ARTICLE...
Compliance Vs Cash
In the August 2009 edition of Credit Today, the publication's editor, Heather Greig-Smith wrote an article that questioned the compliance issues surrounding debt collection. In response, Susan Alabaster, Head of HR & Compliance at Tessera wrote an open letter to Heather, outlining what her team – and responsible members of the industry – are doing to make a difference.
Dear Heather,
In response to your item entitled Compliance and Cash in the August edition of Credit Today you ask whether any DCAs reward staff for compliance in addition to cash collected. We do.
Our collector bonus scheme is designed to incentivise collectors for their pounds collected however this can be significantly affected by the methods they use to recover that money because we reward individuals for performance across quantity and quality.
Tessera takes compliance seriously and we believe that we can be profitable and compliant – indeed if each call is handled correctly and compliantly we are more able to reach agreement with the debtor for repayment.
We employ a full time Quality Assurance Officer who randomly samples and scores our collectors calls. The purpose of our QA programme is to ensure that all our collectors take an ethical approach to collections and ensure compliance with legislation and industry codes of practice. In addition to a structured training programme, regular feedback and coaching are provided to our collectors by our training team and team leaders to ensure our standards remain high.
The results of the QA scores are factored into our bonus calculations – so a collector who achieves an excellent QA rating can double their bonus whereas a collector who breaches compliance will be penalised under the scheme and could forfeit their entire bonus.
We believe this is the right approach and sends the right message to our staff.
Kind regards,
Susan Alabaster
Head of HR & Compliance, Tessera Credit Services Ltd
Original article courtesy of DBSG. For further information visit www.dbsg-uk.com.
