RMSS CASE STUDY

Service to Youth CouncilRMSS provides SYC with a robust enterprise risk management framework and solution to support its rapid growth and focus on taking an integrated approach to effectively managing its risks, incidents and compliance obligations.

OrganisationService to Youth Council (SYC)www.syc.net.au

LocationSouth Australia

ServicesSYC provides a diverse range of services ranging from youth programs to education, training and employment services.

• Established 1958 • Has the largest Registered Training Organisation (RTO) outside TAFE in SA • Is a provider for Job Services Australia • Assists young homeless people 16 – 25 years old

Employees300+

About Service to Youth Council

Service to Youth Council is a not for profit

organisation in South Australia that has a long

history of delivering innovative programs aimed at

helping young people reach their potential since its

establishment on 9th September 1958.

Initially helping adolescents in State-managed

institutions and providing a “drop-in” centre for

young people in metropolitan Adelaide, in 1962

SYC was the first organisation to deliver street-work

services in Australia. Despite facing many

challenges in the early years, SYC became an

incorporated body in 1963. SYC’s success over

time can be attributed to its ability to seize

opportunities to deliver innovative programs.

In 1981 SYC developed the “Trace a Place”

program, a brokerage to source available vacancies

at emergency accommodation locations for the

target group of 16 to 25 year olds. This program is

now controlled by the State Government with SYC

recently being awarded the contract to provide this

service. In 1995 Job Prospects Skill Share was

opened to provide skills development and job

search support under the program being run by the

Department of Education, Employment and

Training.

In 2001 it opened Training Prospects. Training

Prospects is South Australia’s largest

non-Government Registered Training Organisation

accredited to deliver over 70 qualifications. In 2009

SYC was awarded 10 sites in South Australia for the

new Job Services Australia program operated by

Department of Employment, Education and

Workplace Relations and was awarded 11 sites in

metropolitan Melbourne. This saw staff numbers

grow from just over 100 to over 300 in the course of

a few months. With the growth came the realisation

that there needed to be structure around many of

the corporate functions taken for granted by

commercial entities including Risk Management,

Health and Safety and Compliance functions.

The Challenge

The rapid growth of services associated with the

awarding of 21 sites under the Job Services

Australia contract saw a flurry of activity around

recruitment, site selection, lease negotiations

and fit out to commence operation within 10

weeks of being awarded the contract. Such

rapid growth made it very difficult for the

organisation to be able to effectively manage its

risk and compliance functions.

This was further compounded by a lack of

centralised collection and analysis of risk and

event/incident related data. Compliance issues

which had been evident but had not been

adequately recorded began to emerge on a

broader scale with the commencement of SYC’s

quality program in late 2009. There were either

no clear processes or inadequate manual

processes across SYC’s three distinct operating

divisions with no integrated approach and no

clear framework to operate within.

SYC identified that it needed to invest in both

resources and a system that integrated risk

management, incident and event management

and compliance activities across all parts of the

organisation. Such an investment would provide

the SYC Board and the senior management

team with both a risk management framework

and the capability to identify and manage risks,

events and compliance issues to enhance client

expectations, protect SYC assets and provide a

competitive advantage in the delivery of services.

The appointment of a senior Risk Manager with

extensive commercial experience across multiple

sectors with international experience was the

first step. It was quickly realised that without a

centralised system and a relevant and

comprehensive risk and compliance framework,

risk and compliance issues could not be

identified and managed effectively. This placed

the organisation in a position where it may not

For More Information

solutions please contact us:

Phone: +61 7 3252 1400

Email: enquiries@rmss.com.au

Website: www.rmss.com.au

Copyright and Disclaimer

Copyright© 2010 Risk Management and Safety Systems Pty

Ltd. All rights reserved. RMSS – Reduce Risk, riskmanager,

eventmanager and compliancemanager are registered

trademarks of Risk Management and Safety Systems Pty

Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of the respective

owners.

Published: November 2010

have been able to meet its legislative, regulatory

and compliance obligations.

This was the overarching challenge for Greg

Saunders, Risk Manager for SYC. “My greatest

challenge has been to raise the profile of risk

management, compliance and incident and

event management so that it is at the forefront of

the decision making process at all levels within

the organisation.”

Greg explained “The approach was silo based,

data was either not collected or was lacking in

detail and there was no evidence of corrective

actions. We needed to correct this approach by

having a centralised approach with a single

application to enable SYC to make transparent

and better informed decisions.” He further

added, “in some ways having nothing in place

has allowed some latitude in the configuration

and rollout of the RMSS solution by not having to

take into consideration systems and processes

already in place.”

The Solution and Benefits

Mr Saunders has been using RMSS’ leading

Enterprise Risk Intelligence solution – the RMSS

Suite for the past seven years across

several organisations and had no hesitation

vendor early in 2010.

After a couple of months of development and

configuration, SYC implemented RMSS’ ERI

solution early in the second half of 2010 across

all of its operating divisions. The solution has

addressed many of the issues that SYC had

experienced as a result of its rapid growth. Its

flexibility, ease of use and diverse scope for

operating in many guises across the

organisation, also provided a solid platform to

capture business critical information that

identifies risk and compliance issues and

emerging trends.

Now that SYC has had the rapid growth and has

been able to successfully implement a

comprehensive and flexible system to deal with

the issues of risk and compliance, its appetite for

further expansion has heightened.

“We need to ensure that when a new staff member

comes on board there is a clearly defined process in

place, that operates in the same way across the

whole of SYC, one SYC one risk and compliance

system,’ said Greg Saunders. “We started with

nothing, had no real systems in place and where

there was something, there was no clear

understanding of language, terminology was

misunderstood and the information added no value.”

The RMSS solution has provided a clear framework

within which all risk and compliance related

information is captured in a consistent and

controlled manner. The solution is currently used by

the risk manager, internal auditor and compliance

staff in the operating divisions plus site managers. All

300 staff are also able to access and utilise the

solution for recording events/incidents.

Senior managers now have access to clearly defined

risk registers, and compliance data is produced to

allow for timely decision making within the operating

divisions and for surety to be provided around risk

and compliance obligations. “Providing certainty in

understanding and responding to risk exposure and

compliance breaches is critical to SYC as it

becomes commercially mature,” added Greg

Saunders.

“We need to be able to respond in a timely manner

and to be able to provide meaningful information and

reports to the Board to assure them that SYC is

meeting its risk and compliance obligations.

Additionally with an enterprise view of the

organisation, the Board has the confidence that SYC

is well positioned to ensure prompt action can be

taken if material issues are identified or appear as

emerging concerns.”

SYC now has an online database of all audit and

compliance results and utilises this information in

its business improvement activities. This has

delivered real and tangible value to SYC by

creating certainty around decision making, surety

around policy and procedure development and

ensures that there is a focus on continuous

improvement.

“It is not about creating more controls,” stated

Greg Saunders “but that the controls are

adequate and our business processes are

working for the benefit of the organisation. A real

and tangible benefit of the RMSS solution is that it

is a multi-faceted solution that provides Enterprise

Risk Intelligence of what is happening in real time

across all parts of the organisation providing the

ability to easily identify emerging trends and

issues.”

“We also have all of our business continuity and

disaster recovery documentation within the

RMSS application,” added Greg, “providing

immediate access to the most up to date versions

via the web, anywhere in the world. RMSS allows

us to capture, analyse and act upon critical

information. To be ahead of the game, this is what

is important and this is what will set us apart from

others,” he concluded. in approaching RMSS as the SYC preferred