How to be a Compliant & Responsible Supervisor

The FCA rules make it quite clear. Anyone tasked with supervising employees of a financial services firm is expected to have ‘the necessary coaching and assessment skills as well as technical knowledge to act as a competent supervisor and assessor’.

You are expected to correctly monitor and assess the competence of those individuals for whom you are responsible. So firms must ensure they are doing everything required to carefully select and develop those in a supervisory role.

Yet far too many firms rely on appraisals and file reviews as the main tools to establish competence. The regulator deems this approach insufficient.

Training that’s about more than the regulations

This course is not just about helping you meet your regulatory requirements. Becoming a more effective supervisor can also have profound effects on the success of your firm and, as a result, your career.

Help people reach their potential – Good coaching can be transformative. By learning tried and tested coaching techniques, you’ll be better able to improve the performance of others (and that makes you incredibly valuable to any firm).

Avoid the wrath of the regulator – While there are no specific qualifications required by the FCA for those in a supervisory position. Poor supervision of employees that leads to negative customer or industry outcomes will have serious repercussions.

Become a more efficient supervisor – Your employees should always be supervised. But how closely depends on their experience and whether they’ve been assessed as competent. By gaining a better understanding of the regulator’s expectations, you can more efficiently allocate your supervisory time to those individuals who need it most.

Improve communication within your firm – Improving your skills as a supervisor helps open the channels of communication between employees and management. This leads to a greater awareness of issues, allowing you to combat them more quickly.

The Course Agenda

Changing roles and responsibilities of a supervisor – To understand the regulatory background and framework for supervision

• Landscape changes of supervision and how Certification is set to increase pressure upon supervisors
• Links to TCF and wider issues for the firm and senior managers (Compliance monitoring and senior managers oversight)
• Spans of control
• Supervision in practice – Changing levels of necessary supervision

Assessing competence – To know the processes for assessing competence and a structured model to achieve this

• Process for attaining competence
• Using the ORCE model to capture evidence

Monitoring competence- To understand the importance of monitoring competence and To describe the types of activity which can be used as evidence

• Benefits of monitoring
• Risk based format for establishing appropriate levels of supervision
• Activities which can be used to provide evidence of monitoring

Reviewing performance – To recognise the importance of appraisals and how these are used as a tool

• Using the performance appraisal as part of supervision
• Using the SMART model to save you time

Developing competence through coaching – To understand the benefits of coaching to develop individuals

• Coaching using the GROW to save time and improve performance

Review and action plan – To consolidate the learning and how this will be put into practice

• What do you have to do differently and how will you start