Risk Management in HR

8 Risk Management in HR

 

The only sure way to avoid risk in nonprofits would be to lock the doors and put up a closed sign in the window.

Risks are inevitable and organizations have a moral and legal obligation to attend to the safety and well-being of those they serve, those who work for them and others who come into contact with their operations. This is known as “Duty of Care.”

Organizations need to look at all the risks throughout their entire operation and incorporate risk management into all planning and decision-making. However, the specific focus of this section is risk management as it applies to HR activities.

8.1 Applying risk management to HR

HR Activity	Potential Risk	Potential considerations
Compensation and benefits	Financial Abuse	Who has signing authority?
		How many signatures are required?
		Are there checks and balances?
Hiring	Discriminatory practices	Was a complete screening completed on potential applicants?
	Hiring unsuitable or unsafe candidates	Were provincial human rights laws observed?
	“Wrongful” hiring	Is there a set probationary period?
		Were promises made to the candidate that cannot be honored?
		Did the employee sign off on the policies and contract of employment before being hired?
Occupational Health and Safety	Environmental	Do we provide safe working conditions and do we conduct safety checks regularly?
	Personal injury or death	Do we provide adequate training for staff?
		Do we ensure the use of appropriate clothing and safety equipment?
		Do we have adequate policies, procedures, and committee in place?
Employee supervision	Abuse	Do we provide sufficient orientation and training?
	Reputation in the community	Do we provide adequate supervision (especially for activities that occur off-site or after hours)?
	Release of personal information	Do we have a performance management system in place?
		Are personal information protection guidelines followed?
Employee conduct	Abuse	Do we have clearly written position descriptions for all positions?
	Reputation in the community	Do we follow up when the parameters of the job description are not respected?
		Do we provide thorough orientation and training?
		Do we provide an employee handbook?
		Do we have comprehensive policies and procedures?
		Do we provide ongoing training about our policies and procedures?
		Do we retain written records of performance issues?
		Do we ensure that organizational valuables are secure?
		Do we have cash management procedures?
		Do we have adequate harassment policies and procedures?
Exiting employee	Property	Do we retrieve organizational information and equipment that a dismissed employee used (especially from home)?
	Reputation in the community	Do we ensure that all access codes, passwords, etc. are de-activated?
	Compensation	Do we conduct an exit interview?
		Do we record lieu time and vacation balances?

When developing a risk management plan for your HR activities, there are a number of areas to focus on. This general list will get you started but it is very important that all organizations identify and evaluate the risks unique to their own organization. (Anon., 2017)

References

HR Future, 2017. [Online]
Available at: https://www.hrfuture.net/strategy/risk-management/what-is-risk-management-in-hr/