If your recruitment team executes any search work with candidates, clients or sources in the EU, you will need to keep up to date with the latest regulations. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was adopted by the European Parliament on May 14th, 2016. This regulation is meant to safeguard the data privacy rights of European Union citizens and affects any organization that is based in the EU or does business in the EU.
Many companies will be subject to new standards of data integrity imposed by GDPR. The law goes into effect in less than one year, requiring recruitment teams to be compliant by May 25th, 2018. The penalties for non-compliance, if discovered, can reach up to €20 million in fines. Liability for a security breach can be even more catastrophic resulting in the same penalties plus liability to the individual, not to mention an overall horrible impact on your reputation.
What Your Recruitment Team Needs to Consider When It Comes to GDPR
1. Is Your Technology in Compliance?
Every recruitment team needs to assure there are strict security measures in place to safeguard personal data of EU citizens and must have the ability to properly document it. Data floating between programs such as Outlook, Word or Excel or even your shared folders are disorganized, vulnerable and fragmented. Some databases configured this way will not meet the new standards set by GDPR. Make sure you have a database provider that is certified with Privacy Shield and can deliver audit details and documentation proving your recruitment software is compliant.
Under the GDPR law, EU citizens have the right to request their name and data be deleted from your database. After you delete their information, how do you prevent your team from re-entering that same individual back into your database? Placing this candidate on a ‘hands-off list” will conflict with their original request. Tools like ours have solutions to prevent the problem of that paradox. With less than one year until GDPR takes full effect, you need plenty of time to be comfortable and knowledgeable of your software’s compliance.
2. Are Required to Appoint a Data Protection Officer?
Under the GDPR, you must appoint a DPO if you:
Any organization is able to appoint their own DPO within the company. Regardless of whether the GDPR obliges you to appoint a DPO, you must ensure that your organization has sufficient staff and skills to discharge your obligations under the GDPR. Note: Your entire recruitment team must be aware of the data controllers and data protection officers who will be monitoring and implementing these changes within the business.
3. Do You Have a Good Plan for The Future?
Review all of the GDPR regulation information available online and make sure to speak with an attorney to understand your team’s next steps.
The Final Takeaway
Waiting to explore options may interrupt productivity and be burdensome on teams. Keep in mind, reacting to an emergency in 2018 after GDPR takes effect will be costly, damaging and possibly incriminating.
There is ample support from advisors that know your business. With the right processes and technologies in place, you can differentiate your team from the competition and assure your candidates and clients that you adhere to the highest standards of compliance.
Note: Cluen’s synopsis is not a replacement for legal advice from your own attorney (we are not lawyers). Before adopting any new policy, contact your firm’s lawyer(s) to advise on how to properly comply. Our firm develops recruitment software that helps strategic recruitment teams all over the world track relationships and maintain historical search assignment data. We are here to support you, regardless of which recruitment software you use.