You’ve probably heard about the GDPR in the news, but what does it really mean for the recruitment field?
GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulations. It’s a law that aims to standardise data protection rules across the EU, and the UK has promised to uphold it even post-Brexit. The new regulations will lead to much stricter security for most businesses, and significant fines for those who flaunt the rules.
In order to preserve both their profits and brand reputations, organisations need to adapt to regulatory changes by allocating budget and committing to building a high-quality data infrastructure. These courses of action would be beneficial even before the GDPR, and businesses have a lot to gain from them—poor quality data leads to profit loss and frozen decision-making processes. GDPR compliance will be an opportunity to change how data is managed for the better.
Although the tasks associated with the transition will mostly fall to the IT and legal departments, HR will still need to meet the changes head-on. Most companies will need to appoint a Data Protection Officer, and it will most likely fall to recruiters to find and train these professionals.
The GDPR will require businesses to obtain consent to collect information from customers. Experts recommend a customer-focused perspective: if a brand gains consumer trust, customers will willingly share information and it will be easy to comply. Larger companies are expected to be affected by fines first, but midsize and smaller businesses also need to take a look at both the nuts and bolts of their data management and their relationship with their clients.
Some companies are already staring down consequences for their past lax attitude toward data management—which is a headache for them, but an opportunity for competitors to step up the game in this department and use improved security and trustworthiness as a selling point with their customer base.
