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Risk manager

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Risk managers advise organisations on potential risks to the profitability, safety, security or existence of the company

Your key priority as a risk manager will be to identify and assess threats to an organisation. You’ll spend time planning how to avoid, reduce or transfer risk and create contingency plans as preparation in case things go wrong.

Areas of risk management

You may work in a variety of sectors and specialise in a number of areas, including:

  • business continuity
  • commodity (buying and selling) risk
  • corporate governance
  • enterprise risk
  • environmental risk
  • financial risk
  • information and security risk
  • insurance risk
  • market and credit risk
  • regulatory and operational risk
  • technology risk.

Responsibilities

As a risk manager, you'll typically need to:

  • plan, design and implement an overall risk management process for the organisation
  • make risk assessments - analysing risks as well as identifying, describing and estimating the risks affecting the business
  • evaluate risk - comparing estimated risks with criteria established by the organisation such as costs, legal requirements and environmental factors, and evaluate previous handling of risks
  • establish and quantify the organisation's 'risk appetite', i.e. the level of risk they are prepared to accept
  • report risk appropriately according to the audience, for example, to the board of directors so they understand the most significant risks, to business heads to ensure they are aware of risks relevant to their parts of the business and to individuals to understand their accountability for individual risks
  • undertake corporate governance involving external risk reporting to stakeholders
  • carry out processes - for example, you may need to purchase insurance, implement health and safety measures, and create business continuity plans to limit risks and prepare for problems
  • review risk policies regularly to ensure they are compliant with relevant new legislation
  • conduct audits of policy and compliance to standards, including liaison with internal and external auditors
  • provide support, education and training to staff to build risk awareness within the organisation.

Salary

  • A common entry point to this career is as a risk technician, where you would support risk managers. The salary for technicians usually starts at around £25,000. In the role of risk manager, with up to three years' experience, this rises to £30,000 to £40,000.
  • Salaries for risk managers with around three to five years' experience are around £45,000 to £70,000, depending on your experience.
  • Senior risk managers can earn in the region of £70,000 to £100,000. Those with substantial experience/at director level can earn more.

Salaries vary widely depending on the sector, level of responsibility and location. The highest salaries are found in financial sectors and in London-based positions.

Income figures are intended as a guide only.

Working hours

Working hours are typically 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. You can expect to work additional hours at more senior levels.

Part-time work and career breaks are possible and are more likely in larger organisations.

What to expect

  • The work is primarily office based but often includes visits to other offices to see clients (if you're working in consultancy) or to sites (if you're working in sectors such as construction or energy). At a more senior level, you may spend time away from the office at conferences.
  • Setting up your own risk consultancy may be possible with enough experience.
  • Work in risk management can carry personal liability, in particular with relation to the health and safety elements of risk work, but also in other ways relating to negligence or a company's losses, if you are deemed responsible.
  • The amount of travel involved in the working day depends on the size of the organisation and your level of responsibility. Risk management jobs are available across the UK.
  • Working or travelling overseas may be an option if you work for a foreign company (those with fast-developing economies will have the greatest need for risk managers) or if you're working for a company that operates internationally.

Qualifications

Although this area of work is open to all graduates, a degree in one of the following subjects may increase your chances:

  • accounting
  • engineering
  • finance or economics
  • IT
  • law
  • management or business studies
  • mathematics
  • risk management
  • science
  • statistics.

Some large companies offer risk management graduate training schemes in areas such as financial, operational, technological and enterprise risk.

Postgraduate qualifications are not essential but may be useful, particularly if your degree is in an unrelated subject. Masters degrees in risk management are available at a number of universities. Courses cover risk management as a whole or focus on particular areas such as corporate and financial risk management, health and safety risk management, and risk, crisis, disaster and resilience management.

Search for postgraduate courses in risk management.

If your degree is in a less relevant subject, you could consider taking the Institute of Risk Management (IRM) International Certificate in Enterprise Risk Management, which provides an introduction to risk management and might help increase your chances of gaining an entry-level position.

The IRM offers free student membership to anyone studying a risk management degree or postgraduate course. See the IRM website for details of the different levels of membership available.

