Compliance has been a buoyant market for many years. Whilst COVID-19 has been really challenging to navigate and many businesses have had to look at cost saving measures, compliance professionals within financial services have mostly been retained. Despite the broader market, regulatory pressures remain and having professionals to prepare businesses to operate appropriately are key.
We have seen an increasing number of compliance professionals facing a change in role or potentially redundancy due to cost itself and reduction of spend from the top down.
Read our top tips to keep your compliance career on track during and post-COVID.
Top tips for keeping your compliance career on track
- Always think about the role you are taking and what you will get from it when moving. Don’t think about this job for just what it offers, but also what doors it will open for your next role, whether that's internally within the company you are joining or a future external role.
- Stay active and network on LinkedIn and in any professionals groups you are part of.
- Consider completing additional qualifications, if these will add strength to your CV future job applications.
- Talk to people – talk to recruiters who are specialists within their market and get an understanding of hot areas to be in and key skills required.
- Keeping yourself marketable is important. If you are made redundant, don’t wait 12 months to start looking for new roles because you’ve been paid off – professionals need to keep their experience current, particularly in a changing environment.
- Be flexible on compensation where you can: look at the overall package as well as what career prospects this opportunity can lead to, the benefits and WFH availability.
- If you are furloughed, stay engaged with your employer. Enquire about training sessions (training is allowed as part of the furlough scheme) or try to organise a quiz or something to keep in touch with your team.
Make yourself more employable
- Keep market knowledge current: stay engaged with the business you work for and the wider professional community.
- Develop technical skills: read up on new regulations and take courses to support your understanding.
- Consider how you are developing soft skills: managing or motivating a team remotely, managing risk or compliance remotely etc. – these skills will be valuable and future employers may ask how you fared during these times.
- Update your LinkedIn to accurately reflect current role; think about writing a post or a blog to support what you are seeing with respect to regulation; consider attending or even running some webinars.
How to upskill your team
If you are managing a furloughed team, use this time wisely and effectively by encouraging your team to stay connected and keep up with the changing market requirements:
- If time and budget allow, look at courses to develop their technical knowledge.
- Maintain goals and ensure that promotions and development points which were discussed and promised at the start of the year are continuously reviewed.
- Working remotely and flexibly should not stall their career and development.
- Appreciate that training remotely can be challenging but there are support tools available.
Specialisms and skill sets in demand for compliance professionals
- Key skills: analytical, diligent, approachable, methodical, and ultimately able to navigate the grey areas, read rules and interpret their impact on the business.
- Specialisms across compliance for both regulatory and financial crime where we have seen roles in all areas, not focused on any verticals, and expect this to remain.
