Up with GRC People Management

People – perhaps even more so than process or technology – feature prominently among the challenges identified by the finance and GRC executives I interview for the case studies I write in the print magazine.

Talk to finance executives responsible for centralizing and/or strengthening an enterprise risk/compliance program and they’ll almost always start the conversation with people: who they hired, what skills they want on their team, why they brought internal audit back in-house, why they co-source IT auditing expertise, etc.

Unfortunately, there has been relatively little written on the topic of GRC-specific human capital management. (That’s changing, hopefully – for example, OCEG’s Scott Mitchell, who counts organizational training and leadership development among his competencies, is working on some new GRC-training content right now.)

Here are a couple of timely resources that can help GRC executives currently contending with staffing challenges. These are not GRC specific, but they are extremely current and align well with the pressures finance, risk and compliance managers currently face:

• The book “Reward Systems: Does Yours Measures Up?” (Harvard Business Press, 2008) provides common-sense guidance on performance management that will resonate with finance folks: 1) Define performance in actionable terms; 2) Devise comprehensive metrics; and 3) Create reward systems that work. Author Steve Kerr is the former chief learning officer of both GE and Goldman Sachs.

• Mercer responded to the economic crisis with a handy “Leading Through Unprecedented Times” web portal. According to Mercer Chair and CEO M. Michele Burns, “In times of economic distress, it becomes even more critical for organizations to optimize their workforces, use the right engagement and development strategies with employees and make the best human capital investments. An effective, efficient, engaged workforce is your single greatest competitive advantage when trying to meet the enormous challenges posed by today’s economic circumstances.” Right now the content consists of pod casts; listen to Jim Matthewman’s talk on retaining top talent and Bruce Finley’s piece on communications in tough times.