Do the right thing, Adviser's and creditors experience of best practice ...

Targets and incentives areimportant staff performancemeasures, but the wrongincentives drive bad practice. Collections staff and those workingon behalf of creditors are key tothe success of any debt collectionstrategy. However, they will haveto meet certain targets in orderto receive bonuses or demonstratethat they provide the level of serviceexpected of them. If the targets andincentives allow people to benefitfrom poor practice – for exampleif a collector can receive higher payby persuading people to make largerpayments with no regard for howthey went about doing this – peoplein debt will suffer. Instead, creditorsshould remember that they areresponsible for the actions ofeveryone who acts on their behalfand their bonuses and incentivesshould promote best practice: In-house staffAll collections staff should be fully trained onall relevant legislation, regulatory requirementsand industry codes of practice. These shouldbe embedded as minimum requirements andstandards. In addition, further detailed trainingshould emphasise the need to focus on thecircumstances of the individual person in debt.Remuneration should then be linked to a rangeof recovery and quality measures – such as themeasures used by Equidebt that link pay to thequality of phone calls, and the length of timerepayment plans are sustained. 9