When was the last time your board discussed people risk with the same rigour it discusses financial risk?

Every board has a risk register. Financials are reviewed monthly. Cashflow is watched weekly. IT security gets its own standing item since someone read a headline about ransomware.

People risk? That gets 90 seconds at the end of a packed agenda. “Any HR updates?” Someone mentions a grievance. Everyone nods. Moving on.

Here is what is actually happening while your board is not paying attention.

Absence is costing you six figures a year and nobody has done the maths. Three of your best people are already looking elsewhere and nobody has noticed because nobody is having that conversation. Your employment contracts have not been reviewed since before COVID. A restructure is coming and the people workstream has not started because nobody owns it. Your managers have never been trained to lead and you are surprised when they cannot hold a difficult conversation.

None of this is on your risk register. All of it is in your P&L. You are just not connecting the two.

If a finance director managed financial risk the way most organisations manage people risk, they would be sacked. That is not an exaggeration. It is a straightforward comparison. You would never tolerate a quarterly finance review that consisted of “any updates?” and a shrug. But that is exactly what happens with the single biggest cost on your books.

People risk is business risk. The only difference is that nobody is being held accountable for it.

Most boards do not have this conversation. Not because they do not care. Because nobody in the room has the nerve to put it on the agenda, frame it properly, and force the organisation to look at the data instead of the anecdotes.

That is the real problem. Not the risk itself. The silence around it.