Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) is a term that’s common in business. In essence, GRC refers to the strategy organisations use to align their objectives to suit these three primary areas. When there is a proper strategy for Governance, Risk, and Compliance set in place, businesses have the information required to meet their goals.

Nowadays, GRC courses are available that are designed to help people develop the needed skills and have a better understanding of how the three main functions can be integrated. The GRC course will also prepare participants to pass the GRC Professional certification exam successfully.

GRC in a Nutshell

The Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG) is responsible for inventing the term GRC, or Governance, Risk and Compliance framework. This provides a list of critical capabilities that must work together in order to reach principled performance.

Governance

With a clear understanding of what is expected from an organisation, it will be easier to allocate responsibilities and rights. Governance helps organisations stay on track with the objectives by determining protocols for corporate management like strategy and policy management.

Risk Management

Risk management is an important part of every business. It can come in many forms and affect your company’s reputation, health and safety, customer data or other aspects that are essential to the well-being of a business. At its core, risk management consists of a set of processes that can identify, evaluate, and address potential threats to the organisation.

Compliance

Compliance is the practice of structuring activities to abide by all laws and regulations. It minimises risks, while also imposing penalties for non-compliance. It’s necessary that organisations adhere to regulations and laws accordingly in order to succeed as a business.

The Importance of GRC in Business

Too many systems in the workplace is a burden on employers and workers alike. With all of these different processes, it’s hard to know what you can do when there are so many rules that need to be followed.

One way around this issue? A GRC strategy. For those who don’t know, this framework allows enterprises to identify areas where there is unnecessary spending, at which point they eliminate them entirely from their budgeting process altogether.

Risk management and compliance go hand in hand. One cannot do without the other, as these two elements work together to maintain a company’s reputation—being compliant with regulations while also making sure that employees are happy and productive.

The framework is also designed so you can get rid of procedures which don’t serve any purpose or aren’t working logically, decreasing paperwork and bureaucracy.

Monitoring risk and compliance also helps to enhance quality management. The system allows the repeatability of processes, so businesses can standardise operations easily which leads to improved consistency and efficiency.

Greater information quality is another advantage. Implementing governance, risk and compliance processes provides a consistent approach to these three principles. This ensures that companies are able to collect high-quality data quickly which facilitates rapid and confident decision-making.

Business Benefits of GRC

GRC offers a lot of benefits to businesses. When used accordingly, the benefits can accrue. Below are some of the notable ways businesses can benefit from GRC:

• It helps reduce business cost
• It helps minimise duplication of tasks
• It helps improve information and data quality
• It gives businesses the ability to access information efficiently and quickly
• It gives businesses the ability to repeat business practices in a way that is consistent

Danny Watson