A compliance officer is an employee of a company that ensures the firm is in compliance with its outside regulatory and legal requirements as well as internal policies and bylaws.
What Does a Compliance Officer Do?
Compliance officers typically provide in-house services that help businesses identify and mitigate legal and regulatory risk. According to the Robert Half’s compliance officer review, compliance officers may:
Design, implement, and monitor a company’s compliance program
Coordinate and comply with state and federal regulations and regulators
Create and coordinate reporting channels for compliance issues
Develop company compliance communications
What Skills Does a Compliance Officer Need?
A compliance officer may find themselves dealing with influencer marketing campaigns and ensuring they’re compliant. Compliance officers who work for organizations that expand their services to other countries will need to work within international laws and regulations and may need to manage teams abroad
Below are steps to Become A Compliance Officer South Africa
The options to what a compliance officer can do are endless. If working as a compliance officer interests you, here’s how to become one.
Step 1: Determine a Field
Compliance officers work in all types of industries. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) occupation and wage report on compliance officers, the industries with the highest level of employment for compliance officers, ranked with 2018 employment numbers, were
Federal executive branch: 56,980
State government, excluding schools and hospitals: 36,160
Local government, excluding schools and hospitals: 28,560
Management of companies and enterprises: 18,000
Credit intermediation and related activities: 10,440
Step 2: Earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Your Field of Choice
Typically, a bachelor’s degree is the bare minimum education a compliance officer must have. There is no specific compliance officer degree.
In many cases, people looking to pursue a compliance officer career will earn a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, finance or business.
To become a compliance officer in health care, you may want to earn a bachelor’s degree in a health care–related field like nursing, health care administration or health care management. Health care compliance officers may need certifications.
Step 3: Gain Work Experience
Compliance officers should have intricate knowledge of the fields in which they work.
They should know the inner workings of organization operations and how compliance relates to those.
Getting work experience in a chosen area may help a professional move into a compliance role. Aspiring compliance officers may want to seek out opportunities to lead and manage since they’ll be doing that in an officer role.
Step 4: Get Certifications and Continue Learning
Some compliance areas benefit from or require specific compliance certifications.
There are organizations that will require the compliance officer to complete the Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional Program (CCEP) via the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE).
The Ethics and Compliance Officer Association (ECOA), National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU), International Academy of Business and Financial Management (IABFM) and American Bankers Association (ABA) also offer compliance certifications.
What Skills Does a Compliance Officer Need?
A compliance officer may find themselves dealing with influencer marketing campaigns and ensuring they’re compliant.
Compliance officers who work for organizations that expand their services to other countries will need to work within international laws and regulations and may need to manage teams abroad.
Salary Outlook of Compliance Officers
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the national mean annual wage for compliance officers was R 1100989.20 There were an estimated 317,600 workers in compliance officer roles in the South Africa, with the highest 10% of compliance officers earning an average annual wage of 1661685.14
Higher education also affects salary. According to a BLS report on how educational attainment affects earnings, the median weekly earnings for those with a master’s degree were R 22624.31 in 2019, compared to R 18861.15 for those with a bachelor’s degree.
According to the BLS, employment for compliance officers is strong in many areas across the United States, with location quotients well above one in many areas, which indicates the occupation has a higher share of employment than average.
What are the requirements to become a compliance officer?
A compliance officer should be educated to degree level and will ideally have industry-specific qualifications.
Compliance officer qualifications, skills and experience
Strong ethics.
Good critical thinking skills.
Attention to detail.
Collaboration.
Independence and autonomy.
Good relationship-building skill.
Do compliance officers use math in South Africa?
This resume example shows just one way compliance specialists use this skill: “accountants and auditors must be able to analyze, compare, and interpret facts and figures, although complex math skills are not necessary.” Here’s an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical compliance.
Is compliance a good career path?
A circuitous path into and through the compliance profession is pretty common among compliance professionals. But whether you are going to spend the next 50 years working in compliance or you’re just passing through, it is a rewarding, exciting, satisfying and varied experience.
Are compliance jobs stressful?
Working in compliance is not that stressful
You will also not have that much stress as a compliance officer. Sure, sometimes you will have to deal with really annoying colleagues and will have to explain to them how they should implement certain rules and regulations for quite a long time.
How do I get a job in compliance with no experience in South Africa ?
A great route for people with little experience is by working with Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC) and due diligence controls, experts say. Banks often hire for these roles on a temporary basis, said Owen, giving prospective compliance employees an opportunity for exposure.
Are compliance jobs in demand in South Africa ?
Compliance officers are in demand. Membership in both the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and the Health Care Compliance Association has grown at 20-plus percent annually for the past five years, says Roy Snell, chief executive officer with both organizations.
Are compliance managers in demand?
Demand for Compliance Managers is expected to go up, with an expected 621,040 new jobs filled by 2018. This represents an annual increase of 22.64 percent over the next few years.
Why should we hire you as a compliance officer?
A compliance officer makes sure a company is following all laws, regulations, and rules that pertain to its industry. They will also need to address industry-specific issues, such as ‘what would you do if an employee violated the company’s code of conduct?’