University of St Andrews

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Risk Management

Risk management is a systematic way of identifying risks, assessing and evaluating risks, prioritising and implementing proportionate risk improvements, then monitoring the effectiveness of those improvements. Clearly, risk management is not 'new', but the systematic nature of the process is a step forward as is the realisation that system failure, particularly certain forms of human error, can often be anticipated and 'engineered out' of even day to day tasks and tools.

The advantages of risk management are manifold: better service; reduction in time spent dealing with avoidable problems; smoother integration of change initiatives; greater focus on priorities; more robust strategy and planning; fewer sudden shocks; better use of resource; innovation and involvement of staff in task design; explicit responsibility and timeframes for action planning.

One of the administrative tools which we use for recording, evaluating and tracking risk data is the online corporate risk register. The following demo provides an overview of this system.