At FINTRAIL, we strive to improve diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in all aspects of anti-financial crime. We co-created the FinCrime Principles of Inclusion to increase awareness of this important area and to provide practical, implementable guidance. One of the fundamental places to address this topic is hiring — DE&I considerations need to be front and centre when building and scaling financial crime teams.
Why does having a diverse group of anti-financial crime professionals matter?
Many organisations do not have a formal strategy for improving diversity and inclusion. Yet studies show companies with a more diverse workforce outperform their peers financially. They attract stronger talent, support better decision making, and improve risk management. A Forbes Insight survey found that diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and more than 75% of job seekers state that diversity is a key factor when considering companies and job offers.
With regards to financial crime teams in particular, a diverse and innovative team will bring different perspectives to better identify and manage risk, and to build onboarding and risk assessment processes that are not discriminatory. More diverse teams can better spot unintentional bias in both your manual and automated control frameworks, ensuring more effective risk mitigation. They can also play an important role in minimising financial exclusion, reaping commercial benefits and ensuring you provide fair access and treatment for all customers.
The benefits of a diverse team are thus all-encompassing and well established. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to kick start the conversation on creating a more equal and inclusive workforce, and make sure you’re reaping the benefits:
Are all your requirements necessary? Stipulating unnecessary requirements will limit the pool of potential candidates. To open up a more diverse pool and promote a multidisciplinary and thriving environment, focus on hiring for skills, aptitude and a passion for financial crime.
Do you need to have formal tertiary education for your role profiles? Not everyone follows traditional educational paths, but this does not mean they are not as passionate, determined or capable as those that do.
Do you specify local regulatory experience? This can alienate those from other countries, who may have a wealth of transferable knowledge.
Is industry experience truly essential? For certain roles, candidates from other industries may be able to demonstrate transferable skills and knowledge, while also bringing additional insights to the table.
How do you source candidates? Specify your diversity requirements to recruitment firms and ask for evidence of how they incorporate DE&I into their process. Explore new recruitment channels that attract diverse candidates. Use diversity-focused networking events, job fairs or job sites. Consider how you use social media to promote roles - LinkedIn is often used as a primary platform, but this can limit the profile and demographic of candidates to people already in your personal network. There is a large pool of diverse candidates out there – you can find them with a bit of effort and change in approach.
How can you address unconscious bias? It is important to understand how bias can manifest itself, and how easy it can be to overlook qualified diverse candidates. A US study found that ‘applicants with Black-sounding names received 14% fewer interview offers than their otherwise identical white counterparts’. Consider removing unnecessary identifiers like names, gender, or other personal information and photographs from applications and CVs, to reduce biased first impressions.
Train your staff to identify bias and support a more inclusive interview process.
Have a diverse group of decision-makers involved in the hiring process.
Decision-making criteria must be clear and evidence-based against relevant competencies.
Is your language inclusive? The language used in role profiles and interviews is powerful – a window into your company's culture. Each role profile is an opportunity to hook in new talent and demonstrate your company’s values.
Are you inclusive in how you frame your roles? Studies show that gender-coded words can significantly reduce the number of female candidates, and that “aggressive” language can put off both women and mature applicants. The use of words like ‘expert’ can also alienate many underrepresented groups.
Are you using pronouns correctly in the process?
Be clear about how you can support candidates with different personal setups. Flexible, hybrid or remote roles can attract new pools of people.
Include a diversity statement in role profiles that aligns to your company values.
Are you stigmatising career breaks? A recent survey highlighted that 62% of people globally have taken a career break, yet 20% of hiring managers would reject such candidates. Career breaks come in many different forms; they may mean full-time parenting, caregiving, travelling or other life events. These life experiences can create valuable skills and experiences for the workplace. Those restarting a career after a break should not find it as challenging as they do. Reframe your hiring criteria and interview questions to explore how experience from a career break can add value to your team.
Are you using data? Data analytics can inform where barriers may exist for candidates in the recruitment process and allow you to address it. Start by establishing the target goals and metrics you will use to track your progress. Making data-driven hiring decisions helps companies transform their recruiting processes and build truly diverse teams. The FCA and PRA have indicated they are planning to include diversity criteria in how they regulate, and to look at the effective use of data to track progress and enhance DE&I strategies. Understanding the data behind your hiring choices can inform and educate your future strategy.
Does culture matter? Yes! Having an employer brand that celebrates diversity at all levels of the organisation is an important factor for many. This translates to a diverse workforce from C–level to entry level that supports growth and development for all. Put your strategy into action. Showcase it to potential employees – hearing from their peers via your careers materials or website is a powerful way to reflect your commitment.
How to look at DE&I beyond hiring
DE&I must not be a one-off focus at hiring – it needs to be in the DNA and values of the organisation. Crucial to this is making people feel supported and included across the employee lifecycle. Factors to consider include:
Ensuring your HR policies such as flexible working and parental leave are as supportive as possible for all employees
Access to development, mentoring or networking for all
Creating networks and forums that collaborate to amplify everyone’s voices
Creating events and activities to promote and celebrate diversity
An effective strategy needs a clear purpose linked to an organsiational and people strategy to avoid it being tokenistic. The goal is to achieve a strong culture of inclusivity.
We want to inspire change through financial crime hiring best practices. Gender, race, family circumstances, religion, sexual orientation, disability and other factors must not disadvantage anyone.
How else are the FINTRAIL team exploring diversity issues? Each team member has personal accountability in raising awareness and promoting diversity, and we have a company-wide dedicated Diversity Equality and Inclusion (DEI) strategy.
A few of our activities include partnering with ACAMS to promote financial crime internships for BAME professionals, widening our candidate pool when hiring, and the creation of an internal DEI forum for team members to openly discuss adversity and share best practice.
We’d love to hear what you are doing either individually or as a firm to enable a diverse and inclusive workplace. If you are interested in speaking to the FINTRAIL team about the topics discussed here or any other anti-financial crime topics, please email us at: contact@fintrail.com