Author – Shanthi Rajesh – BFSI Practice Leader

How risk-free is your financial environment?

The latent occurring of risk and its impact is reduced by Risk Management. Risk Management circumscribes the process of identification, analyzing, controlling & reviewing risks to the business. It is imperative for any business to respond to the risks and usually the response takes one of the embodiments such as Acceptance, Avoidance and Mitigation. Organizations that do not have a well-thought out Risk Management Strategy are exposed to financial & reputational losses.

Key pillars of Risk Management:

Assessment: The risks should be proactively assessed by leveraging techniques & controls like threat modeling.

Acceptance: Based on the risk-appetite of an organization informed decisions have to be made with regard to tolerance for risk exposure.

Strategy: A comprehensive strategy should be crafted for prevention & mitigation of risks.

Action: A set of suitable actions have to be performed as per the strategy.

Mitigation: Plans for responding to security breaches have to be established a priori.

The Banking sector and financial institutions are most conducive for various risks and threats. Typically, risks are from Cyber Criminals and vulnerable breaches.

A look at the magnitude of exposure in this sector: On an average, there is an attempted ransomware attack once every 11 seconds! Some of these attacks are resulting in millions of dollars of losses to the banks across the globe, every month.

Magnitude of the risk

Banks carry 91% of the Cyber risks while insurance companies carry 7%. Drilling deeper, among banks, retail banking carries 39% of the total risks and credit cards account for 25%. The associated data breaches could impose huge penalties on the institutions. For example, GDPR perpetrators could charge penalty of up to 4% of the worldwide enterprise revenue.

An Example:

One of the Big Banks in the Asia pacific wanted to reduce the overall cyber risks by having appropriate controls as part of the risk management strategy. Security experts at IGS crafted and implemented a world-class security solution encompassing threat modelling, SCA, SAST, DAST, VAPT, DevSecOps and so on. Also, they automated loan processing system end-to-end with effective security controls. This resulted in reduction of security risks by over 60% along with reduction of loan application processing time by about 75%.

Click here to learn more about IGS security services

Employees are the most significant assets of any growing business. Thus, it’s crucial to invest in upskilling their capabilities in the best way possible.

In my past as a QA manager, I value skill-based certifications as an employee retention and recruitment tool. This has been a vital differentiator in harnessing my in-house teams’ technical and non-technical skills.

While reflecting on my early professional days as a QA lead, certifications have been game-changing, both in technical and non-technical areas. They helped me garner job-specific skills, competency, and confidence. Today as I lead a growing enterprise, I see certifications being pivotal to landing specific clients or projects through collective performance scaling and skill optimization.

Read on to know why more companies turn to skill-based certifications to stay relevant and competent.

Faster Adoption of New Technologies and Improved Problem-Solving Skills

Training and development certifications help employees adopt new technologies, processes, and models sooner. Therefore, I constantly upskill my existing and new workforce in line with the latest agile technologies.

Certification programs offer continued knowledge-sharing and a customized learning path to skilled professionals. By enhancing their current skills and proficiency, employees are equipped with the latest and best problem-solving capabilities at work and outside of it.

Certified training is one workplace paradigm that helps establish the groundwork to flourish in a more demanding working environment.

Boosted Productivity

According to Forbes, combining new technologies with prolific human capital is key to accelerated employee productivity. At IGS, we’ve seen how this essential endeavour can transform business operations, processes, and managerial practices.

Another study by IBM Smarter Workforce revealed that 84 percent of the best-performing employees had undergone certified training in different skill-sets.

Underscoring employee skills with direct knowledge sharing is simplified by skill-based training programs. In my experience as a leader, I believe continuous training should be a part of  any performance-centric company culture for employee productivity and innovative thinking to flourish.

Improved Job Satisfaction and Professional Growth

Professional development and employee training milestones are crucial for employees and employers. Grooming teams to get there is vital. Certification programs have provided a structured way for me to envision my employees’ growth and progress. In addition, with an open-ended approach to platform and cross-domain training, catering to cross-functional requirements is never challenging.

Employee morale and job satisfaction can be boosted with timely knowledge-sharing and skill-based certifications.

Promotes Innovative Thinking and Benchmark Deliverables

Ever wondered what fosters employee creativity and innovation? Consistent training and upskilling of course! New skills contribute to an employee’s operational evolution and enable lateral thinking.

I believe training programs help develop pertinent and complementary skills while closing skill gaps. Additionally, through skill-oriented certifications, emerging talent can undertake diverse projects and maintain benchmark quality.

Enables Business Standardization and Improves Credibility

Conducting frequent certification programs has led my teams to become more competent, flexible, and resilient to disruptions. Especially during the pandemic, we could scale organizational activities and deliver because our teams had a mixed bag of skills to back them. What internal and customer-facing employees could accomplish were:

• Adhere to formal quality standards and industry compliance.
• Leverage the defined industry frameworks for improved employee performance.
• Stay better equipped to demonstrate organizational trust and face value.
• Deliver value through a recognizable commitment to excellence.

Thus, embedding certification programs in employee retention plans is a significant game changer.

In Summary

Certifications empower people to test their knowledge, strengthen their skills and measure their capabilities against benchmarks.

In a nutshell, certifications are professional development anchors or knowledge drivers that.boost employee morale, help employees achieve job satisfaction,and accelerate productivity with quantitative and qualitative benefits.

Companies, on the other hand, can demonstrate value by fostering a certified, competent and change-ready workforce for the digital economy of 2022 and beyond.