How to ensure my sales staff remain FCA compliant
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are responsible for regulating the financial service industry across the whole of the UK. Their rules and regulations are put in place to ensure that your customers are always protected and that the industry remains stable and a safe place to operate. One of their operational objectives is to improve protection for customers and this motto is at the heart of everything they do.
For retail sales teams, the FCA wants to ensure that you are selling to your customers in the most honest and ethical way possible. They are concerned with;
How compliant your sales process is
That you are offering top quality products that serve your customer’s needs
That you are offering good value for money
How you look after customers when things go wrong
That your customer’s needs are always being taken into account
How clear your information and selling techniques are
What actions you take to get relevant feedback from customers
How you manage and respond to any complaints
The FCA uses a regulatory and legal framework where parliament has given them tools to protect all customers from unfair treatment. There is an FCA handbook available which you can use to browse all rules and guidance plus view any of the latest changes which have been made.
Which businesses need to be compliant with FCA regulations?
Any business which is concerned with; consumer credit activities, benchmark-related regulated activities, designated investment business, electronic money, funeral plan contracts, insurance business, insurance distribution, operating a dormant account fund or regulated home finance should be compliant with FCA regulations. See the full list here.
If your sales teams operate in any of the areas above, it’s essential that you put measures in place to ensure they adhere to the rules and regulations.
Consequences if you are not compliant with FCA compliance
Working in the retail sales industry means it’s crucial that you and your team are complying with FCA rules. Your employees are interacting and selling to customers on a daily basis so your vigilance and monitoring of your compliance levels need to be rigorous.
Suspected misconduct can be detected through their market oversight, supervision, authorisation and competition divisions. This is alongside the FCA’s financial crime, intelligence and whistleblowing teams.
Failure to comply with FCA regulations can result in large fines and in worst-case scenarios, imprisonment.
So what is the best way to ensure your retail sales team are compliant with FCA regulations? Take a look at the guide below.
How to ensure my B2B sales team are compliant with the FCA
Your business will need to keep all records that prove their compliance and these must be kept for as long as they are relevant, however, in some cases this can be for up to six years.
These records will need to cover;
Management arrangements
Compliance
Sales
Training and competence
Good repute
Appointed representatives
Auditors’ reports
Complaints
Systems and controls
All of the areas mentioned above require multiple steps and constant monitoring, so let’s dive into how you can keep on top of them to ensure you stay consistently compliant.
Use digital checklists
When your sales team are busy focusing on hitting those goals it can be easy for them to forget about the steps they need to take to stay FCA compliant. Digital staff observations are perfect because you can automate them to be completed at set times, this ensures they always get done and you will receive a report of all completed checklists highlighting any checks that weren’t done.
This makes it easy for your ‘approved person’ to flag any issues or areas of misconduct.
Examples of checklist uses could be;
A digital checklist could be handed to your customer on a company tablet which asks them to rate their overall experience with your sales assistant. It could ask questions such as;
Did you feel you had all the information you needed to make the purchase?
Do you feel like your needs were taken into account?
Do you feel our products are good value for money?
This means you are getting the customer feedback that the FCA requires you to do, whilst also getting recorded confirmation from the customer that they are happy with your service.
2. They can be used to ensure your retail sales employees are following the steps in the areas mentioned above. For example, in the area of training and competence, your sales managers have to record the process they followed to recruit a sales assistant. This should include;
How they determined they were suitable
Application form
Interview notes
Credit checks
Criminal record checks
You could create a structured checklist which includes every required step in the recruitment process. You could implement it and ensure that your sales managers tick those off before they recruit anyone. You will then have a record stored on your system of compliance with those requirements.
Receive acknowledgements which show that sales staff have read your documents
Remaining FCA compliant requires you to keep records of proof wherever you can. This is why it’s so important you can demonstrate that your sales staff are reading the FCA related documents which you are sending to them.
Sure you can send an email updating your sales team about your latest data protection policy but you have no proof that they have read and understood what you are sending them. We recommend getting written confirmation.
A sales Knowledge platform allows you to quickly upload policies, procedures and processes which you can set to be acknowledged daily, monthly or weekly. You’ll receive confirmation of those that have read and understood your documents and for those that haven’t, you can send a notification reminding them to complete their confirmation of acknowledgement. All of this will be tracked and stored to keep for your FCA compliance records.
Carry out staff observations regularly
The FCA requires all regulated businesses to supervise and monitor staff to ensure they are compliant. As a sales manager, it is your job to ensure that your team are remaining competent and compliant in their job. The only way you can almost guarantee that they are acting in a compliant manner is to carry out staff observations regularly.
You will need to keep written notes of the observations you carry out and they should be used to assess things such as;
How well the employee is following your compliant sales process.
Whether they are selling to your customers in a fair and compliant manner.
Are they giving your customers all the information they need to make an informed decision?
Are they following the correct processes to keep your customer’s data safe?
Your observation should of course have the requirements that you expect them to follow which you can mark off but it should also include an action plan which details how you are going to rectify any issues if a member of staff hasn’t maintained competence.
Review's Sales Observation App makes it easy to carry out sales observations right on the shop floor. Using a mobile or tablet device, managers can effortlessly perform an observation creating to-do tasks as they go. At the end of each report, an action plan will automatically be populated from the actions and scores which were assigned in the observation.
You can set how often you want these to be carried out which means you can have full control and peace of mind that your observations are being completed on a regular basis. All reports are timestamped and tracked within the app so you can keep the records for as long as you need them.
The takeaway
Remaining FCA compliant requires constant monitoring and rigorous record-keeping is to be maintained at all times. This can be incredibly tricky when you are managing a busy sales team who are constantly on the move.
Our Sales Observations Platform encompasses the tools you need to quickly and easily maintain records of compliance whilst making it simple to keep your team updated about the latest regulations and policy updates.
If you would like more information on how Oplift could help your retail sales team stay FCA compliant, get in touch for a free demo and one of our experts will be more than happy to help.
