Peter Westdijk
We hebben het vaak over alle vaktechniek die de compliance officer moet leren en kennen. Maar hoe zit het met het menselijke? Hoe kun je als mens het vak van compliance officer op een goede en prettige manier invullen?
Peter Westdijk schreef onderstaand artikel in de juni 2023 editie van Compliance, Ethics & Sustainability
DEN HOLLANDER
Compliance training, or training compliance?
Banks, insurance companies, pension funds and many more companies in other industries struggle to cope with the increasingly complex regulatory landscape: how can they manage regulatory risks and foster a strong compliance culture? The role of the compliance officer is obviously to enable this; to play a part in this as trainer, coach or consultant. But how does a compliance officer get trained themselves? What skills and traits does a compliance officer need to perform successfully, to get some job satisfaction and to grow as a person, and more importantly; how do they gain and retain those skills?
In my professional network, both as a compliance officer and as a trainer, I often meet frustrated compliance officers, who feel that they cannot make a difference. They struggle to get their advice across, being seen as operating from an ivory tower; a dinosaur without understanding of business challenges. As a teacher, I notice the same. Groups have changed over the years. To minimize the distance to their changing audience, compliance officers need to adapt their language, presentation style and even attire. Getting attention is a must for training. And for being a compliance officer as well.
In this article, I will explore some challenges that face compliance officers, with regulatory and business demands fighting for attention. From there, I will discuss the skill set required and provide examples of how to develop those skills. I will explore awareness programs as an example of how to get a grip on, evolve, and grow as a compliance officer. For this article, the technical skills (regulations, legal considerations etc.) are not in scope.
The observations and opinions in this article are not scientifically researched but represent the day-to-day experience and personal beliefs of the author.
1. Awareness programs: one-way street or dead-end street?
Many issues within organizations are solved by awareness campaigns. An awareness campaign usually means that one message is sent to all concerned. One message, one communication method. E-learning, compulsory awareness movies, team meetings or even company-wide presentations, we all know the drill.
But does it work? Does it really?
Being both compliance officer and teacher/presenter, I witness these habits frequently. And struggle with it constantly. Apparently, we need to develop other skills to provide successful awareness programs. The compliance officer side alone doesn’t get the message right.
2. The world we live in
The world we live in changes at high speed in an irregular manner, posing a challenge for the compliance officer, both on a professional and personal basis. The following are a few changes and trends that influence the role and behavior of the compliance officer.
2.1. Smartphones and social media
We all benefit from our mobile devices; our smartphone is a texting communication device, continuous access to the Internet, calendar, camera and movie screen, electronic wallet, authenticator and so on. Tools we unconsciously use every day, all day. Kids, youngsters, and adults, with almost no exceptions.
With everything at our disposal in our hands, there is a tendency to multitask and to change focus constantly. As a consequence, attention spans shorten, and people find it increasingly difficult to focus for a longer time. We face a constant pressure of incoming stimuli, impacting our ability to focus. Clearly this has a subsequent impact on our ability to absorb training in areas which we deem to be less exciting.
2.2. Criminal creativity
Economic misconduct, money laundering, cybercrime, terrorism and other threats to society constantly find new and inventive ways to interfere with regular business. The international community follows with ever growing legislation, regulations and supervision. Regulations that all companies and organizations need to comply with: how to cope with all of this complexity and still follow your business goals?
2.3. ESG
The same applies to the increasing realization of the need to preserve the planet and people. ESG is currently one of the major topics on the board’s agenda. In essence, ESG attention is seen as an increase in costs and another set of regulations to follow under the compliance umbrella.
2.4. Profit
Organizations and companies are faced with increasing costs for compliance, staff, energy, and so on. Shareholders and financiers require return on their investments, so profits are needed to stay in business. Compliance is often seen as an overhead which can be cut back to reduce costs rather than an essential factor in maintaining profit.
To sum up: the compliance officer lives in a world where they need to operate in a fast-changing regulatory environment and companies face huge investments in both time and money to become and stay compliant. Regulatory bodies requiring changes and an organization not willing (or able) to make them. Will the compliance officer be grinded between these two millstones? Because it is their job to coach the organization to start moving in the right direction, both management and staff.
3. Survival of the fittest
Darwinian theory states that those that adapt best to changing circumstances have the highest chance of survival. Translated to the scope of this article the question is: what does the compliance officer need to know and be capable of to realize the required changes in the organization? And, I might add, what do they need to stay healthy and happy in their job – how can they be fit enough to survive as a species?
What is ‘fittest’; what makes a compliance officer successful and happy in their job for a longer time? The change effectiveness model E=Q*A can help out1: the effect (E) of a compliance officer’s effort is the product of quality (Q) times acceptance (A) of their efforts by the recipients of their message. Acceptance is the focus of this article. Quality, such as the technical and legal aspects of the compliance officer’s message, will not be covered in this article.
The better a compliance officer’s advice is accepted within the organization, the more positive results the compliance officer will have – and the longer they will stay happy in their job. Social skills like presentation techniques and effective communication methods, and the ability to create flashy Power-Point slides are the first things that spring mind. Sure, these are important, but there is more to it than that.
As described above, the world we live in changes constantly at a high pace. These and other trends must be treated as a fact; the compliance officer cannot change the effect of social media and smartphones on people’s lives. So, they have to deal with it, and even better: use it to their advantage. The better the compliance officer knows their audience and adapts to it, the more they will succeed. The higher will be the acceptance (A) in our equation. So, one of the most important skills to master is to know and understand the audience.
