I'm not in HR, but this seemed the best place to post this. I have a position open for a Compliance Analyst, and I'm struggling to get qualified applicants. I know part of the issue is this is NOT a remote (work from home) position, it's not in a big city, and it's not an officer level. So, I'm curious - how do others get people interested in compliance/BSA positions? Where are some places you post? (we are on several career sites) When you are a non-exempt compliance person looking for a position, what sites are you using to search for a job?

We use LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor. Just my opinion - you have some serious hurdles to overcome. Have you thought about using a professional recruiter or allowing candidates to work remotely? It's a brave new world and remote work is becoming more common.

It is, and as a community bank, management just isn't ready to make that giant leap - particularly with new hires who have no proven work history with the bank. We did a good job getting the dept all remote a the initial part of the pandemic, then doing rotating teams in/out throughout...but, that was with my dept having all long time staff. I am actually losing one of my employees to a 100% remote position she got at a very large institution - again, management just wasn't ready for that. I suspect a year or two from now, that will not be an option any longer. We may have to go to a recruiter - HR just doesn't typically do that for a non-officer position.

Generally we do not use recruiters for non-officer positions. We have a employee referral program were if an employee refers a candidate and they are hired the employee gets a bonus at the time of hire and then again at 6 months if the new employee works out. Also depending on your bank, we have had some luck picking employees from our branches. We have some sharp people out there and sometimes they just want a chance.

So, I'm curious - how do others get people interested in compliance/BSA positions?

Promote from within? Perhaps an experienced new account person?

When moving from a branch position to BSA/Compliance, we have had better luck with tellers than new account personnel.

Several years ago when I needed a compliance specialist with a specific background in lending compliance, we needed to use a recruiter. The position was not an officer level and it worked, it was the only way we could get qualified candidates.

We too are having issues finding qualified candidates for open positions. We have seven openings in our BSA Department right now and more than half of them left to go to another bank where they can work 100% remote. This is the way things are moving and until the pandemic is over, it appears that banks that are reluctant to change are going to be the losers in this game. In addition to that, our HR Director stated that some employees are just leaving banking altogether and moving on to something else. In the meantime, we are filling the positions with temps. Not an ideal situation.

I was just able to hire two operational risk specialist (consumer deposit ops and consumer loan ops) and a compliance person away from a competitor because we will permit continued remote work up to 80% and the competitor is requiring a return to office 5 days a week.

Would that be USAA? Banks here are losing a large number of employees to USAA. Last I heard, they were on their way to hiring 500+ BSA Employees. Larger banks are going to start learning quickly that BSA can be done entirely remote. Even though I re-worked my entire program here to be automated at a small community bank, executive management refused to let employees work remote, due to fairness and IT security. Qualified candidates are hard enough to come by to begin with, and if Presidents and Boards continue to refuse to adapt, programs will be begin to fail with temps/unqualified individuals. In this Covid era, remote work is the 100% driving force it appears and a question that gets brought up in every interview I conduct.

I would definitely look at your talent within the company. All three of my BSA employees came from branch or contact center. One has been in BSA for 10+ years now, one 3+ years, and I just one hired from a branch last December.

My focus was finding someone smart, curious, that could write well (I actually made them do a couple of writing samples!). I can teach them what to look for, how to craft a narrative, etc. as long as they were interested in research and digging into things. Bonus was that they already know the systems and policies and procedures!

I do worry that when we make the move to hybrid (3 days in office, two at home) that I will lose someone to a remote position. I hope that before that happens I can convince upper management that some areas function VERY WELL from home. We've got the IT security and the proof we can be productive taken care of, but it's all about "our culture" that they want to preserve. *eyeroll*

Good luck on your search everyone!
-K

When management talks about "fairness" for some employees working from home, ask them how it's fair that they make two, three ,four or five times more than the front line staff who are subjected to lots of risks senior managers never face.

I'm sure that will go over like a rock...but my point is different people have different jobs, and they come with different responsibility and different perks. One size does not fit all.

I don't know of (m)any banks that consider a front line staffer for hazardous duty pay and pump up their income due to those risks. Hopefully the teller isn't in a war zone. At the end of the day different jobs get different pay because they're different.

After a couple of disastrous hires, I make all my applicants provide writing skills.

CULady & InFairness, loved the comments. Had the reverse problem - had a boss who wrote as he spoke. We had to proof his basic memo's.

One Audit memo stands out - his report to the CEO and COO (after a branch robbery) - before re-write. "The robbers took 20 $100 travelers checks totaling $2,000. Dem guys escaped in a waiting car."

One of my performance indicators was to proof his work. (Oh, he was a CPA originally from NY.)

were the culprits identified as "2 yutes?"