Data Privacy a hot topic. In my opinion, there are three very important reasons why everyone should be embracing Data Privacy.

1. Legislation

Whether it is GDPR in Europe or POPIA in South Africa, data privacy legislation is coming in everywhere and reflects many of the same principles. Its there to protect the people and businesses to whom the data relates and who control the data. Even if you operate in a country that is yet to bring in legislation, you may still be bound by legislation relating to the people whose data you have. Even if the chances of prosecution are slim, you may feel you owe it to yourself and the people whose data you have to comply with the standards data privacy legislation demands.

That said, compliance with legislation is a low threshold. It is the minimum standard that a business should achieve. By embracing data privacy, a business should exceed the minimum and in this way, that business can satisfy two even more important reasons that data privacy needs to be the backbone of all businesses.

2. Risk

The risk of cyber-crime, hacking and data breaches are massive and growing every day. Everyone is vulnerable and the consequences can be extremely damaging to a business, its candidates and clients.

While hacking is a massive issue, it is not the only cause of data breaches. An accidental data breach could be massively damaging to a business and could occur through a simple mistake.

Data needs to be protected and properly managed. Attitudes are changing and your candidates and clients will no longer be forgiving of a lack of care over their data.

3. Opportunity

To consider data privacy as just a compliance issue or a risk avoidance issue means that the measures taken to address these issues will be a cost with little return. If this approach is taken, then a business is likely to miss the most important reason to embrace data privacy. If a business takes data privacy seriously, then what it is doing is properly managing its data and to do this will create opportunities for that business to operate in a massively more efficient and professional manner.

A recruiter who embraces data privacy will be in control of their data. Data will always be up to date, well structured and easily searchable. More importantly, the recruiter will be fully engaged with all candidates and clients. They will know the recruiter and want to help them do their job better.  Embracing Data privacy means that the recruiter will be more in control, more professional. They will be able to do things easily, things that were impossible with a unengaged and dead database.

To many recruiters, this may seem an impossible scenario. It is certainly a long way away from the current operating practises of many professional recruiters. The good news, however, is that it is possible for any recruiter to achieve this. In fact, they must achieve this, otherwise they are unlikely to survive.

The Plan

Embracing Data Privacy can be achieved by embracing the tools and techniques of proper data management.

Regularly engaging with all candidates and clients requires automation.

• Automatically keeping them informed of what you are doing for them.
• Allowing them to automatically engage with you.
• Allowing the people you engage with to update your data.
• Structuring your data so that you are in control.
• Automatically spotting opportunities to take positive action
• …

These ideas need to be built into the core of your business and in this way, you can thrive as a professional recruiter – making more placements with less effort.

This blog forms part of a series looking at Data Privacy. Please subscribe to this web site and my YouTube channel for more information.