Running a company can be a risky business. However, by knowing what the risks are and doing your best to minimize their impact you can safeguard the longest success of your enterprise. Keep reading to find out more. 

Reputational risk

The first risk that you need to remain aware of is reputation. This includes all threats to your company’s public reputation, both online and in real life. Indeed, a company’s reputation has the power to impact its success because a positive reputation can help encourage customers to buy and inspire confidence among investors. However, a poor reputation will do the opposite, so reputation management is a necessity. 

Reputation management can be done in several ways. The first is to use software that monitors mentions of your business online and notifies you of them, so you can check that they reflect your company in the best light. Secondly, working with a PR firm can help with your specific issues such as damage limitation if your business has been involved in a situation that is less than ideal. 

Finally having very clear guidelines for how to treat people within your business, as well as consistent consequences for those that do not abide by them, can help you head off any trouble at the pass.  

Compliance risk

Another common risk to businesses in 2022 is compliance issues. This is because there are so many laws and standards to which a company must comply or risk fines or other punitive measures. 

One such example is ​​single touch payroll which is an ATO compliance regulation that means employers must send payroll info to the ATO not once a year, but every time they complete a pay run. Of course, this necessitates a great deal of additional work for a business, unless they choose to use software that can collate and send this information for them. Thereby ensuring compliance with a minimum of additional resources. 

Human risk

Businesses run on the hard work of their employees, but if a situation where a worker cannot perform their duties arises it’s known as a human risk. Many human risks can negatively impact your business from theft, fraud, illness, or stress. 

The good news is there are steps your company can take to minimize the likelihood of such things happening. For instance, to limit employee fraud in the workplace, having adequate security systems and protocols can help. Whereas, if you are looking to reduce the risk of stress impacting the quality of your employee’s work you can initiate some healthy living initiatives and emotional support such as workplace counseling to help look after them. 

Security risk

While physical security risks continue to be an issue for most companies, cybersecurity problems are more prevalent than ever. Indeed, certain kinds of cybersecurity attacks can leave your company frozen, and unable to work at all, and in some cases hold you for ransom until you have paid to have vital information decrypted. 

To reduce cyber security risk in the workplace the first thing you must do is to make sure that your employees are well trained. This means educating them on how to avoid phishing attacks, to ensure networks only, and to not bring flash drives into work. 

Secondly, installing effective cybersecurity systems and policies can go a great way to preventing such risks.