Risk has a Human Face

[Infohrm]

I sometimes shudder when I hear HR professionals ask ‘why should HR consider*risk management?’* ‘Doesn’t HR have enough to do putting out operational fires and managing their day job?’* Sure, ok, but it is also the role of HR professionals to focus on the key prioritises of the organisation.* HR is clearly missing a key [...]

I sometimes shudder when I hear HR professionals ask ‘why should HR consider*risk management?’* ‘Doesn’t HR have enough to do putting out operational fires and managing their day job?’* Sure, ok, but it is also the role of HR professionals to focus on the key prioritises of the organisation.* HR is clearly missing a key ingredient if it believes risk management is someone else’s job.

During the past month, Inform ran their Insight Series across Australian capital cities on this very issue.* The latest series, entitled ‘The Risk Revolution – Strategies that generate business impact’, highlighted the fact that HR is in a prime position to ensure that organisations can deliver on business strategies.

From the last few years, we can*attest, all organisations, regardless of industry, size, location or marketplace face uncertain futures as constant changes continue to shape the political, economic, social and technology landscapes across the globe.* As responsible practitioners, we should be looking to connect HR into the risk agenda of our organisations.* In an article on Risk Management and the HR Executive, Valerie Frederickson quotes HR and risk manager Donald Norris of Norris & Associates in saying “I can think of no other risk exposure that does not include a human element.* Even natural disasters can be mitigated by proper loss prevention techniques developed and implemented by staff or contractors…The two fields have to work hand in glove.”* Frederickson continues by provided a relevant example of a global organisation’s plans to open a new distribution centre and increase sales and productivity in that region.* The five key risks identified for this organisation each had a human element that emphasised to me, the importance and need for HR professionals to be involved in the identification of risks as well as the definition and analysis of the risk in terms of the human elements and potential HR initiatives to mitigate the risk.

So have you considered the face of risk in your organisation?



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