Boosting Employee Retention for Growth in the Compliance Industry

“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” - Richard Branson.

Yes, Richard is right. It’s fair to say he knows a thing or two about business. When you look after your employees, everything else clicks into place. However, over time, we can forget employees are the lifeblood of our business. The average churn for UK workers is 34%, so getting employee retention right is critical.

Losing compliance specialists can be costly and disruptive. It takes resources and time to find and train new compliance talent. So, what can your business do to boost employee retention and hold on to valued compliance talent? How can your organisation stop your competition from luring your best compliance employees?

In this article, we examine strategies for improving employee retention. We’ll focus on providing development opportunities and discuss the benefits of collaborating with specialist compliance recruiters to build a stable, committed workforce.

Understanding Employee Retention for Your Business

Compliance employees ensure organisations adhere to laws, regulations and ethical standards. However, employee retention is a serious issue for the compliance industry. The increasing complexity of regulations and the continual global expansion of businesses is pushing demand for compliance professionals.

The Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2024 from PwC found workers are reporting increased workloads, financial struggles, and uncertainty about their job security. Add compliance roles into the mix, and you see a complex mixture of workers feeling unsettled and competitors trying to steal them.

The Negative Aspect of Churn

Every company wants to have the best compliance staff. However, regardless of the industry, high employee turnover is not good for any organisation. It can significantly impact a company’s finances, operations, and overall performance.

Here are some examples:

• High turnover means your company must hire more frequently and spend more time on advertising, interviews, and selection.
• Productivity for the business decreases as you spend more time waiting for new employees to get up to speed.
• High turnover can also break down feelings of harmony at work, leading to communication problems.
• Your company can develop a negative external perception in the eyes of potential candidates. Nobody wants to work for a business with a high turnover.
• Loss of compliance knowledge when an employee leaves can be a disaster for the business, putting further pressure on the compliance team.

How To Promote Employee Development Opportunities

Employees who don’t know what opportunities are available at your company can be confusing. If you want to retain the best talent, we recommend sitting down with the board and figuring out what development opportunities you can offer. Once this is approved, make every effort possible to inform your staff.

It will help you to engage your current employees. It will make them feel valued and noticed. It will also reduce the chance of a competitor poaching them from your business. Also, as a bonus, this article might help your Chief Operations Officer (COO) if they are experiencing different issues related to compliance.

Development Opportunities for Compliance Employees

These approaches don’t have to be only for compliance staff. Anything you can do to retain staff in all departments is necessary. Here are three areas where you can make a real difference for compliance employees and boost employee retention:

1) Continuous professional education and certifications

• Do a needs assessment in your business for compliance and determine if there are any skills gaps.
• Create a training plan that offers internal and external training opportunities.
• Allocate a specific budget for professional development and provide necessary resources for employees (e.g. books and learning platforms).
• Track and assess the progress of the compliance training programs and make adjustments to keep improving them.

2) Start a Mentorship Program

• Design a mentorship program for compliance, specifically for your company.
• Pick your best and most experienced compliance experts in the company to be the mentors.
• Train the mentors and match them with mentees. Consider which matches work best to get the most impactful mentorship.
• Make sure that the mentoring is structured and put a feedback mechanism in place so you can monitor mentees and mentors.

3) Set out Career Progression Plans for Compliance Employees

• Clearly define the role and responsibilities for each role in the compliance department.
• Each role should also have competencies and expectations so employees can determine whether they are a good fit for it or what they need to do.
• Create a clear career progression pathway at all levels, from entry-level to senior compliance roles.
• Create an Individual Development Plan (IDP) for each compliance employee, with goals and steps to reach them.
• Implement reviews and a rewards and recognition program. Then, you can highlight employee milestones as they progress in their compliance careers.

How Specialist Recruiters Can Help With Employee Retention

Specialist recruiters are also a valuable resource you can use as a company to help you with employee retention. Never consider it something that will take over your current recruitment process. It is additional support that can make you more effective than ever. There are three clear areas where they can help:

1) Access to a Larger Talent Pool

Working with a specialist recruiter can give you access to candidates you speak with only occasionally. Their candidate pool is probably going to beat your hands down. Don’t be competitive. Accept this incredible opportunity and utilise it.

2) Better Candidate Matching for Long-Term Retention

This area is the cherry on top of the cake. Specialist recruiters know their candidates and will only present you with ones that match your compliance roles, your firm and culture. Better-matched candidates mean higher employee retention.

3) Insights Into Industry Trends and Best Practices

These recruiters have their finger on the pulse of the compliance industry. This information is critical to knowing what excites compliance employees, why they move roles, and why they stay.

Don’t take our word for it. It’s the results that make the difference! At Kohort Recruitment, we go out of our way to satisfy our client’s needs. Here are two case studies from our happy clients demonstrating that finding and retaining quality talent is possible:

Vanguard Quickly Plugs Gap With 2-for-1 CASS Compliance Talent! Hargreaves Lansdown Secures Top CASS Talent With Specialist Help

Start to Integrate Development and Recruitment Strategies

Now that you know the key areas to boost employee retention, it’s time to start. You can integrate the development opportunities into your business to give your employees the stability they seek. Also, contact a specialist recruiter for compliance if you feel overwhelmed.

Don’t Lose Those Compliance Specialists

No business wants to lose its staff, especially if they are in the compliance niche. Hopefully, this article has given food for thought to employee retention in your company. Promoting employee development opportunities and working with specialist recruiters can help you retain your staff and grow your business.

Contact us at Kohort Recruitment if you want to boost your compliance department. Our specialised network of compliance specialists is helping businesses secure the talent they need. Please email me at gareth@kohortrecruitment.com or private message me on LinkedIn. We are ready to help you achieve your recruitment and compliance goals!

Sources:

1. Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey - PwC
2. Employee Turnover Data - CIPD
3. How to Avoid These COO Compliance Mistakes - Kohort Recruitment
4. Vanguard Quickly Plugs Gap With 2-for-1 CASS Compliance Talent! - Case Study from Kohort Recruitment
5. Hargreaves Lansdown Secures Top CASS Talent With Specialist Help - Case Study from Kohort Recruitment