Strength in numbers and overcoming the fear of 20% - A line manager’s perspective

The role of the Counter Fraud Team is critical within the insurance sector.  All insurers must protect not only themselves but their customers against fraud. They must have a robust counter fraud function, along with their corporate partners, to put in place strong fraud defences and have well-established fraud controls. It is also incumbent upon a company to ensure that it meets regulatory expectations: Financial Crime is now one of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s) key areas of harm listed under Retail Investment and Wholesale Financial Markets in its Sector Views report 2020.

At the recent Credit Services Association (CSA) Skills Summit – Tom Wilson, Senior Counter Fraud Manager at AXA, was invited to speak about why he chooses to put a large number of his staff through the CSA’s Level 4 Counter Fraud Investigator Apprenticeship, the challenges he’s faced along the way, and the benefits this brings to not only his team but across the organisation.

Tom has a wealth of experience in counter fraud and insurance, having worked in the insurance industry since 1997, and in the last 20 years focusing mainly on the counter fraud environment. His current role has him leading the Counter Fraud Claims Team across motor, household, commercial property, liability and travel for both retail and commercial insurance at AXA. He is accountable for the financial delivery of fraud savings of £120m+ together with ensuring that a robust risk, control and governance framework exists to manage any fraud threats to the company.

At the Summit, CSA Tutor, Axel Manwaring, previously a Criminal Investigator for HMRC and part of the project delivery team for the Counter Fraud Investigator Apprenticeship and Government Counter Fraud Profession, asked Tom a number of questions around the CSA Level 4 Counter Fraud Apprenticeship and how he has managed two cohorts of staff (20 people in total) through it.

Firstly Tom, can you explain the reasoning behind choosing the CSA Counter Fraud Investigator apprenticeship for AXA?

For me it was the course content.  AXA has historically invested in upskilling its staff through various professional qualifications, and when I came across the CSA Counter Fraud standard, all the content listed was completely relevant to what my staff do on a day-to-day basis.

From your point of view, how has AXA benefitted being part of this apprenticeship?

AXA has always had an internal framework of development for its staff, and apprenticeships fit nicely within this. As a business, efficiency is key, and the CSA apprenticeship has helped my team get the skills and knowledge they need to be able to do their tasks quicker than if we were to train them internally / in-house. The apprenticeship also caters to staff with varying levels of experience; from those that have little experience in working in insurance and want to learn on the job, to those with 15 – 20 years’ worth who want to refresh their knowledge and have a recognised professional accreditation at the end of it.

There is also the financial opportunity that comes with running apprenticeships – pre-2017, and before the levy was available, the professional qualifications were all privately funded by the company, however now we have a dedicated “pot” to use.

What benefits have you seen in the apprentices?

Over the last year I have put two cohorts of staff through the CSA Counter Fraud Apprenticeship. The first one was a year ago and the second at the beginning of this year. I spaced them out due to the impact on resource, and what I’ve noticed from doing this is that those that are on an apprenticeship have made huge changes in their job application and what they can do on a day-to-day basis. They are better decision makers, the speed at which they complete tasks is quicker, and the increase in productivity across the department is really apparent. The other thing I have noticed is that they share their knowledge with other staff who are not currently on an apprenticeship which is a huge advantage as the others utilise the gain in knowledge.

When we discussed preparing for this summit, you made an excellent comment on the 20% off the job learning, ‘short term pain for long term gain’ – would you expand on this?

As with any business, there is a finite amount of resource to do the work coming in. For that reason, losing people for what equates to one day a week is hard to get your head around at first. Gaps need to be filled. However, what I have learnt is as the cohorts progress, although we lose people for a time, when they return, they are more efficient at completing tasks, and there is less requirement for referral to buddies / mentors for advice / answering work related question. Apprentices come back from their off the job time more adept at what they do.  Not only do you make the time up, but in some circumstances, the off the job gets you time back (in the long term). In insurance especially, extreme weather events for example mean the business is extremely busy at times and everyone has to roll up their sleeves and chip in. I’ve definitely noticed that those on an apprenticeship are more productive with their time. I suppose I would put it down to the fact that doing an apprenticeship, you have to manage your time carefully and efficiently and you almost become an expert in that itself.

What I really like to promote as a tutor is using shadowing of different departments and completing reports on that experience – has apprenticeships helped with this?

The staff in my department normally progress in to the Counter Fraud Unit having worked in most areas of Claims but there are some areas where they haven’t, for example Large Loss & Catastrophic Loss, Counter Fraud Intelligence etc. As part of the CSA apprenticeship, and following your recommendation as a CSA tutor, these departments have allowed the staff to shadow them for perhaps a half day or a full day. Our Legal Partners have also offered and allowed shadowing days for our people within their firms too. This has given them a much broader view of what is going on around them. And although some of the learning covers this too, hands on shadowing just helps to cement what they have learned.

Being on an apprenticeship allows other departments to help develop our learners and they are keen to support them on their journey with this through shadowing.

How have these departments reacted to the students requesting this type of experience?

They have all been very supportive, some departments in particular see it as a service selling point. Doing this is good for business propositions. We deal with a lot of direct customers, brokers, commercial fleet companies etc and these guys are interested in how good your fraud function is. Using shadowing alongside the apprenticeships shows these departments, and therefore its customers, they are in safe hands.

Do you feel that the level of support from CSA helps make this a successful partnership?

The level of support from the CSA really sets it aside in my opinion. As a business AXA invests in a number of other apprenticeships across different disciplines. Because I have sight across other departments, I can see how the other apprenticeships are delivered and received by staff. The big difference I see is around the dedicated one to one time offered with CSA apprenticeships. Why this is important is because it gives people the opportunity, if they are maybe nervous or unsure and don’t want to openly express this or a lack of knowledge in a group scenario, to do this in a closed, comfortable environment. If they don’t have the confidence to ask in a group scenario, and one to one isn’t offered, the questions won’t get asked, or even answered for that matter.

AXA uses the mentoring system to develop their staff. Can you expand on how our apprenticeship fits in with your system?

New starts to the firm always get allocated a buddy or a mentor, and what I’ve found is the CSA apprenticeship supports and supplements that. Because everyone has to work through the development framework, doing an apprenticeship already does some of this for you and therefore those that are on the apprenticeship tend to complete their frameworks quicker. This is a benefit to the business as much as it is the individual because it means they are out on the floor contributing to the running of the business much sooner than those who are not doing an apprenticeship.

Level 4 Counter Fraud Investigator Apprenticeship

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