How will Recruiters be Affected BEFORE GDPR Becomes Law

How will Recruiters be Affected BEFORE GDPR Becomes Law AI, Chatbots, GDPR, Google Hire all looking to “disrupt” the recruiting sector / online processes.  We’ve yet to really get to grips with any of them… but our initial instincts have been a little of “run for the hills” and “Quick! Get on the phone!” We’ve written and webinar’d a lot about GDPR â€" mainly to fill the gap left by the dull and boring ”we’re doomed” GDPR bandwagon jumped on by so many.  You can watch our “thanks for making GDPR a GOOD thing” webinar and listen to my podcast with the knowledgeable Neil from Volcanic over on the Barclay Jones blog under the GDPR tag. What I want to focus on today is how recruiters and marketers may be disrupted by GDPR well before the legislation comes into effect. Plus I want you to think about how your candidates and clients may be “gearing up” for May 2018 too!  And how you deal with them may help/hinder your reputation and pipeline. Don’t Ask a Recruiter About GDPR One crucial element of GDPR is that you need to demonstrate that you are compliant, not simply just be compliant.  This means that you need to be educated, and educate your teams to understand the legalization and the resulting processes. So, something to do right away is to review the 3Cs (candidates, clients, and consultants) and how they can currently get in touch with you and ensure that their route into your business has been “tested” for GDPR questions.  This includes any chat facilities you have on your recruitment website! I’ll go through a cheeky example of the sort of thing you need to “sort” way before May 2018. GDPR: I’m Judging You! As part of the judging panel for the Marketing and Digital Recruitment Awards I was asked to review the websites of the finalists for the “Best Recruitment Website” category. I was in a cheeky mood, so thought I’d test out the “chat” of one of the recruiters. I stroked my white cat, rubbed my hands together and with a maniacal laugh whispered… “let’s see if anyone’s home”… I asked the chat… Immediately the chat responded and said that they were “waiting for a consultant”. Tick tock… Then a lovely lady came online â€" with a name and photo â€" nice touch! It felt like quite a while before I got an answer and it was interesting…  I wondered what could possibly be happening.  I had asked if they had my CV on file but my name was not asked for… Tick, tock, then… GDPR for Recruiters: Shaken, but not Stirred? I had an image of what may have been going on in the office whilst this process was happening…. A scene from Airplane when they realize that there is no pilot? (I don’t flatter myself) A quick check on Google “What is GDPR?” (Maybe â€" but the average recruiter can be forgiven for that â€" for now) Perhaps, to be fair, a group of intelligent people quickly trying to come up with an answer… In any event, imagine I am a candidate with an axe to grind… or maybe just a candidate with a genuine question.  GDPR is such a big topic, as is candidate loyalty, candidate experience, “recruiters are crooks” etc… so I wonder if opening up chat facilities (and social media etc…) will just bring on more contact from candidates asking questions about recruitment (god forbid!). Don’t just take my word for it â€" the stats speak for themselves. In this candidate-driven market, understanding what drives talent to engage with you is key: 31% of candidates said the main thing they look for in an agency is honesty 27% said great communication is most important to them 21% said its they way they are dealt with that influences their choice Don’t get me wrong, I liked the response â€" it clearly was human, but it definitely gave me an excuse to blog and gave me food for thought when I am working with clients on their marketing and GDPR strategies. Recruitment businesses â€" think about the messages you send through chat.  Get some personality in there.  Be ready for challenging questions.  Be ready for people asking you about their data. And even if GDPR turns out to be a storm in a teacup, use this chance to really get to grips with genuine queries about personal data.  You’ll get some genuine, loyal candidate fans… a recruiter’s dream! (I’ve called the recruitment business and had a chat with them â€" all’s good â€" they’re lovely!)