Dive Brief:

• The number of global risk managers citing terrorism as their top concern has doubled over the past year to 22%, according to the Clements Worldwide Risk Index, a new survey released today by international insurance provider Clements Worldwide.
• Such a jump shows that managers at the surveyed multinational corporations and humanitarian aid organizations see terrorism as a risk that needs to be increasingly contained in key areas of operations – not just war zones. 
• While risk management doesn't belong to HR, employee safety is certainly a concern. And with the growing number of overseas expatriate assignments due to the global economy, the Clements Risk Index is cause for concern.

Dive Insight:

Chris Beck, president of Clements Worldwide, said that ever-increasing unpredictability is the new normal for which employers need to be prepared.

The Clements Worldwide survey, in fact, highlighted the gap between risk concerns/losses and internal readiness to manage them, though it did find that some risk managers are becoming more focused on preparation for key risks. The bad news is even though surveyed managers perceive heightened risks associated with terrorism, only 16% say they are as prepared as they could be to address them. 

There are some areas of improvement. For example, with political and labor unrest, which may be considered more commonplace than terrorism, the percentage of risk managers feeling “most prepared” increased from 12% in the Summer 2015 Risk Index to 20% in the latest Index.  HR typically does not get involved with risk management in larger organizations, but many believe there should be more open and frequent communication channels opened between the two functions.