Successful organisations are focused on achieving their objectives while keeping eye on the complex opportunities and uncertainties that come their way. At the same time, they need to be able to act with integrity. Undeniably, it would be quite challenging to manage everything accordingly.
Running a successful organisation is similar to running a rowing team—all efforts are focused in only one direction, with each team member rowing in unison to ensure the momentum of each pull is maximised. To ensure they can achieve all their objectives, there should be an effective GRC program. GRC meaning Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) management framework.
IT Career with GRC Skills
To say the GRC market is growing exponentially is an understatement. Some experts predict it to grow from a $32 billion industry to a $61 billion industry by 2025. Those who have pursued degrees in IT but are not interested in traditional coding jobs now have a lucrative non-coding career called Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC).
Nowadays, there is a high demand for data privacy skills. This offers countless opportunities for compliance and IT professionals to develop new abilities that are crucial in today’s constantly evolving regulatory environment. Businesses are trying their best to comply with current regulations through GRC, data protection management programmes, and certifications such as data privacy certifications.
International and national authorities create policy guidelines that regulate the operational activities of certain industries such as banking, finance, automobile, insurance, and healthcare. This is done to help mitigate the risks of any unwanted or negative impact on larger interests of society.
For instance, banks that are involved in money laundering, automakers not meeting the environment standards, and insurance players not honoring claim settlement commitments.
Getting organisations and businesses to follow stringent guidelines can help minimise the risk of unwanted consequences from happening. This is also where the help and expertise of a competent GRC professional can come in handy.
End-to-End Service Model
Today, the GRC role requires helping clients to be compliant with the mandatory regulatory guidelines set by the agencies and governments. Many IT companies are also now offering GRC services. These GRC services are rolled into the end-to-end business application and management and modernisation services. Many of these IT companies have clients from different industries including consumer, hi-tech, energy, healthcare, and banking and finance.
Opportunities and Skills
GRC professionals have a thorough understanding of the industry-specific compliance requirements. They also have a flair for legal perspectives as well as ample communication skills to deal with global stakeholders.
They also have a meticulous documentation ability that allows them to effectively manage the end-to-end life cycle of the whole GRC process. For example, medical and pharma industries need to subject their IT systems to strict periodic validation to ensure compliance to guidelines set by the Food and Drug Administration.
Skill that is needed to carry out the validation is referred to as Computer System Validation or CSV. Candidates from science, pharma, medicine, and engineering can seek opportunities as CSV specialists. In the same manner, the insurance and financial sectors across the globe need to also comply with geography-specific guidelines like Data Privacy, Consumer Privacy, Anti-Money Laundering Act, etc.
Consulting and audit firms as well as IT and core industries also offer massive growth prospects for those who want to develop specialised capabilities in these areas. Ultimately, they can also position and establish themselves as independent consultants.
