GDPR: The opportunity to master colleague and candidate engagement

However, research released earlier this year by EY found that just a third of businesses had a plan in place to comply with these new regulations…

Looking at HR specifically, while HR teams and recruiters have a legitimate interest in managing and processing the data of both existing employees and registered jobseekers, there are widespread concerns that the new rules will significantly impact the ability of recruitment teams to engage with passive candidates. While some may look on the introduction of this legislation with trepidation, it actually offers a catalyst to review and strengthen existing engagement strategies to reduce wastage in the recruitment process and aid employee retention.

GDPR risks

The introduction of GDPR is an ideal incentive to evaluate the way in which potential employees are identified and, crucially, engaged. Businesses have just a matter of months now to ensure they are ready – or they risk losing access to vast and valuable talent pools.

It seems that current candidate sourcing strategies are often not hitting the mark. Recent research from Alexander Mann Solutions and Social Talent found that 72% of potential candidates contacted by recruitment teams regarding a job role do not respond.  It seems that many organisations may fail to gain the consent to manage and process individual data. We have long advised clients on best-practice candidate engagement strategies but the importance of mastering communications in this area will soon be business-critical.

GDPR arrives in Europe at a time when companies are re-designing their recruiting to put their candidates back at the centre of the hiring process; fast-lanes for some candidates, games lanes for others, slow, discovery lanes for many.  AI, machine learning and robotic process automation represent fantastic opportunities but we often don’t need more technology in our hiring processes but need the systems to be more intelligent – mobile optimised and designed for candidate experience – freeing recruiters to create impactful moments for their candidates.

GDPR will require thoughtful implementation but for those already blending automation and human action in their hiring processes this should simply be a natural extension.

Ultimately, untargeted engagement is damaging to an organisation’s employee value proposition and could be detrimental to future hires. Never before have recruitment teams had more impetus to ensure that communications are tailored, relevant and engaging. And thanks to rapid advancements around the use of talent analytics, the goal of implementing a highly robust and super-efficient engagement strategy is no longer a pipe dream – but the clock is ticking…

Author
Jerry Collier, Director of Client Success and Innovation, Alexander Mann Solutions