Step 1: Identify the risks

Identify which regulatory compliance standards apply to your business. Begin by

documenting your key workflows, information systems, and transactions. (This will
require stakeholders for every business unit within the organization.) Are there areas
in your key functions and systems that suggest non-compliance with regulatory
requirements? Note them.

Step 2: Map potential risks to possible outcomes and affected parties

Once you have a sense of your company’s operations and where compliance gaps or
risks may be, map those risks to their potential outcomes and affected parties. Not
only is this critical documentation to have for auditing purposes; it’s also a way to
begin your risk mitigation strategies.

Step 3: Prioritize the most severe risks and determine control measures
Implementing compliance programs, or beefing up the program you have, can be
overwhelming. We recommend prioritizing all the identified risks by the severity of
their outcomes, and addressing the most severe first.

Where are your existing controls failing to address those risks? How can you remedy
that? Also, consider how you might be able to detect a violation of the controls for
these severe risks in the future. This will prevent any non-compliance surprises.

Step 4: Implement controls and validate through testing

Once you’ve determined what must be done to mitigate your compliance risks,
implement those steps – but you’re not done there. A compliance function is only as
good as its ability to prevent risk exposure. Thus, testing to validate your controls is
an important next step before proceeding to another risk.

Step 5: Routinely re-evaluate risks, test controls, and update as needed

Don’t forget that a corporate compliance program should be a permanent, ongoing
part of your business. As your business grows, your risks change; legislation affecting
your business does too. Moreover, unmonitored, unenforced controls tend to be
discontinued after a while.

Therefore, you should routinely monitor your controls, re-test them periodically, and
re-evaluate them entirely as the business grows and laws change.

What Frameworks are Associated with Compliance Risk Assessments?

The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) framework for internal control
is the most widely accepted framework for modeling compliance risk programs.

For senior management and boards of directors, the COSO framework provides:

Guidance to create and apply internal controls for any business, regardless of industry,
at every level of the business.
A principled approach that provides the flexibility for the organization to drive the
design, implementation, and execution of its internal controls.
Requirements that provide the framework for ensuring that internal controls consider
how components and principles function and operate together.
A way to identify and evaluate risks, and develop the appropriate mitigation strategies
that maintain an acceptable level of risk and a focus on fraud prevention.
The ability to expand the application of a control beyond financial reporting to
operational and compliance objectives.
The ability to eliminate inefficiencies and redundancies in controls while maximizing
value in risk reduction.
How is a Compliance Risk Assessment Different from Other Risk Assessments?
Risk assessments exist for a variety of business risks and industries, including
financial services, government contracts, or the healthcare industry.

Compliance risk assessments specifically identify, prioritize, and control risks

associated with the threat of non-compliance in your industry. Potential penalties
could be fines, reputation damage, legal repercussions, or the inability to operate the
business.

Unlike other forms, compliance risk assessments are focused on those legal or
regulatory requirements that an organization is required to comply with. Furthermore,
risk analysis and compliance testing are typically managed by the chief compliance
officer or manager of your compliance department.

Other forms of risk may be managed by the chief financial officer, the chief
information officer, or another C-level executive.

How ZenGRC Can Support Compliance Risk Assessment

Evaluating your risks, implementing the appropriate controls, and gathering
documentation every step of the way can be overwhelming, not to mention time-
consuming if you’re trying to do it all yourself and managing your on-going
requirements on a spreadsheet.

ZenGRC is a governance, risk management, and compliance software that can help to
simplify and streamline your compliance efforts by automating much of these tedious,
manual tasks.

ZenGRC’s easy-to-use risk management templates provide the outline you need to
properly evaluate risk, while our user-friendly dashboard metrics show you where
you’re doing well, and where your gaps are in real-time, so you always know where
you stand.

And ZenGRC can track compliance training and documentation requirements across a
variety of frameworks such as GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and more.

Rid yourself of the headaches of compliance risk management, and find your zen.
Book a free demo of our software today to learn more.

How to Build a Risk Management Plan

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ELEMENTS OF COMPLIANCE PROGRAM
Coverpage
Content
- Writte. Standard, policies & procedures
- Compliance officer and Conpliance Committee that will implement and monitor
compliance program
- Process to receive complaints overn non- compkiance with compliance program and
procedures to protect anonymity/ ID of complainants
- How to respond to allegations of wrong conducts and enforcement of disciplinary
actions against staff who violated policies and regulations requirements
- Periodic audit or other methods to monitor compliance and assist with reduction of
problems.
- Document process for investigating & resolviing any identified problems