Fundamentals of People Risk Management: Tools and Frameworks for Managing People Risk and Increasing Resilience, Kogan Page, 2026
Stephen Sidebottom
ISBN: 9781398626379

People are the beating heart of every organisation, but they are also a significant source of risk through their actions, judgements and behaviours. Technological change, skills shortages, social change and the human dimension of cyber-enabled fraud are all reshaping the people-risk landscape. Managing these risks is increasingly important for organisations across sectors, yet it is far from straightforward. The drivers of behaviour are complex, while the risks themselves are often discussed in vague or imprecise terms. These are just some of the reasons why Stephen Sidebottom’s latest book, Fundamentals of People Risk Management, is so timely.

Sidebottom is Chair of the Institute of Risk Management, a post he has held since 2021. He is the Immediate Past Master of the Company of Human Resources Professionals, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and works as a non-executive director and leadership coach. He has served in senior leadership and executive roles in HR, risk and operations across finance, energy, education and the public sector.

In his own words, his perspective on people risk has been shaped by the systems in which he has lived and worked: “I have spent decades leading people functions in global banks and creating and managing the operations of international organisations,” he writes. “These years have taught me that organisations are complex, open systems where pressure, clarity, autonomy and identity shape how people think and act. I have worked with leaders whose egos damaged the organisations they served, and with others who combined commercial acuity with deep regard for the people around them. Both left a mark on how I understand people risk.”

Alongside his corporate experience, Sidebottom also owns and runs Oast Wood vineyard in Kent, where his life as a regenerative farmer and viticulturist, he writes, “reinforces every day how conditions and interconnectedness determine outcomes.”

These experiences come together to inform the propositions at the heart of Fundamentals of People Risk Management – “the patterns that emerge from working inside human and living systems and watching how they adapt and thrive under pressure”.

Central to the book is a reframing of how organisations think about people risk. “People risk does not begin with people,” Sidebottom writes. “It begins with the conditions that shape how people think, decide and act: how clearly expectations are set, how manageable workloads are, how leaders respond under pressure, how decisions are made and shared, and how safe it feels to raise concerns or challenge assumptions.

“Organisations often recognise the symptoms of people risk long before they understand the system that produces them. They see things like fatigue, shortcuts, conflicts and misconduct, but struggle to recognise how their own practices and pressures shape these outcomes. This book begins with a core idea: people risk is a property of systems. Systems generate behaviour, and systems can be redesigned.”

It is this systems-based approach that gives Fundamentals of People Risk Management its distinctive perspective. The book seeks to make people risk better understood and better addressed, helping organisations create healthy, sustainable and responsible businesses in times of profound change.

In his foreword to the book, Peter Cheese, then CEO of the CIPD, notes: “behaviours are intrinsic to the cultural dynamic of any organisation. Organisations that approach people risks strategically and have the capacity to learn, adapt and keep adjusting to align their collective behaviours and culture are the ones that will thrive.”

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