Riskology

We are facing lots of uncertainty at the moment. We don't know when there's going to be a vaccine for COVID-19, we don't know when we'll be able to travel freely or what 'normal' will look like after the dust settles. Dealing with this uncertainty is challenging, which is why it's important to focus on what we can control and tools that can help. Taking care of your staff who are at risk of experiencing adverse effects from their work, known as health surveillance, is one such practice.

The Governance Institute of Australia recently released its Risk Management Survey Report 2020, which collected responses from nearly 400 governance and risk professionals and senior executives across Australia, and identified top pressure points now and in the future. In an unprecedented year with the bushfires and the coronavirus pandemic, the report found that, understandably, more attention is being placed on risk. This has inevitably led, however, to the uncovering of gaps and issues in how organisations are managing said risks that need to be improved on moving forward. 

It's not being dramatic to say that COVID-19 has consumed both our personal and professional lives. We've been thrust into a world of disruption without any real sense of how long it will take for things to get back to normal and furthermore, what normal will look like. Even for companies that had their business continuity plans developed, a pandemic like COVID-19 was not something many saw coming let alone prioritised protecting themselves from. 

Organisations often think that managing crisis is just a matter of being prepared for the worst. While your preparations may cover known potential disruptions, in unprecedented times, it becomes clear that 'emergent' risks, or risks that are newly developing and therefore not understood, may not be accounted for in your plan. When these ambiguous 'emergent' risks surface, the organisations that can adapt and respond continually are more likely to win.

If recent events have shown us anything, it is how vulnerable organisations can be without the right planning in place to support their responsiveness, their resilience and the decisions they make during a time of crisis.

Whether it is a natural disaster like the recent bushfires, or the unknown like we've faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, there are things businesses can do to ensure they are best positioned to continue operations into the future.