Integration and adaption of the risk management framework to your business

Integration and adaption of the risk management framework to your business

Season 2 of “Off the Menu” dives into the risk management guidelines under the ISO 31000 Standard to help you better understand them and how they relate to risk management activities in your business. In Episode 3, Peter and I walk through integrating and adapting the risk management framework. We also discuss:

  • Hanging up the receiver
  • Understanding your business structure and context
  • The role of governance and strategy
  • Is it really organic?
  • Risk management accountability
  • Responsibility versus accountability
  • Being dynamic with your integration approach

Adapted Podcast Transcription

The following information provides the key concepts that both Pete and I spoke about in this podcast. Our conversation was inspired from an article that Peter published called “Integrating and adapting the risk management framework to your organisation”.

Click to Read

Understanding the structure of your business

The first step to adapting and integrating the risk management framework is understanding the structure of your business. Structure can be as simple as identifying your organizational hierarchies right through to the assessing the functions and networks that exist within it. The bigger the business the more complex the hierarchies may be.

The majority of GFSI standards require you to document an organizational chart and include roles and responsibilities for key food safety contacts. This is a great starting point to expand and capture additional reporting lines for your business.

Risk management governance

Governance and strategy are key to helping you integrate and adapt the risk management framework in your business. But what is governance? Governance is the steering head of your organisation. It helps to inform the decisions you do and don’t make; it regulates the relationships within and outside of your organisation, and it also ensures that the purpose and goals of your processes and procedures are being achieved to the best of their ability.

Relating governance to strategy

For good governance to be effective, it needs to work closely with your organisation’s strategy. This is because good governance informs your strategy, and strategy is a tool for good governance objectives to be executed. Examples of strategy can include having safe food for consumers to eat.

Risk management accountability

We mentioned in a previous episode that risk management is everyone’s responsibility within a business. It does not matter if you are the CEO or the cleaner, everyone is responsible. This holistic view of responsibility can help with defining specific accountability when integrating risk management throughout the business.  

An example may be allocating a HACCP Team leader for your business. Although everyone in the business is responsible for ensuring food safety, the HACCP team leader is explicitly dedicated to the role of food safety compliance.

Being dynamic with your integration approach

Risk management integration is a dynamic process in which you try something, you implement it and if it is not quite right, you adjust and make changes. If the risk is not minimised, mitigated, or eliminated – change it. We need to be flexible because systems can change over time. You really need to do what works for your business.

To read the full article on “Integrating and adapting the risk management framework to your organisation” please click here.

About Off the Menu - Season 2

Risk is inherent in almost everything we do. Risk taking can make us uneasy, or for some, being comfortable with taking risks, can be incredibly empowering.  Join Amanda Evans-Lara and Peter Holtmann for Season 2 of Off the Menu as they explore risk management and how it relates to your business.

Off the Menu Podcast

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