Taking a Risk-Based Approach to Your Compliance Program
For organizations of all sizes, compliance programs play a pivotal role in ensuring adherence to regulations and industry standards. There are multiple ways to approach building a compliance program—and adopting a risk-based approach is key to effectively managing compliance efforts.
What is a risk-based approach to compliance?
Taking a risk-based approach to compliance means going beyond simply satisfying compliance requirements—it allows you to handle risks effectively by focusing on your company’s specific threat landscape and unique business objectives. Instead of treating compliance like a check-the-box exercise, a risk-based approach allows you to use your compliance strategy to secure your organization by prioritizing the most relevant risks.
How to Implement a Risk-Based Compliance Program
A risk-based approach to compliance involves identifying and prioritizing risks based on your organization’s needs. A simple overview of implementing the process includes the following steps:
Complete a risk assessment. A risk assessment examines the organization’s assets at risk, considers the associated risk factors, evaluates the likelihood and impact of risks, and calculates the inherent risk. This allows organizations to develop specific strategies to address the risks they face. Through risk assessments, teams gain a more comprehensive insight into the compliance scope of an organization.
Prioritize risks and implement controls to mitigate risks. After completing a risk assessment, your organization should have a strong understanding of the risks you face. The next step is to label each risk based on severity. This allows you to prioritize which risks to mitigate first, and to carefully implement controls to address those risks.
Continuously monitor risks and implemented controls. Ongoing review and analysis of your risks and controls ensures that your organization stays agile and can handle any changes to your environment.
Benefits of a Risk-Based Approach
There are a number of benefits that are associated with using a risk-based approach to compliance. Most importantly, it makes compliance more effective—instead of implementing controls for general risks, your company can focus specifically on the risks posed by your unique environment, which may be different from other organizations. This in turn can save you a significant amount of time and resources, since you can prioritize only what you need to.
When your organization takes a risk-based approach, it allows you to be flexible to any changes to your environment, whether planned or unplanned. It also gives your organization greater transparency by getting your team on the same page of how to identify and treat risks.
In today’s business environment, it’s imperative to use a risk-based approach to compliance instead of treating compliance like a check-the-box exercise. By embracing a dynamic compliance strategy that aligns with your evolving business needs, your organization can feel confident in your security and compliance practices.
Interested in learning more about how to take a risk-based approach to your compliance strategy? Get in touch, and we’ll connect you with an expert that can help.
