Northwards Housing has implemented a risk management system from Covalent that provides assurance on overall performance and automated alerts on deviations from expected performance. Rather than having a risk register that was always out of date, creating additional risks itself, Northwards Housing now has real-time risk reporting.
Before its implementation of Covalent Risk, Northwards Housing found risk management too time-consuming and inefficient. Managers were responsible for the delivery of services or managing projects, and this involved managing and mitigating risk, but this was rarely reflected in Northwards Housing’s risk register.
Steve Finegan, head of business effectiveness and communications, Northwards Housing, said, “Managers were too busy with their jobs to worry about whether the risk register accurately reflected existing activities. In effect, the risk strategy and its accompanying register became a document filed away which was updated once or twice a year and rarely saw the light of day, and quickly became out of date as soon as it was updated.”
Northwards Housing is now using Covalent Risk to link key performance data and risk information to create an integrated, up-to-date management system.
Finegan said, “Covalent gave us an integrated system for all our KPIs, improvement plans and risks. By far the biggest appeal was the speed at which we could implement it and we especially liked the idea of it being a web based product with no installation issues or costs to worry about.
“Covalent gives us openness and transparency, and provides a comprehensive overview of risk activity across the business. Our managers are engaging more proactively in risk management due to the dynamic way that Covalent works. And owing to the flexible and customisable nature of the system, we developed the risk matrix to suit our own strategy; the performance indicators have a tolerance consistent with the risk appetite of our board and there is a sophisticated level of admin control and audit trails.”
