A joined-up approach to governance is essential for housing providers to achieve better operational performance and regulatory compliance.
Most housing providers understand the importance of good governance and how it is necessary for them to operate. Every organisation is gathering increasing amounts of information about their goals, risks, actions and performance but they need a more joined-up approach to get the most from that data.
Most housing providers have the key ingredients of good governance but they need to connect it all in a more holistic way or risk being caught out by emerging threats, miss vital opportunities or fall short in their regulatory compliance.
The right focus
At the centre of any governance framework should be your objectives, and everything should link back to them. For example, if you’re spending time and energy managing risks that don’t affect your objectives then you’re focusing on the wrong things and you might be missing other threats and opportunities. Your objectives must also be well-defined and communicated clearly so that everyone understands them.
A layered set of objectives is essential but very difficult to manage using traditional centralised and disconnected tools. You must be able to track the thread through your data and this requires a different approach, using a more connected, modern and integrated set of tools.
Accountability culture
By mapping connections and relationships across separate governance areas, performance can be improved, threats and opportunities controlled, and a culture of accountability and assurance embedded across the whole organisation. This is key to ensuring that governance and risk management support your operational resilience and that housing providers can continue to serve their tenants.
As in any regulated sector such as housing, there are well-defined external compliance requirements that must be met. These activities need to be scheduled, actioned, tracked and linked back to your risks and objectives to demonstrate assurance and compliance. Many quality and compliance models are moving to a risk-based approach, aiming to ensure that specific quality objectives link to risks and those risks link to appropriate managed responses.
While building a connected governance framework is not, in itself, complex or difficult to do, it does demand a move away from the isolated applications, spreadsheets, documents, folders and email chains that many housing providers still base their governance processes on. Moving to a more joined-up governance framework requires a modern, integrated governance tool.
Visual dashboards
A well-designed, visual dashboard gives your board and senior management team a clear view of your risks, objectives and results from the highest level down to specific departments and teams. A good dashboard will let you see an overview of the current status, spot any warning signs or problems, and drill down into the details when needed, enabling the board to actively use the framework to underpin their decisions.
Engagement and collaboration is a crucial element to making this holistic approach work. Mapping a clear path between objectives, risks and actions fosters a greater sense of ownership between the board and the senior management team, especially those in the risk management function.
David Braziel is a director of Decision Time.
