From what we’ve heard, the WFH experience has been successful for financial services firms. The shine of being at home every day may be wearing off, but most people can WFH successfully. We did hear stories of laptops being frantically delivered in March, but with these logistical problems now overcome, all firms were prepared when the Prime Minister changed his mind about going back to work. However, early on in the crisis it felt that the UK was following a more Swedish approach to COVID, but the decision to instigate a lockdown created many unintended consequences and one of these was heightened compliance risks.
On the 4th March 2020, the FCA published the following statement:
“We expect all firms to have contingency plans in place to deal with major events. Alongside the Bank we are actively reviewing the contingency plans of a wide range of firms. This includes assessments of operational risks, the ability of firms to continue to operate effectively and the steps firms are taking to serve and support their customers…”
“…We expect firms to take all reasonable steps to meet their regulatory obligations…If firms are able to meet these standards and undertake these activities from backup sites or with staff working from home, we have no objection to this.”
Want to receive future insights & research to your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter!
Operational resilience has been tested to the limit and as time has gone on more questions have developed. Many of these have focuses on supervision and security and include:
- What are the jurisdictional risks? Many people are now working in other jurisdictions, some of which aren’t covered by GDPR and again data is in homes.
- Were firms able to arrange call recording during lockdown?
- Are home network firewalls sufficient to protect data?
- How do firms supervise without impinging on an individual's right to privacy? Particularly if individuals use work laptops to check personal emails etc
- What printing permissions are required and what is the process for secure data destruction?
We feel that flexible working will be an essential tool in attracting top talent when the situation around COVID normalises. Results from our survey “the future of the world of work” lead us to believe that a blended week of 2-3 days in the office with the remainder at home will work well for most firms. Therefore, firms now need to consider the long term implications of WFH and review their compliance policies and procedures to now account for these new factors.
About Fram Search
Fram’s Corporate Functions Practice provides a deeply consultative recruitment service focusing on Finance & Accounting, Legal & Compliance, and Operations functions.
Established in 2010, Fram Search is a specialist financial services recruitment consultancy. We focus on mid-to-senior hires in the UK and internationally, providing high quality contingent and retained recruitment services, focusing on permanent & interim placements at all levels.
We have long established relationships, outstanding market knowledge, and access to deep talent pools. Fram takes a highly consultative approach, combining outstanding tech with a human approach. We are proud that our contingent fill rate is nearly three the industry average and we augment our retained search methodology with rigorous psychometric testing. We take ESG seriously, we are champions of diversity and all staff have undertaken unconscious bias training, we also carbon offset.
Please contact us on 01525 864 372 / [email protected] to learn more.
Share this Post