Mitigating Compliance Risk: A Guide to Delegating Responsibilities

Compliance leaders such as Chief Information Security Officers are faced with an ever-increasing responsibility to mitigate their companies’ risks. However, it is not fair that they and their teams are solely responsible for risk mitigation. compliance All members of the organization must have – at least in part – a relevant duty.

This does not mean passing the proverbial buck. If you are the head of risk and compliance, you are the one who will answer for any issues that arise. However, you cannot be expected to do it all. It is a recipe for health disasters. After all, 90% of CISOs say they regularly deal with at least a medium-stress, online services company Nominate reported.

To reduce your chance of professional burnout, start delegating to others, both inside and outside of your vertical. Feeling uneasy at the prospect? There are several steps you can take to delegate responsibly and safely. That way, no one can sabotage your company’s compliance efforts, and you’ll have fewer tasks to complete.

Related: 7 Rules for Effective Delegation for Entrepreneurs

1. First map out your delegation strategy

Instead of just delegating piecemeal duties, create a delegation chart. Include what you want to delegate, who it will be delegated to, and how it will be monitored.

for example, Security training Essential but can be time consuming if your organization deals with sensitive information. A designated security personnel may be assigned this responsibility Helps reduce burden. Ensure that employees are adequately trained and their performance is regularly monitored to maintain compliance with safety protocols. By delegating this responsibility, you delegate ownership and authority within certain parameters while retaining overall control.

Once you’ve created your chart for specific tasks, you can feel more comfortable delegating responsibilities. Just make sure to make the chart transparent to everyone on it so people know where ownership lies.

2. Put a premium on implementing security functions (or tools that perform them for you).

He may feel uncomfortable transferring tasks, especially those related to compliance and security. By employing Security transactions In standard operational processes, such as onboarding and offboarding new employees and tech stack applications, you can protect against tasks that might otherwise fall through the cracks and enable your employee base to contribute to a broader risk management strategy.

As noted by CPO Magazine, 88% are security issues related to human error. Adding a secondary “just in case” checkup to critical functions helps identify existing errors quickly. Your strategy should include risk management tools to scan for anomalies and areas of risk and alert you. Detecting anomalies gives you quick alerts and opportunities to respond quickly.

It can of course be beneficial to test all of your delegation workflows if you are audited. Noted by Kevin Brown, Information Security Officer Risk management platform Ostendio:

“Security is more than complying with a framework. Organizations must focus their efforts on data security and risk management planning first, and with the right discipline, they can develop the policies and procedures necessary to pass complex security audits.”

You might consider implementing a tool that allows you to cross-walk across multiple security frameworks and track the impact of operational activity on security as one of those defensive processes.

3. Create tracking mechanisms for all assigned assignments

If you don’t already use a project management software tool, consider adding one for all security-related assignments. You want to have a track record that is visible to each task’s stakeholders. This minimizes risks and threats related to potential errors or missed steps.

Related: 5 Project Management Systems to Streamline Your Business Processes

Ideally, a project management module or tool should make it easy to get a snapshot of what’s happening across your security landscape. At any moment, you should be able to log in and see if security, compliance and risk management functions are up-to-date.

In case of problems, you’ll be glad you have a way to find gaps and loopholes. It is always better if you find the areas of concern before the headache occurs. Tracking all communications, actions and owners in a single source of truth makes you more efficient.

4. Conduct a risk assessment before outsourcing to third parties

Many third-party organizations use their capabilities to keep your company compliant with security frameworks. And outsourcing some aspects of your risk management can be a smart way to delegate. Trouble? You cannot control what third parties do.

Your best bet is to conduct a thorough investigation to ensure they are able to deliver on their promises. After choosing a third-party vendor you think will meet your needs, perform a third-party risk assessment to ensure they protect your organization from potential breaches.

Since risk is everyone’s job in your organization, make sure other departments are just as vigilant. You need to know how they evaluate third-party providers. The last thing you want is someone contracting your company’s data through the wrong third party.

5. Explain the reason behind the regulation while making the assignment.

To cover all your bases when assigning outside your department, take a teaching approach. Instead of telling others what to do, explain why they are doing it. As you know, regulations and laws can be very confusing even for knowledgeable people. Spending time in “teacher mode” emphasizes the importance of the work you’re assigning.

Being informative also serves an additional purpose. Other employees (and not just your direct reports) will better understand compliance and risk management. It’s much easier to get everyone on board with security practices and procedures if they know why they’re important.

Remember: Avoiding risk whenever possible is something everyone can do. Yes, it’s your job description to drive compliance and security. But you cannot make decisions for all your peers. Sharing key information allows anyone to make informed choices based on facts.

You may feel that you are unable to fulfill many of your responsibilities. But if you don’t, you’ll limit your ability to perform higher-level tasks. So go ahead and delegate tasks. Just make sure you set up structured governance to keep everything safely on track.