The HR department keeps the whole organization ticking. Hiring and retaining employees and keeping incidents to a minimum are complex tasks, and often teams don't react until something goes wrong.

Human resource risk management helps keep things running smoothly by preventing issues. Use these five tips to help you reduce risk and improve the workplace experience.

1. Focus on Training

You can't expect employees to follow the rules of the workplace if they don't know them. Teaching them exactly what to do (and not to do) in specific situations protects your company from both accidental and purposeful policy violations.

To start, conduct an audit of your current training program. Does the training reflect your current employee handbook? Are regulatory requirements discussed in training up to date? How often do you require each type of training?

If needed, update your program and schedule sessions of the new training for all employees. "It’s good practice to remind your employees on a regular basis as to your behavioural expectations," says Stephanie Hosking, HR Manager at Key Business Advisors. Informing or reminding employees of the rules will likely reduce the risk of a lapse.

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2. Encourage Growth

A major aspect of human resource risk management is keeping employees motivated. When employees feel they're in a dead-end position, their productivity may suffer or you might even lose them to another company. In fact, 70 per cent of high-retention-risk employees say they want to leave their jobs because they don't have advancement opportunities.

To help employees grow within your organization, make education a priority. Some ways to do that include:

• Creating a library of, or reimbursing, books related to leadership and topics specific to your company's work
• Allowing employees a yearly budget for professional development courses
• Requiring employees to spend a certain number of hours each week learning
• Adding skill development and training goals to annual performance evaluations
• Scheduling in-house lectures and workshops

3. Establish a Strong Workplace Culture

To reduce the risk of bad behavior, create a workplace culture where ethics and values are built into everyday processes.

First, determine what your organization's core values are. These may already be a part of your employee handbook, or can be chosen by a committee.

Then, look at your code of ethics. Do you have one? Does it fit with the company's code of conduct, core values and mission?

While it's important to teach employees about how to behave ethically in your workplace, managers should be the focus of this human resource risk management exercise. An employee might determine acceptable work behavior based on how their manager acts, so setting the tone at the top is key. Train managers to set an example for their staff by:

• Behaving ethically and in accordance with company values at all times
• Supporting the codes of conduct and ethics in speech as well as action
• Being open and approachable to employees about every topic, including ethics and conduct

Download our core values exercises cheat sheet to help you uncover the values that your company would never compromise on so you can communicate them both internally and externally.

4. Use Case Management Software

HR teams have a lot to juggle, so risk management can sometimes go on the back burner. While it could save you time and money in the long run, you might not be able to spare a minute to look at your workplace's potential problems.

To automate the process, use a case management system with built-in reporting capabilities. Choose the type of data you want to analyze (e.g. department, office location, type of incident, etc.) and let the reports show you the patterns. You can analyze trends in behavior or incidents and spot areas of risk without poring over data for hours.

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