Selecting Appropriate Service Providers for Risk Management Consulting Services

Introduction
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Workers across the globe suffer approximately 250 million occupational accidents and 160 million occupational diseases each year. Deaths and injuries continue to take a particularly heavy toll in developing countries where large numbers of workers are concentrated in primary and extraction activities such as agriculture, logging, fishing; mining and Power generation- some of the world's most hazardous industries. It would be possible to save around 600,000 lives annually provided that the available safety practices and appropriate information were used correctly by companies putting the lives of their employees at risk.

Companies that take this challenge seriously are grappling with the integration of operational risk management on a wide scale. These efforts normally result in well meaning entities finding themselves facing a broader scope of tasks that they bargained for. These tasks include behavioural issues, productivity improvement plans, enterprise-wide risk management programs, corporate governance requirements as well as reputation and sustainability management. The first line of defence to cope with these diverse activities is to establish an in house specialist department to coordinate the functions. This department normally runs into problems as no single individual have sufficient skills and knowledge to cope with the assortment of challenges. The natural and in most cases the appropriate response is to secure the services of a service provider that can compliment the knowledge and skills gap. The scope of service requested normally ranges from services and products to augment the existing plans to the building of a comprehensive management framework and system for the purpose. The challenge is to find the service provider that has the correct fit with the company requiring the service otherwise lots of resources and time will be wasted.

Types of Services Available
There are a wide range of risk management consulting companies in the market, each believing that their own product mix is ideal for their particular market segment. This does not make it easier for companies to select the correct service provider for their particular need. In order to provide a better basis for selection the types of services offered is categorized as follows:

• Corporate governance services linked to corporate standards, linked to global standards, suitable for reporting to stakeholders and ensuring that no impacts are passed over.
• Sustainable development and triple bottom line reporting.
• Integration of management systems.
• Third party risk based audits, driven by client requirements.
• Corporate identity based on risk management creditworthiness in the market.
• Corporate frameworks to manage corporate risks, including aspects such as legal registers and international standards.
• Implementation philosophy of operational risk underpinned by relevant corporate, international and health and safety standards, all focused on ultimately enhancing corporate reputation.

The Holistic Approach
The holistic approach is normally the framework ideal for mature companies with diversified products and services. A consultant that has a verifiable track record of providing a full spectrum of consultative implementation services to the management process, focused on aspects of operational risk expertise is probably more suited to deliver appropriate services.
Consultants that merely sells risk services attached to a standardised system should be avoided at all cost.

The focus should be on companies that is rendering a wide range of risk based safety, health, environmental and quality consultation service as well as supporting training courses. The consultant should be able to apply their interventions through the full life cycle of the management system of their clients. There are a number of companies worldwide that are experiencing significant improvements on a wide spectrum of risks in there companies by utilizing the services of this type of risk consultant.

The Profile of the Consultant
The company selected does not have to be one of the leading risk management companies globally, but it must be backed up by an extensive infrastructure. It should provide a holistic range of products and services in the area of enterprise wide risk management. Focus areas may vary but products should include financial -, strategic -, market - as well as operational risk services and support products, amongst others, to its clients to help them manager the appropriate risk in the company. The available tools should be suited to make risk based decisions regarding potential and real risk incidents, to improve the strategic position of the company as well as that of the workers, to increase productivity and profitability, ease the process of identifying and managing risks, and formulate sustainability reporting in order to manage corporate reputation. Whether the client is in need of the particular service at the time of allocating a contract is irrelevant, the fact of the matter is that consultants with this type of ability has a better chance of providing what the client want rather than what they have to sell.

It is important to ensure that the staff members of the consultant have proven backgrounds in all the dimensions of risk management. They should also have the practical know-how, expertise and the understanding of business and industry to assess, advise and assist their clients in appropriately managing the risks within their organizations, and to enhance the risk profile through motivated employees, committed to performance excellence within defined risk boundaries.
The claimed reputation, credibility and successes of the consultant should be confirmed by the quality of practically completed projects. Previous clients should confirm that the consultant is committed to total quality management, leadership aimed at controlling and constantly improving total quality and continuously improving on the quality of delivery.
Conclusion
Selecting an appropriate service provider for risk management consulting services in a company can be one of the most daunting tasks that face the risk manager. To minimize the chances of failure it is important to start with the end in mind and select a consultant that will be able to provide the widest possible range of services. It will probably be impossible to find a single consultant who can deliver the full range of required services. In this case the ability of the selected consultants to work together in a synergetic manner is more important than the width of their individual product and service range.
© Carl Marx