What is behavioural security risk management?

Behavioural science has a reputation - a reputation for claiming that it can save people from themselves, make them do what they don’t want to do or allow rogue states to influence elections. 

For the team at Omnio, it’s about context, it’s about understanding incentives, it’s about making it easy for people to do the right thing and having the curiosity to keep looking for the things you don’t know.

We do this by understanding our clients: not just understanding their risk management strategy but by getting into the weeds, understanding how the strategy is being implemented and often more importantly, how it’s not.

Central to the Omnio approach is the identification of critical assets and a detailed vulnerability assessment. From there, we look at where there may be gaps or opportunities for bad actors to exploit these gaps. We view the separate security controls as a series of connected systems and analyse what impact the loss of one control can have on the whole system. 

So far, this is standard stuff. So, where’s the behavioural bit?

 Omnio digs into each system you have in place and we work with the personnel responsible for controlling them. Where is the friction? Where is the resistance? Where are the short cuts, and which bits are ignored? Where are the easy work-arounds that are compromising your security? 

Here’s the behavioural element… Rather than complaining that your people are not following the rules, we make the rules easy to follow and the work arounds harder. We look to create non-financial incentives for good behaviour, and work out how the right type of messaging can help improve performance.

For non-security personnel, we look at how your people interact with security.

• Are your employees aware of why there is security?

• Do they understand the potential impacts of their own actions?

• Are they empowered to report things?

• Do they act as enablers of good risk management, and, is it easy to raise the alarm if necessary and when they do, are they taken seriously?

Once we’ve analysed internally, we then turn our focus to the people outside your organisation: these are the local communities, consumers and other stakeholders that are impacted by what you do.  We’re not a stakeholder engagement consultancy, but we do have a deep understanding of the importance of being aware how your operations can impact those outside, and that those factors can have a significant impact on your security. 

We look at whether you are really listening, and really looking. Are you trying to help, or trying to hide, and do you really understand the context in which you operate?

Now, in our experience, we understand that most companies do understand the context that they are operating in, have good controls that form reasonable security systems, and are interacting and listening to their external stakeholders. However, many companies are missing the interactions between these elements. 

At Omnio we zoom in then we zoom out, we look at the angles, we look at human behaviour, we stand in others shoes, we listen and we help you integrate effectively.

 This approach is never one size fits all. It’s nuanced and complex, and it requires curiosity and an open mind. If you’d like to know how you can improve your security and increase your operational resilience, get in touch to set up a no commitment initial discussion.

Why Expert Guidance Matters

Operating successfully in complex environments requires more than operational expertise. It demands an integrated risk management approach that accounts for politics, security, regulation, logistics, culture, and finance. The complexity of your operational context means that even seasoned executives benefit from the guidance of experts who have navigated these challenges firsthand. We expand more in-depth on this in our blog ‘Building an effective culture in high-risk operations’.

At Omnio, our leadership team brings many years of experience in supporting companies across some of the world’s most challenging environments. We specialise in helping decision-makers build resilience, secure their assets, and unlock opportunities in challenging markets.

For executives managing multi-country portfolios, the right partner can make the difference between disruption and growth. By working with Omnio, you gain not only insight but also actionable strategies tailored to your operational realities.

Choose Omnio Consulting to help you navigate risk with confidence.

“During 20 years of providing responsible and ethical security services and consultancy to multiple organisations, I have come to understand how a design-led and systems-based approach, that puts people at the centre of things, can deliver a safer environment for assets, operations and people. It was this human-centric approach that led me to think about security as a behavioural scientist as well as a security professional.” - Charlie Mayne