Weekly Brief

Essential skills for Integrating GRC

By Utilities Tech Outlook | Friday, November 30, 2018

Organizations today can utilize diverse tools to identify and close the gaps between current governance, risk and compliance (GRC) practices and its true potential. GRC is an integrated collection of diverse skills in organizations that facilitates the reliable achievement of goals, resolution of uncertainty or obstacles, and performance with integrity. Focusing on the essence of GRC and its different aspects is imperative to enable organizations to manage risks, comply with applicable regulations, and optimize performance results. To accomplish a successful integration of different aspects of GRC, there are diverse skills or capabilities available such as the following:

1. Governing and Planning skills to develop, evaluate, and execute strategic plans both directly by the management and indirectly by the governing body.

2. Information Technology skills to help track hazards, rules, and audits. IT also addresses its own "GRC domains" like information security, privacy, and more.

3. Risk & Performance skills help set goals, and address and balance the risks or reward opportunities via different management tactics.

4. Compliance & Quality skills identify requirements comprising external mandates, customer mandates or internal policies and execute measures to gratify those requirements.

5. Audit & Assurance skills identify the critical areas to review, to provide objective information about business performance to the management, stakeholders, or the board.

6. Ethics & Culture skills influence and motivate the human capital or workforce to focus on the right things at the right moment with the right approach.

The incorporation of the aforementioned skills is essential on an organizational as well as the personal level for integrating GRC. For instance, a compliance professional shall benefit from developing skills in risk and performance; audit and assurance; and governance and strategy; and more. A governance professional shall gain from developing skills in Governing and Planning, Ethics and Culture, Compliance and Quality, and more.