Two functions, one shared risk

In many organizations, HR understands the role, the candidate's history and the employment context, while the CISO understands systems, privileges and threat scenarios. If these perspectives are not connected, a gap can emerge: a position may look ordinary on the organization chart but be critical in the access architecture. Human Risk Management creates a shared language for describing that exposure and choosing proportionate controls before sensitive privileges are granted.

Classify roles before defining controls

The starting point should not be a fixed checklist of background checks, but role classification. Can the person approve payments, administer identities, access personal data at scale, change code or configurations, or handle valuable physical assets? These questions allow roles to be grouped by risk. CHRO, CISO and Compliance can then agree which checks are directly relevant and which do not add enough value to justify additional data processing.

What HR contributes

HR contributes recruitment, internal mobility, employment-law and candidate-experience expertise. It can ensure screening is transparent, that people understand what is checked and why, and that decisions are not unjustifiably automated. HR also sees moments of change - promotions, new responsibilities or transfers - when the risk profile of a role may shift and the control level may need to be reviewed.

What the CISO contributes

The CISO contributes the map of assets, privileged access, technology dependencies and threats. Security can identify which functions have real capacity for high impact and where third parties have access comparable to employees. This prevents screening from being based on hierarchy alone. A technical specialist with no direct reports may have more operational impact than a senior executive without system privileges. Security translates the job title into concrete exposure.

A shared governance model

Joint governance can be simple: risk categories, screening criteria, ownership, review frequency and documented exceptions. What matters is that decisions are not fragmented across silos. A shared framework makes it easier to justify why some functions require more screening and others less, and to explain the approach to audit, management and candidates. The result is a more coherent and less bureaucratic policy connected to actual risk.

Want to integrate Human Risk Management into your risk model?

Validato helps organizations design modular, proportionate background checks for candidates and employees, with international reach and data governance in Switzerland and the EU. Contact us to discuss which screening level fits your higher-risk roles.