6 Ways to Make GRC Work When Budget is Tight

Concerned about the state of the global economy? You’re far from alone. Historically high inflation, snarled supply chains, and a potential recession looming on the horizon (which some experts say now has a 96% chance of happening) have just about everybody worried. Accordingly, organizations of all sizes are taking measures to ensure they’re able to ride out this storm.

In practice, that translates to risk leaders suddenly having fewer resources to manage the same—or, more likely, an even higher—amount of risk. Fortunately, there are plenty of steps you can take and tools available to both stretch available resources and maintain your organization’s security.

These six tips will make sure your GRC program keeps humming through these economically trying times.

1. Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize

No risk leader wants to leave their organization exposed in any way, so the tendency is to invest a little bit in a lot of areas with the hopes that your GRC program will cover all the bases. But when resources are tight, you’re better off focusing most of them on the most critical risk areas. That way, your spending will have the biggest possible impact.

This starts with a holistic understanding of your organization’s risk and its GRC needs. An early-stage startup, for instance, may not actually need a GRC program as robust as that of an enterprise in a highly regulated space like health care or finance.

Once you have the full picture, you can flag high-priority areas, set goals for the year, and design a GRC program that’s tailored to meet them. This will ensure you spend only what you need.

2. Automate to Save

Eliminate manual processes to get more out of your GRC program this year. It might seem less expensive to do everything yourself, but this costs your organization more time and productivity. Doing things by hand also opens you up to more errors, which can cause problems in compliance.

If you’re using a GRC platform, make sure it automates trivial and repetitive tasks for you. The right platform will perform the work of several employees, which gives you immediate cost savings and frees up your teams to focus on more important and strategic work. It can also pull together insights that you might not have spotted otherwise, all while helping you avoid the high cost of regulatory penalties. 

3. Team Up with Other Departments

GRC isn’t just the responsibility of your legal department or IT team. Every department relies on GRC to stay compliant. If you’re trying to secure funding to support your GRC program in an uncertain environment, consider combining multiple departments’ budgets.

Can you create a cross-departmental fund just for GRC? Instead of asking one department to foot the entire bill for GRC, this approach spreads out the cost and ensures each department has enough resources to tackle everyone’s initiatives.

4. Choose an All-In-One Platform

Point GRC solutions may seem less expensive at first glance, but the reality is that the cost adds up quickly. You’re going to need to spend additional resources getting them to work together, and even then, there’s no guarantee that they’ll play nicely. An all-in-one platform like LogicGate is purpose-built to cover every GRC need under one roof right out of the box.

With applications for cyber risk management, environmental impact, controls management, and much more, it’s a simple, reliable way to stay compliant on a tight budget.

5. Start Small

Your organization doesn’t need to implement GRC initiatives for every department all at once. If you want to boost compliance but worry about the budget, start small. 

Remember all that prioritizing we did earlier? Here’s where it comes into play: Roll out your most important GRC initiative first. Make it a resounding success, and you’ll pave the way for more budget to fund the rest of your GRC program down the road. Plus, this will help the organization gain experience with GRC implementation on a smaller scale before you try diving into a grander project. Many GRC platforms allow you to pick one feature and add on more over time, so you can always expand as you get more resources.

6. Train Your Team

Inefficiency is expensive. Fortunately, regular training can help you minimize employee confusion and empower your team to follow GRC policies at every turn. You can make compliance part of your team’s day-to-day workflow with the proper training. Great GRC training can also save money by: 

• Keeping your team small but agile
• Boosting employee confidence and competence
• Reducing how many questions employees need to ask
• Minimizing your risk of regulatory fines 

Training doesn’t have to be an expensive affair, either. Opt for online-first training to avoid the costs of in-person exercises. Video training platforms also make compliance training available on-demand to your team if they ever have questions. 

Stay Safe and Compliant — Despite Uncertainty

Enforcement isn’t going away. If anything, it’s increasing. The costs of noncompliance are high, so your organization is already saving money by investing in GRC. Even so, businesses must stay compliant while keeping a close eye on the budget. Following these six tips can help you make the most of a tumultuous economic environment without compromising compliance. LogicGate can help you automate the GRC process with one intelligent, integrated platform that reduces risk at scale. No matter your budget, request a LogicGate demo to get started.