Zara is part of Santé Group’s Compliance Department, helping ensure processes, advice and client outcomes stay clear, consistent and in line with the standards expected across the industry. From supporting colleagues to reviewing documents and keeping up with regulatory changes, Zara’s role plays an important part in helping the wider team deliver the right outcomes for clients.
How would you explain your role in Compliance to someone outside the business?
Not many people know what Compliance is within a business, if you’re not in the role. Assuming it’s maybe call listening and forcing CPD upon everyone, although that’s a task I happily own, it’s my job to make sure our clients have good outcomes and our advisors/Appointed Representatives are giving good and fair advice, but also to ensure our staff and the business are abiding by the right rules & regulations. From auditing files and running reports to reviewing policies and onboarding all of our lovely staff and introducers😊!
What does a typical day in the Compliance Department look like?
There is no ‘typical day’ ! Although it’s nice to have a to-do list, things always come up and it’s about prioritising tasks. One morning I can be setting modules and running CPD reports and by the afternoon I could be creating a new policy as per any changes to regulations and business procedures. That’s what makes the job fun though, always learning new things and it’s never the same day twice.
What’s one thing people might not realise about working in Compliance?
If I’m being honest, it’s that we don’t make the rules, we just implement them. Compliance is all about being up to date with changes and abiding by FCA rules and regulations, it’s our role to make sure the business does all the right things with the right structures in place. We are there to ensure good client outcomes but we’re also there to evidence competent staff and living by our company values.
How does your work support Santé Group’s focus on good customer outcomes?
A huge part of my role is file auditing, working along side the submission bookings within compliance, we make sure all advice given by advisers and Appointed Representatives is clear, fair and not misleading. Creating work-flow checklists to support the file is complete and tells the full story. Our platform tools ensure all vulnerable customers that are flagged will receive a file audit to evidence extra oversight on the clients that may need it.
What’s your favourite part of your working day?
Of course my favourite part of the day is ticking off tasks that have been set in our Compliance Monitoring Plan, our main duties sit within the plan and they can sometimes get lost due to urgent requests here and there, but for every task I tick off it means the team has one less job to do, we have more time to help each other and I’m one step closer having a full completed month of to-dos.😊
Tell us something fun about you outside of work.
I spend a lot of my free time in the gym, I used to train in powerlifting and go to competitions but that has changed within the last few months and now I just train to have a healthy, happy, strong mind and body. I try to do a hike as often as possible (in the summer of course) to take in some views and time away from a screen!
I also enjoy anything creative, I love writing, playing music & pretending I’m good at either.
If Compliance had a motto, what do you think it would be?
‘If it aint written down, it didn’t happen’ ✌️
If you weren’t working in Compliance, what do you think you’d be doing instead?
I would be a fire fighter, it’s a career I interviewed for just before my role at Santé Group nearly 2 years ago, however due to an injury from the gym, I couldn’t complete my physical.
Everything happens for a reason, right?👀
