Immigration, Governance, Risk, and Compliance

In a globalised world, international recruitment and mobility are key strategic aspects of workforce planning. But today’s immigration environment is dynamic and complex. To successfully navigate multiple, overlapping regimes, companies require comprehensive programs that control immigration risk and ensure compliance.

That makes immigration a matter for GRC.

GRC is an integrated system of people, processes, and technologies that enables a company to achieve business objectives while optimising risks, minimising costs, and operating within legal and ethical boundaries.

The system has three pillars: Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance.

Governance refers to the overarching system of rules, policies, and practices through which a company is directed and controlled. Good governance is grounded in transparency and accountability. It creates an environment in which senior management has effective oversight, behaviours and resources are effectively coordinated, and business units are aligned with corporate goals.

Risk Management includes all of the ways that a company identifies, analyses, monitors, and controls risk. It protects the company and its assets from unexpected losses and mitigates threats to business continuity.

Compliance involves adherence to internally and externally imposed laws, policies, and standards. It encompasses all of the processes and procedures implemented to ensure the company and its employees conduct business in a legal and ethical manner.

Of course, companies have been doing Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance for a long time. But they traditionally approach them as separate concerns. The three functions operate in siloes, each with its own agenda, vocabulary, practices, and information systems. This inevitably leads to conflicting policies and standards, duplicated efforts, and unnecessary costs. Most concerningly, it also limits transparency. Critical decisions are based on partial information and managers are unable to proactively address opportunities and threats.

GRC is grounded in the recognition that Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance all affect the same parts of a business, and each generates information relevant to the other two. To properly support business objectives, G, R, and C need to work together.

For example, an effective Compliance program is a key aspect of Risk Management. It is developed and implemented to address the financial and reputational risks associated with compliance failures. The information generated through that Compliance program is necessary to inform future risk assessments. This information could also point to problems with supervision or information flows, and thus have implications for Governance. GRC therefore combines Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance in an integrated system with a common vocabulary, centralised data repository, and standardised procedures and policies.

For many Australian businesses, access to international skilled labour is a critical enabler of business strategy. Some face ongoing local skill shortages. Others need access to specialised skills not yet fully developed in Australia. For multinationals, the capacity to conduct intracompany transfers can be similarly crucial. In all of these cases, successful interaction with Australia’s immigration system directly affects the company’s ability to achieve its business objectives.

In this context, immigration risks and compliance cannot continue to be addressed ad hoc, reactively, or in siloes. The stakes are just too high. Government immigration policies are becoming more restrictive, regulations are constantly evolving, and the penalties for non-compliance are increasing. Any unanticipated change to immigration rules or penalties for non-compliance could have a catastrophic impact on your company’s access to key talent. A GRC approach is essential to ensure that your company can:

• properly identify current immigration compliance requirements
• anticipate and proactively control immigration risks
• generate complete data and reports on its immigration program
• make strategic and operational decisions based on full information.

Complize offers a range of tools to support your immigration GRC journey, including online training, workforce management, and an extensive knowledge base.

Contact us today to arrange a free demonstration.