Mapping activities and processes

1. Regulatory Concept & Core Standards

In this video we will work through a concrete decision: identify processes and decision points relevant to the risk plan. The aim is to explain the criterion used and apply it to a workplace situation. We will start with the concept, move to the procedure and finish with a case to solve. This course uses a practical risk-mapping method. The Slovak Government Office’s departmental methodology has its own public-sector context and is not a universal duty for every private business. Adapt the matrix to activities, legal requirements and organisational evidence.

Mapping describes how work happens, including operational and support activities. An organisation chart identifies positions. A process shows decisions, inputs, outputs and handovers. The risk plan must cover the organisation and its activity. Apparently administrative tasks, such as changing supplier bank details, may create significant risk opportunities.

Apply the following rule: Section 10(1) requires an internal responsible person for employers with at least 50 employees, public authorities with at least five employees, and employers providing the specified financial, transport-safety or environmental services without the general headcount threshold. The person needs professional competence, independence, resources and protection against conflicts. In municipalities and higher territorial units, the chief controller performs that role.

2. Practical Implementation & Procedure

Choose a process and identify its start, finish, participants, systems and decisions. Confirm the description with staff performing the work and authorised real records. Mark exceptions and tasks concentrated in one person. Do not merely copy a formal procedure where practice differs. The gap between expected and actual practice helps the assessment. Before moving on, turn this procedure into a sequence you could explain to a colleague. Identify the first check, the action that depends on its outcome and the record that allows the decision to be reconstructed. Follow the sequence on screen and identify the point where an error would change the result.

3. Case Study & Compliance Action

In supplier payments, one person receives bank-change requests, updates the supplier record and prepares payment. The organisation chart did not show this concentration. Process mapping reveals a point needing risk assessment and independent control. Now read the case carefully. Separate established facts from information you would still need to confirm. Do not add motives or events that have not been described. This distinction matters when choosing a response proportionate to the information available.

The exercise is as follows: Why is an organisation chart insufficient to identify every risk? Choose an answer and write one sentence explaining it. During the pause, compare your choice with the criteria we have just considered. Also think about the material you would retain to explain the decision later.

It may not show how decisions and tasks connect. Risk can arise from combined powers, exceptions or information handovers. The process map makes those relationships visible.

One mistake to avoid is: describing departments while omitting decisions, exceptions and actual tasks.

Now apply the national rule to a second decision. A subsidiary copies its foreign parent’s procedure without its own assessment. What must it check?

Identify the Slovak employer, employee count, public or private status and sector exceptions under section 10. Designate an internal responsible person. Distinguish outsourced receipt and acknowledgement from examination and check delegation conditions. A group template alone does not establish compliance.