Being a risk manager can open a lot of other doors for you and provide you with a host of different career advancements. Opportunities for advancement in risk management careers include progressing to senior roles like risk manager, or chief risk officer. You can also specialise in areas such as financial, operational, or cybersecurity risk. As your experience grows, you can lead risk strategies, manage larger teams, or consult for businesses.
What is Risk Management?
Risk management is the process of identifying, assessing and controlling financial, legal, and security risks to a business’s capital and earnings. These risks could stem from a wide variety of sources, including financial uncertainty, legal liabilities, strategic management errors, accidents and natural disasters.
What Are the Responsibilities of a Risk Manager?
The role of a risk manager is to communicate risk policies and processes for a business. They provide hands-on development of risk models to ensure controls are operating effectively and provide research and analytical support. The responsibilities of a risk manager include the following:
- Designing and implementing an overall risk management process.
- Performing a risk assessment.
- Performing a risk evaluation.
- Establishing the level of risk the business is willing to take.
- Preparing risk management and insurance budgets.
- Risk reporting tailored to the relevant audience.
- Explaining the external risk posed by corporate governance to stakeholders.
- Creating business continuity plans to limit risks.
Do I Need a Degree To Become a Risk Manager?
Risk managers are individuals who combine problem-solving, analytical, and communication skills, so a degree in finance or accounting would be ideal. However, this area of work is open to all graduates.
Advanced degrees or industry-specific certifications, such as the Certified Risk Management Professional (CRMP), can further enhance your credentials and open doors to exciting opportunities in risk management roles.
Opportunities for Advancement in Risk Management
There are loads of opportunities for career advancement in risk management. Here are some of the top opportunities you can look out for:
Compliance Officer
A compliance officer evaluates and improves operations for businesses. They interpret and study a business’s bylaws and policies to ensure that they function legally and ethically. Compliance officers develop company policies and bylaws, help track regulatory developments and perform compliance audits.
Their primary duties include designing regulatory tools and writing compliance plans and reports that advise on programme implementation.
Environmental Compliance Specialist
An environmental compliance specialist evaluates the environmental risks of company policies, productions and procedures. Their main duties include conducting inspections, investigating the effects of pollutants, examining and identifying potential violations and writing reports. They make sure that the business operates within legal guidelines.
Risk and Compliance Investigator
They ensure that businesses comply with policies and regulations. They’re in charge of updating current government regulations and reviewing how businesses and organisations respond to these. Their day-to-day responsibilities include conducting research interviews, compiling data, researching precedents and writing official reports.
Regulatory Affairs Manager
A regulatory affairs manager coordinates and manages company production models to ensure they comply with regulations and laws. Their primary duties include writing procedures, submitting applications, and completing reports. Some regulatory affairs managers can also maintain databases related to compliance information.
Chief Risk Officer
A chief risk officer assesses and helps mitigate compliance, regulatory and strategic risks for a business. Their primary duties include determining and evaluating company risk, creating strategic plans to mitigate risk, and generating reports. Chief risk officers also interpret, prioritise and analyse reports and findings from individual team members.
Is It Easy To Find a Job In Risk Management?
If you have a bachelor’s degree in finance, business, or a related field, it can take a few years to secure an entry-level position and begin accumulating the specialised knowledge and skills in risk assessment.
Why Is Risk Management Important?
Risk management is essential as it protects businesses from financial losses, guides resource allocation, and helps businesses weather unexpected events. The risk management team also effectively guards the business’s reputation and ensures compliance with regulations, and sustainability.