Findings come as pressure mounts for firms in the sector to implement effective systems to better prevent bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace
Smarsh, the global leader in communications data and intelligence, published the results of its latest research. The study reveals that 66% of UK employees working in the financial services and insurance sectors are supportive of using artificial intelligence (AI) to help detect non-financial misconduct (NFM) in their organisation’s workplace communications. Additionally, the research also indicates that 59% of employees have either witnessed or personally experienced NFM in their organisation.
“Non-financial misconduct has been brought to the forefront in recent years, and many industries have worked to transform their attitudes and ability to spot and prevent bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace”
NFM is receiving increased attention from the government and regulators following the publication of the House of Commons Treasury Committee’s ‘Sexism in the City’ report earlier this year. As a result, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is set to implement new rules and expects firms to have effective systems in place to identify and mitigate NFM related risks. Smarsh’s recent research highlights the following findings:
- Most respondents (89%) are supportive of these potential rules and regulations.
- With 94% saying that it is “very important” that NFM in their workplace is identified and responded to, the findings indicate that firms in the sector also have support from their employees to leverage technologies to help them do so.
- This is particularly relevant, as 63% are not completely confident that their organisation’s current communication monitoring systems can effectively detect NFM instances.
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“Non-financial misconduct has been brought to the forefront in recent years, and many industries have worked to transform their attitudes and ability to spot and prevent bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace,” said Paul Taylor, Vice President of Product at Smarsh. “The City must now ask itself how it can take the necessary steps to follow suit. The first step is to establish effective systems that can identify NFM instances, particularly those that occur over workplace communications channels. This communication data is already being archived and used for other regulatory and compliance purposes, so it is a logical starting point. The next step will be to leverage AI to pinpoint misconduct at scale, given the variety of misconduct scenarios and the volume of data accumulating from daily firm communications.”
AI-enabled compliance and communications surveillance solutions such as Smarsh Enterprise Conduct will be critical to help firms effectively and efficiently monitor workplace communications to proactively identify and flag NFM instances occurring over a range of channels so that they can be investigated.
The findings also reveal that there is not only a potential incoming regulatory requirement to address the NFM issue, but that not doing so could impact a firm’s ability to attract and retain staff as highlighted in the following findings:
- Over three-quarters of respondents (78%) say that knowing NFM is being identified and responded to plays a part in whether they would stay at their current organisation.
- This view is held across the board for both male (79%) and female (75%) employees.
- However, it is slightly more important for younger employees (77% of 18–24-year-olds) compared to their older counterparts (69% of those over 35).
“As a communications compliance partner to 90% of the top global financial institutions, Smarsh understands there is an opportunity for firms to leverage the data they are already storing for recordkeeping and detection of financial crime, to also help identify NFM instances that threaten organisational culture, reputation and their bottom line, “ said Tom Padgett, President of Enterprise at Smarsh. “Financial services and insurance firms can identify NFM instances at scale by deploying purpose-built AI to help them do exactly this in an evolving regulatory environment.”
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