ComplianceBridge

ComplianceBridge is ready and waiting with an online, automated risk assessment solution tailor-made to suit the needs of your business. Either from scratch or using an existing template, build question sets for risk assessments and then distribute them to your employees. Every step of the process is automated, and every step of the process is also recorded and saved in case your organization needs to prove an audit trail. 

Risk assessments are an important tool for your business. To find out how to take advantage of the many ways ComplianceBridge can make online risk assessment easy and efficient for your business, contact us today for a demo!