Interview Coordinator makes it easy for you to fulfil your GDPR responsibilities during your recruiting processes.
Whatever your opinions on government regulations, there is no getting away from the need to comply with them. GDPR is just another regulation in what is a long list of things to consider when hiring new people.
In this article we explain how using the Interview Coordinator software will mitigate the need for you to worry about your GDPR responsibilities when hiring new people.
Firstly, what is GDPR?
The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) are a set of EU Regulations enacted by the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission (and fully implemented and enforced in UK) which is intended to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the European Union & UK.
In summary, it is a set of regulations covering the storage and use of any “personal data” associated with any individual by any organisation. It also enforces the rights given to individuals as to how that data can be used at any time.
The term “Personal Data” is defined as “any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person”
And there are some other terms defined under GDPR which relate to the recruitment process.
The term “Data Subject”, within the context of a recruitment process, is a candidate or prospective employee who’s data is stored in an ATS database (such as Interview Coordinator) which is used to help manage the recruiting process.
The term “Data Controller” is defined as “the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data”.
Therefore, when you are using any ATS software (like Interview Coordinator) your organisation will be considered a Data Controller. Depending on where the software you use is hosted and administered, your organisation could be considered a Joint Data Controller.
If you use a software product like Interview Coordinator which is hosted on the Cloud, then your company or organisation will be a joint data controller along with the company or organisation who manage the hosting and administration of the software.
If your organisation uses multiple software applications (or suppliers) to store and manage your recruiting data then it is very possible that your organisation will be considered a Joint Data Controller in partnership with all your software suppliers.
A “Data Processor” is defined in GDPR as “the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller”.
Where Interview Coordinator software is being used to manage the recruitment process the Data Processor is Flaxlands Consulting Ltd who publish, maintain and host the Interview Coordinator recruitment management software.
What are your GDPR responsibilities as an Hiring Manager?
Data Subject Consent
As we have outlined above, any Candidate data stored by you, or on your behalf, is Personal Data and you must always ensure you obtain and document the consent given by the candidate to store and process that data.
Obviously, candidates will inherently give their consent to store their data when they agree to become a candidate for a specific vacancy. However, the onus is on you to document that consent and ensure that your candidates know exactly how and why you want to store and use their Personal Data, now and in the future.
The Interview Coordinator software will keep a clear record of how you obtained consent to store and process candidate data. It provides a consolidated central store of all candidate data which is obtained from any number of possible sources.
Data Subject Rights
Besides compelling you to obtain and document candidate consent to store and process their personal data, GDPR also gives the candidate the following rights :-
- The right to be informed about what personal data you intend to maintain, why access to that data is required and how you intend to process it.
- The right of access to the personal data that you hold about them, at no extra cost.
- The right of rectification of inaccuracies in their personal information.
- The right to erasure of their personal information from your systems, and third party systems to which this data may have been propagated.
- The right to restrict processing of their personal data.
- The right to data portability
- The right to object to further processing of their personal data.
- Rights regarding automated decision making
And along with all the above, GDPR requires businesses to take all necessary measures to ensure a high level of information security. Therefore, if you store and process Personal Data, then you are accountable for securing this data as per industry best practices.
How Interview Coordinator will make it easy to comply with all the above rights.
Let’s take each individual right in turn and explain how Interview Coordinator makes it easy for you to comply with the rights of the candidate granted under GDPR.
The right to be informed.
Whenever and however a candidate is created on the Interview Coordinator database, they can either directly navigate to a customised webpage which explains what personal data you intend to maintain, why access to that data is required and how you intend to process it, OR be sent a template email which contains the same information (or a URL to the customised webpage).
The right of access
Interview Coordinator includes a set of webpages which we call the Candidate Administration pages. Using the Candidate Administration pages the candidate can easily (and completely independently) apply to get full access to all their Personal Data stored in the Interview Coordinator database.
The right of rectification
Having reviewed their Personal Data through the Candidate Administration pages, the candidate can easily send a change request to the Hiring Manager if they consider any of the stored Personal Data to be inaccurate.
The right to erasure
The Interview Coordinator Candidate Administration pages also give the Candidate an option to automatically delete all their data from the Interview Coordinator database.
If a data erasure request is received by telephone or letter, the Interview Coordinator software makes it easy for the Hiring Manager to delete all Candidate personal data.
The right to restrict processing
This Data Subject right is not really applicable to the recruitment process. Either the candidate grants their consent to be considered for a current or future vacancy, in which case they grant consent for you to store and process their personal data. Or they withdrawal consent for you to consider them for the current or future vacancies, in which case their data is deleted.
The right to data portability
The Interview Coordinator Candidate Administration pages will allow any Candidate to directly review their personal data and to make a copy of that data.
The right to object to further processing
Within the context of a recruitment process, this data subject right is the same as the right to restrict process.
Rights regarding automated decision making
The interview Coordinator software currently does not include any automated decision making features.
Interview Coordinator is a complete recruitment process workflow solution
The Interview Coordinator software is designed to be a complete workflow solution for all the people involved in the recruitment process, including :
- Hiring Managers
- HR managers
- Decision contributors
- Candidates
- 3rd party content providers
If you would like to find out more about how the software interacts with any of the above groups of people, please just contact us to arrange a software demonstration.