To meet the demands of upcoming aged care reforms, HammondCare sought to replace their spreadsheet-based risk and compliance management with a centralized platform that delivers consistent, credible risk data for confident decisions..
Challenge
HammondCare is an independent charity that supports thousands of patients annually through more than 100 residential care facilities and home care services across Australia. Because of its large and diverse service footprint, the organization’s risk and compliance processes had become fragmented across spreadsheets and legacy systems, making it difficult to gain a complete view of risk exposure and compliance status.
Upcoming aged care reforms introduced hundreds of new compliance actions. As a result, it was difficult to demonstrate compliance with quality standards or showcase the high-quality care being delivered.
When Alison Cameron joined HammondCare as head of risk and regulation, she worked with the risk team to identify opportunities for improvement. “The way we were managing risk registers and tracking compliance activities was very manual. Reporting was limited and not at the level we wanted it to be. If you have systems that don’t talk to each other, you end up with duplication, errors, and different interpretations of the same data. That affects the integrity of your reporting”.
“If people can’t trust the information, then you don’t have a foundation for good decision-making.”
As aged care reforms loomed, HammondCare sought a better way to manage risk, track hundreds of compliance actions, and assure leadership and regulators that it was meeting standards. The solution had to be easy to adopt, integrate with existing HR systems, and deliver structured processes for reliable board-level reporting.
Solution
HammondCare now use the Riskonnect platform for strategic risk management, compliance monitoring, and audit tracking. Riskonnect unified HammondCare’s risk registers and compliance obligations in one centralized solution. The platform captures data in a structured format aligned to their enterprise governance requirements. They can now implement a consistent risk framework, set controls, and track mitigating actions holistically.
“Riskonnect was an absolute standout in terms of the systems that we reviewed. It was most important that we could have adequate reporting, and that we had the ability to configure the solution so that it was right for our board and leadership team. Riskonnect was able to deliver both.”
Riskonnect integrates with HammondCare’s HR system, ensuring consistent data, enabling uploads of compliance obligations, and streamlining compliance efforts. They can track compliance actions across multiple services, maintain version-controlled links to policies and standards, and easily capture evidence. Cameron noted that “The bulk upload was very important. It gave us a baseline that we could work from and then identify what needed to be prioritized.”
Implementation was completed in six to eight weeks. “It was very smooth from the software perspective,” Cameron recalls. “The ability to pick up the phone at any time and get a quick response was invaluable—we never had a backlog of issues.”
The software is easy to use for even those who are less tech savvy, which is helping to inspire adoption. Cameron noted, “The user interface was very well laid out and super user-friendly, that really helped with change management and encouraged staff adoption.”
Results
Since implementing Riskonnect, HammondCare has transformed its GRC processes, with once laborious manual tasks, now taking only minutes. “The reporting is very sophisticated — visually attractive, consistent, and easy to understand,” says Cameron. “You can tell the story in a clear, engaging way. That boosts confidence and eliminates debate about whether the data is accurate”.
“People can trust the information, and that changes everything.”
Cameron perceived the improvement almost immediately, when a meeting was unexpectedly brought forward. She could generate the reports she needed instantly. “The executives praised how easy the information was to digest. That was a real success story for us,” she recalls.
Further, risk and compliance are now culturally “front of mind” across the organization. Staff can access live data, understand expectations, and respond proactively to emerging issues. “The confidence in the data is critical,” she explains. “It means we can have focused conversations about where attention is needed, rather than debating the accuracy of the information.”
Riskonnect monitors compliance actions on the front line, documenting conformity to regulators and staying ahead of potential issues. “The data helps us identify focus areas early, allowing us to work on lead rather than lag reporting.” Cameron shared that this data enables them to “act before they become bigger problems.”
Riskonnect has transformed how we manage risk,” Cameron concludes. “The user experience, the reporting capability, the integration options — it all adds up to effective governance and data accuracy. It gives us confidence, and it gives the board confidence. That’s invaluable.”
For more on enterprise risk management software, download our ebook, Engaging Everyone in Enterprise Risk Management for Business Success, and check out Riskonnect’s ERM software solution.
