The concept of GRC has been around since 2007. GRC stands for governance, risk-management, and compliance. In essence, GRC is a new corporate management system that incorporates the three functions into the processes of every department in an organisation.
Nowadays, there is a GRC course that can help you learn the skills and have a better understanding of how the three crucial functions can be integrated. The GRC course also prepares you to pass the GRC Professional certification exam successfully. Many companies now consider GRC as an essential element of company management.
The GRC acronym was first coined by the Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG) and is defined as “the integrated collection of capabilities that enable an organisation to reliably achieve objectives, address uncertainty, and act with integrity.” Contrary to popular belief, GRC is not a new concept.
Organisations have been governing, managing risks, and striving to meet compliance standards for a long time. The only difference is GRC is providing an integrated and more mature framework to support business goals in a more meaningful way.
How to Demonstrate Your Understanding of GRC
To demonstrate to employers that you understand and can apply the GRC strategy, you can start with the following key steps:
Determine who and what.
An effective GRC strategy is not built overnight. However, you can start building yours by first identifying key stakeholders who are aware and understand the strategy and vision of the organisation. It is important to keep in mind that GRC is aligned with the overall strategy of the business.
Once you have identified all the primary stakeholders, articulate clearly the objectives, roles and responsibilities, success criteria, and critical milestones. Since GRC will look differently across sizes and industries, it is ideal to clearly define what it will look like for the organisation before you dive in.
Get the lay of the hand.
It is crucial that you understand what you are working with. In line with this, gather all the needed data about the organisation’s current landscape alongside the compliance measures that the organisation needs to follow. Even without a robust GRC strategy, it’s safe to assume your organisation has some element of GRC.
It is important to understand the data and controls that are managed and where information is housed. To develop a better understanding of the needs and potential prioritization of the GRC strategy, you need to identify the top risks that are faced by the organisation.
Create a phased approach for your implementation.
It can be tempting to address as many gaps in the operation as possible. However, it is ideal to use a focused approach and phase the implementation to minimise the potential for failure. It would also help to work with key stakeholders to prioritise the weaknesses that should be addressed to identify a starting point.
To make things easier, you can also break this down further by treating each phase as its own project. However, it is important to keep in mind that the overall goal would be to create an integrated approach to GRC.
Expand and evolve the program.
Maintaining a GRC program will require consistent work. As you move forward, you will need to expand it and continue to communicate its importance. Revising and modifying as the business changes is also recommended.
As soon as the organisation begins to see the outcomes and value from the GRC program, continue building upon it and emphasising its value throughout the organisation.
It is also ideal to communicate successes and milestones and keep continuous improvements in mind. A strong GRC won’t stay as it is. It will evolve together with the business. That said, be sure to own and modify the strategy for the long term.
