3
Drivers
People, process, and technology trigger most events.
Operational riskfundamentals
Keep day-to-day work resilient.
Understand what operational risk is, how to spot process failures, and how to keep people, systems, and vendors aligned.
What is operational risk?
Operational risk is the chance that people, processes, technology, or external events disrupt delivery, causing losses or service failures.
24/7
Monitoring
Incidents can occur at any moment, so logging must be constant.
90%
Internal
Most issues start inside the organisation, making culture critical.
WHY IT MATTERS
Why operational risk deserves focus
Protects customers. Stable operations maintain trust and service levels.
Reduces cost. Preventing process failures avoids rework, penalties, and downtime.
Enables innovation. A resilient foundation frees teams to experiment without breaking core services.
CONTROLS
How to control operational risk
- Map processes Document critical workflows, owners, and dependencies.
- Strengthen controls Use preventive controls (segregation, approvals) plus detective monitoring (alerts, reconciliations).
- Plan continuity Maintain runbooks and tabletop exercises for outages or supplier failures.
CADENCE
How to monitor operational incidents
- Collect incidents Provide simple reporting channels for employees and partners.
- Classify and rate Tag severity, root cause, and customer impact to prioritise fixes.
- Trend analysis Review volume, themes, and control effectiveness monthly.
- Test resilience Run continuity tests and supplier reviews annually or after major changes.
Operational risk quick wins
Launch a log
Centralise incident reporting in one tooling channel.
Review top processes
Assess manual steps, single points of failure, and automation gaps.
Close feedback loops
Share lessons learned via town halls or newsletters so culture improves.
OPERATIONAL RISK GLOSSARY SNAPSHOT
Operational risk glossary snapshot
Operational incident. An event where processes, people, or technology failed to deliver as planned.
Control break. When a control fails to prevent or detect an issue.
Operational resilience. The ability to continue delivering critical services during disruptions.
FAQS
Operational risk FAQs
What causes operational risk?
Human error, poor process design, system outages, supplier failures, or external events like weather or cyber incidents.
How do we classify incidents?
Use severity (high/medium/low), root cause, customer impact, and financial impact to drive action.
Who manages operational risk?
Business units own controls, while risk teams coordinate logging, reporting, and governance.
How often should we run continuity tests?
At least annually, plus whenever major systems or suppliers change.
Drova RunSafe captures incidents, controls, and remediation tasks in one workspace.
Ready to keep operational risk under control?
GRC 101 HUB
Explore related topics
Risk management basics
See operational risk within the full framework.
Compliance risk overview
Connect operational errors to regulatory exposure.
Risk controls toolkit
Design better control activities.
Risk register template
Document operational risks and owners.
Risk appetite overview
Set tolerance for operational disruptions.
Integrated risk guide
Share operational insights across teams.
