What Keeps Compliance Experts in the Business

Recruiting the best employee can pose a challenge in the best of times. Attracting and hiring the best people is an art form. But when your industry experiences a multi-year downturn, retention separates the leaders from the rest.

Some companies use compensation plans or bonuses to keep their best people. Others work with their best people on career development plans designed to grow them into the future leaders the company needs. The key in all of this is finding out what appeals most to the employees you’re working to retain.

In some parts of a business, this is easier than in others. Compliance comes to mind.

Compliance experts are expected to identify any problem before it becomes a problem and then mitigate the risk without slowing down the process. A mistake can be catastrophic, resulting in lost customers, high fines and fees, and even the failure of the business. Why people get into this part of the business is a mystery to most, so keeping them is quite a challenge.

But according to Mortgage Cadence Director of Compliance Melissa Kozicki, it doesn’t have to be.

We sat down with her to find out why she’s been in the mortgage compliance business so long and what makes her stay.

Falling Headfirst Into an Exciting Challenge

Kozicki will be the first to tell you that the compliance department is often viewed as the home of unglamorous jobs.

“People think we love enforcing rigid rules and throwing up red tape that throws off their development roadmap,” she said but adds that she understands. After all, she runs a team charged with making sure everyone operates by the book as they pursue ambitious goals, roll out cutting-edge innovations, and seek additional revenue. “It's a role that can easily feel more like policing than partnership.”

So, what motivates compliance professionals to stay engaged in such a potentially frustrating business function with external influences? What makes the daily grind of policies, audits, and enforcement actions worthwhile over the long haul?

For many veteran compliance minds, it starts with the intellectual challenge and constant learning opportunities.

The multi-faceted nature of the work from a vendor perspective is also stimulating. Instead of dealing with just one regulator and framework, compliance consultants must harmonize policies and strategies across CFPB, OCC, FDIC, state bodies, and more. Diverging interpretations transform compliance into a high-dimensional logic puzzle demanding intellectual stamina.

“No two days are ever the same,” Kozicki says. “There are new regulations, new initiatives, new obstacles, and they all demand creative problem-solving. It exercises mental muscles in an entirely different way than operational execution roles.”

According to Kozicki, compliance is a field with unlimited potential for continuing education and development. It takes a special kind of person to love this work, but companies that find them have found gold. Their insatiable appetite for expanding their expertise helps fend off stagnation and burnout.

Staying Motivated in a Challenging Field

Kozicki says that management can keep compliance experts motivated by helping others see them as enablers and advocates instead of just blockers. While they have to enforce boundaries at times, a better view of their role is facilitating legitimate business aims through expert risk management strategies. “Nobody wants to walk into a room knowing they’ll immediately be considered the buzz kill. Treating compliance staff like valued colleagues rather than obstacles can go a long way to increasing their satisfaction and performance – if they feel valued they will try even harder to add value.”

It's an ambassador mindset allowing compliance leaders to be strategic partners rather than siloed box-checkers. Balancing between staunch defenders mitigating risks and consultants who open up new revenue opportunities through creative compliance mastery.

This duality is crucial for earning the respect of operational counterparts and a seat at the conference table.

But that's the compelling duality that engages top compliance talent. The dynamic balance between wide-angle lawmaking and granular business realities. The constant flexing between stern enforcement and committed advice in pursuit of compliant success. It's a career of responsible courage – understanding evolving regulations while evolving approaches to uphold them.

This is not to say there are no challenges. Kozicki, who started out in the business in 1994 and never left, says the toughest part for her is explaining to people she meets in her personal life about what she does and why she continues to do it.

“It’s kind of a party killer,” she admits. “I’m still trying to come up with an answer that won’t end the conversation in an awkward silence.”

By Melissa Kozicki, CMB, CMCP, Director of Compliance at Mortgage Cadence 

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Media Contacts

Mortgage Cadence: 
Alison Flaig 
Head of Marketing 
(919) 906-9738