To effectively manage your GRC program, your company must marry corporate goals with regulatory compliance throughout the entire organization, relying on an efficient policy management approach to get the job done. Most organizations follow one of these three common GRC program approaches.
Reactionary
This policy management approach focuses on waiting to create (or update) policies until an issue or problem arises and needs to be addressed. When time and resources are in short supply, this becomes the default system, as overworked staff or tight budgets dictate what fire needs to be put out first.
Obviously, this is not a great strategy since it creates uncertainty among employees, lacks a collaborative approach, fosters redundancy, and isn’t forward-thinking. Without having a consistent GRC policy management strategy and framework to guide the process, this can lead to inconsistent and siloed policies. The result? A GRC program riddled with holes.
Autocratic
Another common approach to governance, risk, and compliance relies on a centralized system where only a handful of people make all the decisions, even though they might not clearly understand the differing needs of each division or department.
They seek little to no input from others, particularly managers and employees who work the systems every day. While this can be highly efficient and consistent, it can also lead to non-compliance by employees – especially when they feel they are not being heard or that the decision-makers are out of touch with day-to-day operations.
Plus, it can take a long time to review and update policies since it puts the burden on such a small group of people to do all the work. Again, not an ideal way to handle governance, risk, and compliance.
Comprehensive
This inclusive GRC policy management system follows a guiding strategy to policy decisions that takes appropriate input from all levels of the organization. It’s a collaborative, proactive approach that considers the needs across divisions and departments while still allowing for some level of autonomy.
Moreover, this comprehensive approach maps GRC program efforts to critical legal and compliance standards, thus producing consistent policies.
Because it’s forward-thinking and integrated, this policy management approach improves governance, reduces risk, and boosts compliance.