Compliance Made Fun (& a Lot Easier): New White Paper

In a white paper I just wrote, “Having Fun with Compliance,” I explained that you usually don’t see the word “fun” anywhere near “compliance.”

With dozens of jurisdictions in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and APAC — each constantly changing — the compliance landscape creates an intricate, complex, and even mystifying puzzle.

Then that “aha!” moment came.

That puzzle became far less perplexing, making it easier to build a simplified and streamlined Global Compliance module into SmartRecruiters.

So, yeah, that was fun! And even more fun writing a white paper that explains how just four basic questions helped us view that complex compliance quagmire from a new perspective to create this new module that’s both powerful and easy to use. Here’s a quick overview. It’s a fun read, I promise.

Well, perhaps I spoke too soon…

One aspect of compliance isn’t all that fun – the need to remind you that in no way are we offering legal advice, but rather explaining how we simplified building a global compliance product integrated into our talent acquisition suite.

One resource. One elegantly designed interface.

If you’re not compliant, penalties can range from just a slap on the wrist to an enormous fine, so it’s important to get it right. For the most part, general principles are similar, but nuances of rules vary — so we created an elegantly designed compliance module that:

• Makes it easy for customers to configure compliance rules for all countries from one single page.
• Assures candidates visiting your site understand their rights and gives them control over information they provide
• Scales easily so recruiters can meet global needs

Since we introduced the SmartRecruiters Global Compliance module, it’s been used by recruiting teams in over 80 countries for over one million job applicants.

80 countries — but only 4 key aspects to consider

At first glance, it’s tempting to approach compliance on a country-by-country basis — start with Australia and work your way to Zambia.

What a waste of time! Instead of working through jurisdictions, we considered major themes. As it turns out, narrowing our focus to just four basic questions sped up the process of designing a product that addresses compliance issues worldwide. Here they are:

1. What government entities are responsible for compliance?

Answering this question narrows the focus on specific agencies that are most essential and influential. For example, in the United States, that would be the U.S. Department of Labor. In Europe, those entities would be the European Commission which includes European Parliament and the Council of European Union. Knowing the “who” of compliance helps understand multitudes of rules far more easily.

2. What data needs to be reported to administrators and made available to candidates?

There are many legally mandated requirements for collecting and reporting data. Whatever is required, however, I encourage Chief Compliance and Diversity Officers to create reports that include more than simple statistics on applicants from specific groups. Tracking groups (gender, for example) through the hiring process can help identify potential bias throughout that entire process, not just at the application level.

3. What and where should personal data be stored?

Privacy is rapidly becoming a more significant concern as companies collect more and more data. Where that data is stored can be an issue. For example, one emerging issue is the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) set of laws passed by the EU Parliament, scheduled to take force on May 25 2018. These laws address how candidates can control data and learn specifically where it’s stored.

4. How long can personal data be stored?

These rules differ widely between the US and Europe, and even more complex for the EU in that each member state may differ in standards for how long data can be stored on candidates who have been rejected. Yet that information is easily accessed at a glance within SmartRecruiters.

Being smart. Saving time and having fun!

So there you have it — four basic questions that helped us create a global compliance module that helps organizations cope with intricate compliance issues.

By being smart about framing these issues, we solved that puzzle a lot more quickly — through a perspective based on four global themes outlined in our white paper.

With access to our Global Compliance module, compliance offers can easily select appropriate data retention periods, create specific diversity-related questions, easily revise privacy policies candidates agree to when they apply, publish candidate portals that comply with local rules, and more.

Yes, I had fun. We all had fun. Most importantly, our clients have a lot more time for fun because they aren’t nearly as bogged down dealing with compliance complexity.