Financial regulations are more far-reaching and restrictiveAt the identical time, employees are working from home and doing more trading on more platforms than ever before.
However, compliance teams have limited budgets and human resources, and lots of struggle to implement effective risk mitigation measures in financial services organizations with a whole bunch and even hundreds of employees.
It is becoming increasingly clear that firms need the support of special compliance software to attenuate risk.
But purchasing and implementing this software into teams and workflows is just step one in a much larger process. Convincing employees to make use of compliance software is where the true difference is made.
Promoting software acceptance
Why might employees be hesitant to adopt or use compliance software? The answer is apparent. For most employees within the financial services industry, compliance can look like a tedious administrative task that does not provide them with any direct profit. Although compliance teams understand that overall compliance within the organization is dependent upon everyone’s participation, employees can have a harder time seeing how their very own compliance roles are essential to the organization’s overall mission.
In addition, financial services firms often cobble together multiple internal or external technology solutions to fulfill compliance requirements. However, these disparate tools remain scattered across different systems. If employees don’t immediately understand how or where to finish compliance tasks, there’s little incentive to adopt the software.
How can compliance teams Promoting software acceptance Given these challenges? It boils right down to making a culture of compliance by simplifying compliance tasks and emphasizing the importance of every task to all the organization.
The following suggestions may also help compliance teams gain worker buy-in, promote adoption, and reduce their organization’s risk:
1. Involve first-line managers
The responsibility for implementing software and the results of a failed software implementation often rests solely with compliance teams. However, compliance team members are sometimes positioned in very different areas of the organization than the staff who must use the software of their day by day tasks.
Having first-line leaders tackle a few of that responsibility can result in greater buy-in and accountability. By ensuring their direct reports are meeting compliance expectations, managers may also help create a stronger culture of compliance across the organization. So keep managers updated on worker compliance activities so that they can concentrate on those that may have an additional nudge. Compliance software can support these efforts through dashboards, automated alerts, and even pre-scheduled reports—all of which together can reduce the necessity for face-to-face communication with the compliance officer and ensure the appropriate people have all the pieces they should support a culture of compliance.
2. Distribute compliance updates and knowledge effectively
If an worker has a compliance-related query and may’t find a straightforward solution, they could be reluctant or hesitant to make use of compliance software. So give them a straightforward strategy to find answers in the event that they’re stuck and a compliance officer is not available to assist directly.
Create a document library or database inside (or easily accessible from) your compliance software that employees can search and use. Include material that answers common compliance questions. For example, what’s the corporate’s policy on gifts and entertainment? At what point do employees must submit approval requests for these items? Do these and other policies change when an worker works in a foreign country?
The most ceaselessly asked questions vary from company to company, but answering them and ensuring the answers are easy to seek out is a very good start.
3. Automate manual tasks wherever possible
Highlighting how software can automate manual tasks, freeing up capability for higher-value work, will encourage adoption throughout the compliance team. Manual tasks at all times add hassle. Take broker statements, for instance: whether staff themselves or compliance team members are accountable for entering these into the system, it takes time. And then there’s the added administrative task of constructing sure all the pieces is finished appropriately and individuals are held accountable.
Instead, depend on a platform that may ingest day by day, routinely executed transactions via electronic broker feeds, or an organization that provides a service to process paper broker statements. This saves each employees and compliance officers time while increasing the compliance team’s possibilities of detecting, investigating and mitigating suspicious activity.
Compliance software offers a promising solution to compliance, but provided that compliance teams can address a number of the most typical causes of organizational resistance. To create acceptance and encourage software adoption, teams must distribute compliance information well, automate compliance requirements where possible, and interact first-line executives. These solutions may also help manage organizational risk, avoid costly fines, and stop reputational damage.
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Photo credit: ©Getty Images / Erik Isakson
