NEWS

GDRP…turmoil or terrific!?

Published: 5th March 2018 | Author: Gemma Turp

Hello I am Gemma; Owner, MD and now GDPR Compliance Officer at Horizon!

So…GDPR! You may have heard about this on the news, in your company or maybe you’ve even seen us talking about it on social media, but if you haven’t, it’s the General Data Protection Regulation – a brand new regulation which comes into effect in May 2018 and will effectively replace the existing Data Protection Act.

Basically, BIG, BIG (and maybe even slightly scary) news for lots of companies but particularly those who hold lots of people’s personal data. Yup, that’s us…recruiters! It’s all about giving the control of your data back to YOU – after all it is your data so you should have more rights to see and control what information companies hold on you but also how they store and use that data.

Only a few months ago I was a little in denial about the need to do anything or prepare in any way for the looming GDPR until nearer the time (May seems so far away…apparently not!). It is a huge job! After two weeks of reading as much information as possible, it finally dawned on me…Yes, the GDPR does affect us and we WILL need to audit all of our data AND improve and update a lot of our internal processes.  Silence filled the air until, “You mean, I need to contact every single person on our database?!?!” It was sinking in… “AND THEN, if they don’t come back to us, I need to delete then from our database!” This was not a good day.

But…now nearly two months after ‘the GDPR denial days’, we will soon be removing over 10,000 candidates from our database, we’ve written a new Privacy Policy and have improved a whole heap of our internal processes. And do you know what? It’s ok; in fact it’s a really good thing. It means that we’ll be starting afresh with only candidates who really want us to still keep hold of their details, so our database will be super-efficient and effective! But perhaps most importantly for our industry, the GDPR means that any poor practice will be (hopefully) stamped out for good. It feels liberating and positive that this change has come about and we’re rather pleased with ourselves for overcoming our fears and taking action to ensure we’re tackling the issue and continuing to champion good practice within our industry.

If you have any questions about how the GDPR affects who we store your data. Or, if you are a candidate who forgot to reply to my email and would like us to keep hold of your details, you can get in touch with me on 01379 898474 or gemma@horizoneast.co.uk