Risk, Compliance, Financial Crime, Internal Audit and Governance are becoming increasingly interconnected hiring priorities.
For financial services employers, that creates an important workforce question. As responsibilities overlap, where should specialist capability sit, which skills does the organisation need, and where could gaps create additional exposure?
From changing regulatory requirements to large scale KYC programmes, the decisions hiring leaders make need to reflect how these functions work together.
Here are eight areas to consider when planning GRC hiring.
1. What does an effective GRC team look like?
GRC hiring cannot always be considered function by function.
Risk, Compliance, Financial Crime, Internal Audit and Governance may have distinct responsibilities, but there is increasing overlap between the expertise organisations require across these areas.
For hiring leaders, this makes team design an important starting point. Before opening another vacancy, organisations need to understand their existing specialist skills, where responsibilities intersect and where genuine capability gaps sit.
That can help hiring teams make more considered decisions about the roles they need rather than treating every vacancy as an isolated requirement.
2. How is regulation affecting GRC hiring requirements?
Consumer Duty, SMCR and wider regulatory requirements continue to influence the skills financial services organisations need.
The hiring challenge is therefore closely connected to regulatory change. Employers need to identify where new or evolving requirements create capability gaps before those gaps become business risks.
This puts greater importance on forward workforce planning. Understanding the expertise already available within the business, and where additional specialist knowledge may be required, can help organisations prepare their teams around regulatory requirements.
3. Why do risk teams need more than technical expertise?
Technical knowledge is only part of the requirement for many risk roles.
Financial services organisations also need professionals who can understand regulation, communicate effectively with senior stakeholders and apply their technical knowledge within a commercial setting.
Finding all of those capabilities in one person can make specialist talent harder to secure.
For hiring teams, defining these requirements clearly is important. It can help distinguish between technical skills that are essential from day one and wider capabilities that determine whether somebody can operate effectively within the organisation.
4. Do KYC and Financial Crime programmes need a different resourcing approach?
Large KYC remediation and Financial Crime programmes create different workforce requirements from an individual permanent hire.
Volume, speed, specialist knowledge and delivery capacity all need to be considered when deciding how to resource the work.
This means the recruitment question extends beyond who to hire. Organisations also need to consider the resourcing model that best reflects the scale and timeframe of the programme.
Where a business needs significant specialist capacity within a defined period, approaching the requirement vacancy by vacancy may not provide the delivery capability needed.
5. Why do senior regulatory appointments carry greater hiring risk?
SMF, PCF and other senior GRC appointments require careful assessment.
Finding someone with the right experience on their CV is only one part of the decision. Fit & Proper assessment, regulatory expectations, leadership capability and long term suitability all need to be considered.
The consequences of getting a senior appointment wrong also make the quality of the hiring process particularly important.
Hiring teams need a clear understanding of what successful leadership looks like within the organisation, alongside the technical and regulatory experience required for the position.
6. Why does GRC hiring become more complex across borders?
There is no single GRC talent market.
The UK, Ireland, DACH, Luxembourg and US each bring different regulatory requirements and talent considerations. For organisations operating across several of these markets, understanding local talent pools becomes an important part of workforce planning.
A hiring strategy that works in one location cannot automatically be replicated elsewhere.
Employers need to consider where relevant expertise is available and how local requirements affect the type of professionals they need to hire.
7. Why does salary data only tell part of the GRC hiring story?
Salary benchmarking can inform a hiring strategy, but it does not provide the complete picture.
Effective GRC workforce planning also requires an understanding of talent availability, competing demand, candidate expectations and specialist skill shortages.
Together, this information can give employers a more useful basis for deciding where, when and how to hire.
For hiring leaders, the distinction matters. Knowing what a role typically pays does not necessarily tell you how difficult that person will be to find or what will be required to secure them.
8. How should hiring leaders bring GRC workforce planning together?
Risk. Compliance. Financial Crime. Governance.
They are different functions, but they share a common purpose: protecting organisations from regulatory, financial and reputational exposure.
Hiring strategies should reflect how closely those functions interact.
Rather than approaching each requirement independently, organisations can look across their GRC capability to understand where expertise already exists, where responsibilities overlap and where additional talent is required.
What this means for GRC hiring leaders
The common thread across these eight areas is the need to think beyond individual vacancies.
Hiring leaders need to consider:
- how GRC teams are structured
- where regulatory requirements are creating capability gaps
- which roles require technical expertise alongside commercial and stakeholder skills
- whether large programmes need a different resourcing model
- how senior appointments should be assessed
- how talent availability differs between international markets
- what workforce intelligence is needed alongside salary data
- how Risk, Compliance, Financial Crime and Governance hiring priorities connect
That creates a stronger foundation for deciding what expertise is needed, where to find it and how best to bring it into the organisation.
Building GRC capability with Broadgate
GRC hiring decisions have consequences beyond filling an open role. They influence how effectively organisations can respond to regulatory requirements, resource specialist programmes and build the Risk, Compliance, Financial Crime and Governance capability they need.
Broadgate supports organisations hiring across these specialist functions, from individual appointments to wider workforce requirements.
Speak to the Broadgate team about your GRC hiring requirements and the specialist capability your organisation needs.