From working as a lawyer to risk and compliance governance
I studied Law and American Studies at Keele University and went on to complete my Legal Practice Course, qualifying as a Solicitor in 2011. I qualified in Civil Litigation and Insurance Fraud where my work involved defending insurance companies and their customers against fraudulent motor claims. First Central was one of my insurer clients and after going on maternity leave with my first child, a job came up to work within the fraud team which I decided to take. Being a new parent, it provided me with flexibility as well as meaning I could move away from awful chargeable time within Private Practice. After a couple of years in that role, I was successful in applying for a position in Compliance as a Business Partner. The world of Compliance has many similarities to that of the Legal world so it really appealed to me. I have since worked my way up to become Compliance Monitoring Manager and now my current role of Risk and Compliance Governance Manager.
I support the Risk and Compliance teams with all things governance.
As the Risk and Compliance Governance Manager, I lead on the risk and compliance reporting through the management of a reporting tracker, providing reminders to the teams of deadlines and collation of committee reporting. We hold monthly governance meetings with each pillar and I manage the collation of the packs to provide the Execs with a clear view of their risk and compliance environment. I am the coordinator for all internal Risk and Compliance governance documents, procedure manuals and handbooks, in particular the Risk and Compliance Governance Manual which I have drafted to support our team and the business with our processes and approach. I also manage the regulatory technology systems within our teams which include Protecht (Risk Management Platform) and Clausematch (Policy Management System and Portal) from an administrative perspective. I also provide support to the Risk and Compliance Director with any reporting or ad-hoc tasks which can include analysis of strategic driver KPI data or resource modelling for the teams.
The variety of the day to day and co-ordinating collaboration.
I really enjoy that, while I have a series of tasks I must complete each month, I have so much variety in what I do because I am supporting different teams. Risk, Compliance and Data Protection are very different in terms of requirements as well as how they work and collaborate and I think my people management skills and co-ordination are effective here. I also feel like I am supporting the business, even if it’s only in a small way through the training of Protecht or the reporting of actions. A part of my role is to ensure rigour is applied and I can achieve that in those tasks.
Think about the skills that you have to offer and emphasise them!
Whatever you’re good at, whether it be organisation or leadership or analytics, try your best to draw on those skills within your current role to really showcase what you do well. And not just in your role, look at other roles such as championing or volunteering to provide additional opportunities to really highlight what you are good at. This may then give you the chance to consider where you have improvements to make and think about how that can be achieved through shadowing, mentoring or further education / courses. There are so many opportunities at First Central to shine a light on our talents or improve our weaknesses. Take them!
My idea of a Rigorously Running Your Pillar Champion role
I came up with the idea of needing a champion role in the business that would be a contact point in each pillar for the risk and compliance teams, driving improved risk culture and communication across pillars. This developed into the idea of having a ‘Rigorously Running Your Pillar Champion role’ which was presented to and approved by our Execs. Champions and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) from the risk and compliance teams will meet each month to discuss any initiatives they’re rolling out and track the progress of Strategic Driver KPIs discussing changes in performance and reasons for this. We’ve had two meetings so far which have been beneficial, already providing further knowledge about in-pillar activity and driving better awareness of risk and compliance.
