Risk managers feel they lack clout; UK survey finds

Only half of risk managers at FTSE 100 companies consider themselves influential within their organization, a survey by UK-based Whitehead Mann Partnership found.
Whitehead Mann surveyed 50 senior risk management professionals at FTSE 100 companies, including internal auditors, compliance officers, general counsel and health and safety officers.
More than one-in-eight (13%) respondents said they were not at all influential, while one-third said they were only quite influential.
Nearly two-thirds (63%) of respondents said that their company had a risk committee, though a quarter said that this had not enabled them to be more effective in their job.
Respondents agreed that the economic climate has led to a reassessment of the risk management function within their company, a Whitehead Mann release says.
Nearly 80% said that they have noticed a changed attitude in the past year in terms of how their organization approaches the management of risk, with increased regulation cited by most respondents (69%) as the main driver of this changed attitude.
“As our survey starkly reveals, too few risk managers feel that they are truly influential within their organization,” said Nick Hedley, head of Whitehead Mann’s legal, governance and risk practice.
“In the current environment, where the painful cost of inadequate risk management is being demonstrated every day, it is surprising that risk managers do not believe themselves to have more clout.”