4. Fitness program
How to become more fit, in the Darwinian way? Modern business teams differ considerably in age, role, culture, language, attention span and so on; if a compliance officer wants to reach all of them in an effective way, different training methods are required. The following training exercises could help a compliance officer to expand their toolbox.
4.1. Awareness training
A compliance officer can train their awareness skills by common human interaction, with different people in the organization. Different generations, genders, and cultures form target groups within your audience.
So as an exercise in this fitness program, I would recommend that a compliance officer interacts with other colleagues in the organization in addition to their usual peers – for example, join other departments at lunch or get to know colleagues from other teams. It will broaden your mind and widen your focus. Learning about personal interests, attention spans and the way people react on life and all its challenges will help you to create a targeted message and the best way to bring it across.
It may not be a standard training, but it helps you to grow and improve; for me that is training.
4.2. Whiteboard sessions with team
In my experience, sparring with your team is both fun and educational. Once in a while, get together with your team and make time to discuss a topic in depth. Start with a question on a whiteboard and explore ideas – wild or orthodox – and then try to funnel these into an answer to the question, or an advice, or something entirely different. Do it standing around the board, or anywhere else than behind your regular desks and agree to put phones on mute: allowing yourself and others to focus.
It may not formally qualify as a training either, but it helps you develop and improve; train your skills and train your team.
4.3. Peer review
Compliance officers have a tendency to consider themselves independent and objective but to project untouchable and superior. So, you also have to train your attitude. Open up to your peers and ask one of them to review a report or a presentation you have done, before you send it. You will be surprised by the accumulated wisdom that is simmering in your team, waiting to be released. The real exercise here is being able to accept advice from your peers.
4.4. Working the external network
We all know compliance officers in other business units of our corporate structure, or former colleagues who moved to a competitor, or peers we meet at networking drinks. Talk to them, call them with a question, if needed under the Chatham House rule to avoid confidentiality concerns. Learn from them and their experience to avoid repeating mistakes. Our profession leaves a tremendous amount of knowledge, examples and good practices unused. And why? Because we see compliance as a competitive edge: if we open up to our competitors we will lose business or profit. Really?
4.5. Working the internal network
And how about interacting with other disciplines within your own company? Maybe the communications department can help you in developing effective ways to communicate your message(s) to the various target groups within your audience; and HR can help identify these target groups. And outside most compliance people’s comfort zone: marketing and sales colleagues! They are familiar with identifying and targeting audiences and defining effective communications; it is their job and profession. Why not use these skills and sources of knowledge?
4.6. Look at award winning photographs
A second line compliance officer is an observer, like a photographer. They looks at the issue at hand, then takes a snapshot of it and possibly write it up in a report. The job is to observe and to coach with advice. There is no responsibility to make changes, improvements or update systems in your job description: that is first line management’s task; yours is to observe and report.
Most award-winning photos I remember show a picture of something evil (war and riots get more media attention than children helping the elderly); nothing more. But the winning photo has something extra: it makes the viewer want to make a change! Remember the picture of one Chinese man, stopping a tank on the Tiananmen square in 1989? Remember the Vietnamese girl in 1972, running away from a napalm bombing, throwing her clothes away? Strong pictures, with an embedded message. Made by a photographer who only takes pictures. That can help you improve your mindset as a second line compliance officer.
4.7. Be recognized as a person
The last exercise for compliance officers that I want to mention is perhaps the most challenging: talk to people as a person. Because the compliance officer that is seen as ‘one of us’ by their business colleagues will perform better than the distant professional, issuing regulations. As a compliance officer, one may be in the second line, but that line is still within the company. As a colleague, the compliance officer is supporting the organization in reaching its goals, they are one of us. Being perceived as human increases acceptance of your message.
4.8. Ask
Being the professional that everybody looks to for guidance or approval, the compliance officer is used to giving answers but not to ask questions, let alone ask for help. Most people are more than willing to help when asked. Practice ‘asking’ within the safety of the team and then start asking within the company. Ask for context, ask for difficulties and constraints, ask how you can help the business. Asking is a good way to start a conversation and improve acceptance within your organization.
5. Awareness is a two-way street
In essence, the fitness program is about communication and learning from it. At first, this is listeningmode only for the compliance officer: it is about receiving information and storing and processing it. Learning the needs of others, and how to respond.
But don’t forget the power of these exercises as a delivery mechanism. In every conversation, the compliance officer can send out messages on integrity, compliance, regulations to follow etc. It is the perfect opportunity for coaching others how to cope with the fast-changing regulatory environment.
And maybe, this line of communication is more effective than the mandatory e-Learning and team presentations. At least these exercises position the compliance officer as a person, a member of the team and a professional that can help; resulting in acceptance (A) increasing rapidly.
6. Summary
Based on Darwinian theory, the compliance officer that adapts best to changing circumstances has the highest chance of survival; survival of the fittest. This article explores a fitness program to train the compliance officer. The exercises mentioned are not standard training examples. Employees with different generations, cultures, and professions could help the compliance officer to understand their audience and make their message more effective. The challenge for the compliance officer is to open up and broaden their focus to coach the organization to improve and comply. General human interaction is a great way of developing skills that improve acceptance.
1 Also known as Maiers law.
