Operational Risk Management: The Human Elements Leaders Can’t Ignore

Identifying and managing the impact of human behaviour on operational risk to ensure greater organisational resilience

 

 Large organisations face major challenges in identifying and managing operational risk. Well established factors that contribute to that operational risk include: emerging technology such as AI;regulatory pressures; market volatility; and cost pressures. However, one of the hardest challenges is managing the operational risks associated with human behaviour.

 

Human elements that drive risk, include: lapses in risk awareness; insufficient training; stress; disengagement; fear of speaking up often linked to low psychological safety;and errors in judgment. Unfortunately, middle managers and supervisors, caught up in bureaucracy, are often too far from the frontline to be able to identify and react to these issues. Where this happens, cultures often become defensive and secretive with “near misses” being hidden rather than used as learning.

 

To manage these human issues, organisations can develop a practical framework to understand and engage with key human behaviours linked directly to operational risks including: culture and mindset (psychological safety, behaviours, role modelling, etc); work design (staffing, shift patterns, fatigue, etc); learning and controls (near-miss capture quality, quality of corrective actions); and technology (model risk (AI), automation, data latency/quality, over-reliance on dashboards, etc.)

 

This is also where organisational leaders can play a vital role. If they are prepared, coached and enabled to deploy themselves to frontline operations, not only will they encourage managers to be more active, but they will collect hands-on knowledge of the reality of operational risks, enabling them to respond more effectively to information they are given when they are away from the frontline.

 

To strengthen resilience, business leaders must therefore invest in their own first-hand knowledge of risk, as well as building specific leadership competencies in understanding and activating risk awareness, ensuring consistent risk training, and fostering open communication and vigilance at all levels on operational risk across the organisation.

 

Embedding a culture of accountability and preparedness is also essential for reducing human-related vulnerabilities. As an additional driver leaders need to be aware of their obligations to take actions aligned with enabling better operational risk management by aligning with with specific elements of the Employment Rights Bill, such as updating whistleblowing pathways, implementing and measuring the effectiveness of protocols designed to ensure that employees speak up where necessary, and ensuring there is an audit trail that shows that ‘all reasonable steps’ were taken in the event of an incident.

 

Join us to network with your peers and gain practical insights into the importance of identifying and mitigating operational risk. You will leave with:

 

• A deeper understanding of the implications for your organisation’s risk management approach of human related operational risk factors;
• Insights from your peers on their journey to address these operational risk factors; 
• Guidance to your obligations and opportunities under new legislation related to human risk elements and finally signposts to practical resources including: a human-factors risk checklist linked to leading indicators;

 

This is an exclusive event and seat numbers are very limited, so apply for your place now.

 

The questions we will explore

 

During the meeting, we will focus on topics such as:

 

• What are the key human element related operational risks organisations need to be aware of? Why are these risks different from other risks such as financial and compliance risks, and how should they be managed?
• How can organisations tell when they are over-reliant on technology for managing risks and are overlooking people-related risks or neglecting behavioural drivers? What does effective human-centred risk management look like?
• What is the role of culture and communication in mitigating operational risk?
• What is the role of leaders in strengthening risk management? Why is it important that they involve themselves in front line processes as a way of identifying operational risks?

Who is invited?

 

This sponsored dinner discussion is designed for senior decision makers with responsibility and accountabilities related to operational risk industries who wish to be better informed and equipped to deal with high potential human elements related risks. Delegates will be employed as COOs, CEOs, and heads of operational risk in large (1000+ employees) organisations across the private and public sector.

 

Be one of 12 senior business decision makers with responsibilities for operational risk, attending this event at The House of Lords in central London. For any enquiries, please contact Mergim Begolli on 020 8349 6458 or email m.begolli@business-reporter.co.uk.

 

The discussion over  dinner is brought to you by DSS+ and is only for senior executives as mentioned above. Registrations of junior professionals, consultants, solution providers or other sellers to this market won’t be accepted. To be eligible, you must be employed by a corporate legal entity such as a private company; if you are a sole trader or in a partnership other than a legally incorporated partnership, we will be unable to offer you a place.

 

This event is free of charge to attend.

 

When you register, we will ask you for your corporate email address, which we will share only with the event sponsor(s). See our privacy policy