How Exciting! Compliance Side of HR

For decades, HR has been associated with administration and being the bad cops in the workplace. And to be honest, I definitely understand! Unfortunately, I've met a few bad cops myself.

"As I'm currently on the job hunt, I am only looking for companies that want to be the California of employment laws."

That state just gets it when it comes to protecting their people. So whether it is increasing the minimum wage annually or making sure terminated employees get their final paycheck as soon as possible (on the terminated employee's last day of work)... I'd like to join a company that is always looking to increase its employees' welfare. With that said, I've been meaning to touch on a new regulatory law that has been passed in a couple of jurisdictions. I realized a lot of HR teams do not understand how it affects their work. So here I go being the awesome person that I am to shed some light.

Some Important Dates

25th, May 2018 - The EU implemented their General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

28th, June 2018 - California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) was signed into law.

25th, January 2019 - Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) was signed into law.

Soon to come - Brazil is about to drop its new data protection law.

I won't get into the nitty-gritty of each act/regulation but if you are actively recruiting (collecting and storing personal data aka candidate profiles, resumes/CVs, etc.) citizens or inhabitants at state level listed above, you need to read and understand each law. You also might be thinking I already have the California Online Privacy Protection Compliance in place so I'm covered. Unfortunately, you are not. California's new law is more robust and super thorough. I truly believe that more of these data protection laws will pop up sooner or later.

With that said, I would suggest going through each law and create a generic data protection statement that covers all jurisdictions on your career page and line of action within your HR team. Should you need help with that, reach out to me via my contact page. Also for Nigerian companies, DIYLaw has a template you can snag at a cost. Lastly, jobseeker please learn about your employee rights!

I hope this was helpful!

Oyin