The Escalation of Misconduct in Financial Services: Hear Why Tim Sackett Says Online Screening Is Your First Line of Defense
Misconduct doesn’t just appear out of nowhere—it builds, accelerates, and escalates. The question for every Financial Services leader is: Are you catching the warning signs early enough to stop it? Hear what Tim Sackett has to say.
Watch Now: How Misconduct Progresses—and How Financial Services Employers Can Prevent It
🎥 Watch the Video with Tim Sackett
HR and TA expert Tim Sackett breaks down one of the most overlooked risks facing financial institutions today: the progression of workplace misconduct. From trolling and harassment to threats and violence, misconduct builds over time—and too often, it goes undetected until it’s too late.
Misconduct Is a Growing Threat in Financial Services—And It Starts Before Day One
The 2024 State of Misconduct at Work report revealed a sobering fact:
- Over 1 in 10 Financial Services candidates show warning signs of misconduct in their online presence—before they’re even hired.
- On average, these candidates exhibit 28 instances of misconduct signals in their online footprint alone.
These signals aren’t being caught during interviews, reference checks, or traditional background screens. But they’re there—and they’re public.
The most common types of misconduct in Financial Services?
- Trolling and online harassment
- Threats of violence
- Intolerance and discrimination
Critically, 1 in 5 of these misconduct warning signs are threats—a clear indicator that misconduct isn’t just present; it’s escalating.
Understanding the Progression of Misconduct: From Exposure to Participation
Misconduct doesn’t happen in isolation. It follows a pattern of escalation:
- Exposure: Witnessing others engage in misconduct.
- Acceptance: Viewing misconduct as normal or common.
- Advocacy: Encouraging others to engage in bad behavior.
- Participation: Committing misconduct yourself.
The rapid distribution and viewership of information online these days means this escalation can progress from exposure to participation in a matter of weeks to months. Research shows misconduct has a social multiplier of 1.59—meaning exposure increases the likelihood of participation. In Financial Services specifically, financial advisors are 37% more likely to commit misconduct if they work alongside a colleague with a history of misconduct.
The takeaway? Misconduct spreads, and is doing so quickly. And without early detection, your organization could be hiring or employing tomorrow’s next big risk.
Why Financial Services Environments Are Especially Vulnerable
Financial Services roles are high-pressure. Between return-to-office mandates, layoffs, and job insecurity, the environment can create stressors that fuel misconduct. Leadership might not always see it happening. But your middle managers are 2.5x more likely to spot these behaviors than policies alone. They need the right tools and cultural backing to act on it.
Tim Sackett’s Top 3 Recommendations: How Financial Services Can Protect Against Escalating Misconduct
#1. Build a Culture of Accountability
Culture starts at the top but is distributed by middle management. Setting a culture of accountability means that policies are effectively distributed and followed across the board. Financial institutions must set the tone from the top that misconduct is not tolerated – even when your top performing employees are the ones committing it. And, the tone and policy must be backed up with action–leading by example. This means empowering middle managers to recognize and escalate concerns appropriately, and encouraging them to speak out when needed.
#2. Expand How You Screen Candidates
Most online screening checks are completed at the background stage of the hiring process. The fact that 11% of financial services candidates were found with critical misconduct warning signs in their social media background checks shows that traditional background checks aren’t enough.
Financial Services institutions are now learning that they need to adopt new screening practices, including online screening to uncover early warning signs in publicly available content before candidates are hired. Fama’s Behavior Intelligence technology flags patterns of violence, threats, harassment, and misconduct that interviews and references can’t reveal.
#3. Don’t Stop at Hiring—Listen Continuously
Misconduct escalates quickly—sometimes within weeks or months. In fact, 26% of workplace violence incidents come from current employees. Screening for online warning signs of misconduct regularly as part of your employee listening strategy or risk management strategies to catch issues early and intervene before a crisis happens is now a must.
Real-World Examples: When Screening Prevented Crises in Financial Services
Fama partners with some of the world’s largest Financial Institutions to uncover critical risk factors in the pre-employment and employment lifecycles. We have prevented customers from:
- Hiring a CFO candidate with a hidden history of fraud and sexual misconduct.
- Employing a candidate sued by the SEC for inflating revenues by $3 billion at a previous company.
- From experiencing a workplace shooting by finding a hit list and manifesto in an online screening.
These aren’t hypothetical situations. This is the human impact of catching warning signs before they escalate.
Get Smarter About Candidate Risk Today
Misconduct is growing. But so are the tools to detect it early—before it becomes your organization’s next headline. Check out the following research and resources from the workplace misconduct experts:
Dive deeper into the research: 2024 State of Misconduct at Work »
See how Behavior Intelligence works: How Fama’s Online Screening Solution Detects Misconduct at Work »
Stay informed. Stay protected. And stay ahead of misconduct.
