Career advice, insights & tips for HR professionals
Candidate info at risk 05/07/2010
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Data on high-calibre candidates could be at risk. With CVs containing a great deal of information about candidates, recruitment companies are being warned that they must provide greater protection to sensitive information.
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- Identity theft
- Sensitivity and diplomacy needed
- Care and consideration required
- Candidate information is open to interception
- Ever evolving world of social media
Identity theft
Identity theft continues to make headlines and legislation is constantly being renewed and enforced to ensure recruitment agencies protect the personal and often sensitive information provided to them by their candidates. As trusted keepers of information it is the responsibility of recruitment companies to ensure that any private information is looked after in the right way and that adequate and tactful measures are taken to safeguard that material from getting into the wrong hands.
Sensitivity and diplomacy needed
To all intents and purposes most consultants are incredibly aware of the sensitivity and diplomacy needed to handle high-calibre applications; where this tends to fall short is at the point of distribution. The minute that data leaves the building (by whatever means) it becomes vulnerable to interception – whether or not that vulnerability leads to information getting into a competitors hands or worst still, somehow jeopardises the candidates’ chances of success with future job applications, it is something that needs to be taken seriously.
Care and consideration required
Managing high-level positions requires great care and consideration. High calibre candidates, by nature will expect their information to be treated in a confidential manner. It may be that they have been headhunted from a previous organisation, in which case it wouldn’t be ethical to leak that candidates’ details all over the internet for their current employer to see, or risk them falling into the hands of another recruiter who is likely to compete for the business, both instances would be damaging to the reputation of any business.
Candidate information is open to interception
The most obvious way to distribute candidate information to a prospective employer is via email in an attachment or PDF, posted using the recorded delivery service or faxed; but all of these methods leave the information open to interception. The problem is, many people believe that converting a document into a PDF format somehow protects it from being tampered with, when this isn’t the case. We are living in an era of sophisticated web technology and there has to be a better way to ensure that the right recipient receives the information and that as a business you have done your utmost to protect it.
Ever evolving world of social media
The ever evolving world of social media has also contributed to the need to make information that much more secure, certainly in the case of high-profile job applications and those who might be ‘well-known’ in their industry, it is just too easy to post up images and content for all to see and in seconds the damage has been done. Sending information securely via the web is one way to combat this problem, providing it is executed in the right way.
www.invisiviewmedia.com
www.invisiviewmedia.com
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