It's also possible to get into a career in risk by taking an apprenticeship, such as:

You could also start in an administrative role before working your way up to a risk assistant position and then progressing on to a risk manager role. Employers expect A-levels or equivalent qualifications for entry through this route.

Skills

You'll need to have:

  • interpersonal, communication and presentation skills
  • problem-solving and decision-making abilities
  • analytical skills
  • a good eye for detail
  • negotiation skills and the ability to influence key stakeholders
  • resilience and the ability to cope under pressure
  • planning and organisation skills
  • the ability to react quickly and think on your feet
  • technical acumen
  • the skills to be a team player and to work on your own
  • leadership qualities
  • numerical skills and the ability to evaluate costs
  • a proactive approach to work, in terms of suggesting changes and improvements to processes and systems
  • commercial awareness and the ability to understand broad business issues.

Work experience

Employers look for experience or knowledge of risk management. To start building up your experience, you could do a year's industrial placement as part of your course or look for summer work placements or internships.

Doing a placement provides you with practical experience and helps you develop a network of contacts that may be useful for future job opportunities.

Experience in a particular industry (e.g. the financial sector) could also be helpful if it relates to the sector you want to specialise in.

Find out more about the different kinds of work experience and internships that are available.

Employers

Risk management is a fast-growing profession with large graduate employers that are increasingly offering opportunities to train and specialise in this function at a graduate-entry level. This is especially true in the banking and capital market sectors, which are employing more people in their risk teams.

Risk managers are employed in the public sector, charities and in private organisations. Some small organisations carry out risk management duties in the finance or operations departments.

Employers of risk managers include:

  • auditing firms and consulting groups that specialise in risk management
  • banks, asset and wealth management companies
  • central and local government
  • charities and not-for-profit organisations
  • commercial businesses
  • emergency services
  • energy and utilities companies
  • engineering and construction companies
  • insurance companies
  • IT and telecommunications companies
  • logistics companies
  • NHS trusts and care providers
  • school, college, universities and exam boards
  • transport and infrastructure industries.

Look for job vacancies at:

Individual companies may advertise opportunities on their websites. Recruitment agencies such as Barclay Simpson advertise vacancies and you can also search for risk jobs on LinkedIn.

Professional development

Some large organisations run risk management graduate schemes. On one of these, you'll follow a programme of training, often rotating around different sections to get an overview of the whole business. You may take specific qualifications as part of your training, e.g. accountancy qualifications, depending on the type of risk you're managing.

For those new to the career, the IRM provides the International Certificate in Enterprise Risk Management, an introductory distance-learning qualification, which takes six to nine months to complete.

The IRM also offers an International Diploma in Risk Management, which is a postgraduate qualification for risk management professionals. The diploma usually takes around three years to complete and is undertaken by distance learning. IRM Certificate and Diploma students have the option to join the IRM as student members during their studies.

Membership of the IRM is useful in terms of opportunities for continuing professional development (CPD). They have a range of courses and training events running throughout the year, to help risk managers keep up to date with developments in the area and refresh their skills.

Once you've developed enough technical competence, you can work towards becoming certified. A Certified Member can use the designation CMIRM after their name and use the title Certified Risk Professional.

Other professional bodies offering sector or occupation-specific training and qualifications include the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). Completion of the CII Advanced Diploma in Insurance enables you to apply for Chartered Insurance Risk Manager status (subject to having five years' experience, not necessarily post-qualification).

You can also study postgraduate courses in risk management, sometimes on a distance-learning basis. These courses can be a way to develop your career and may be supported by your employer.

Career prospects

You're likely to start in the risk management profession through a graduate training programme or enter at a risk technician/analyst level. With experience, your career can develop to the level of risk manager, with progression to chief risk officer (CRO) after ten or more years' experience.

Opportunities for career development are increasing as organisations are often recognising the need to appoint CROs as board members. Departments are also restructuring and making risk a key part of their strategy.

Risk management roles and experience can be transferred across a range of sectors, and risk managers enjoy great flexibility in the transferability of their expertise and skills. Transferring across sectors can often open up opportunities to gain higher salaries, better prospects and sponsorship of further qualifications.

With the right experience, you could progress to run your own consultancy or work as a freelance contractor.

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