Dive Brief:
- Organizations have until May 25 to comply with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and most of those affected (70%) said they're ready, a new study shows. But the research from recruiting software firm Lever also found that 61% are concerned about how the regulation will affect their recruiting and hiring procedures, including how they source candidates.
- Roughly half of respondents said they were "very concerned’" or "extremely concerned" about adhering to specific requirements included in the regulations, such as: maintaining full records of recruiting processing activities; determining when to get consent from candidates; determining how long to store a candidate’s personal data before deleting it or obtaining consent; and selecting software vendors who will enter into GDPR compliant contracts and meet data security requirements.
- To prepare, nearly a third of respondents said they are investing significant time and resources into becoming GDPR-compliant; 73% said they're working with external or internal legal counsel to prepare.
Dive Insight:
Employers who want to compete globally need to know what the GDPR requires, but even those unaffected at the moment may soon find themselves needing to establish a data ethics program.
HR has always maintained massive amounts of employee information, but digitization has brought about new concerns and pitfalls. Rules like the GDPR can add additional concerns to the mix, forcing employers to give employees data about themselves to which they previously haven't had access.
As data management evolves and transforms, employers will have to consider the effects of this new transparency paradigm, and HR professionals may need to think differently about their role as data stewards.