I am concerned ..

1. Whilst the message is beginning to be spread about the impact of GDPR on businesses of all sizes there is still a plethora of ignorance in the market place. Were it not for the hard work of individuals, associations, consultants, businesses and vendors (granted not all good advice and practices), the journey to compliance would be lagging far behind where is it – and it is not great now!
2. The UK supervisory Authority, the ICO, is NOT doing enough soon enough.
   • They are critically under staffed (and i expect underfunded) and way behind in clarifying their positions on key areas such as consent (delayed until this month or longer?) as they were overwhelmed and surprised by the number of responses to consultation. I hate to think what will happen when everyone does wake up and starts ‘Gattling Gunning’ them with DPIA’s case clarifications when the masses start to engage..
   • Their website is a mess in terms of separating current DPA and GDPR guidance in clearly de-marked areas.
   • Starting a publicity campaign in Jan 2018 is in my opinion laughable. Start NOW .. but it could be to protect them from bullet point above and load levels? Cynical interpretation perhaps.
3. There is a missing step in the GDPR jigsaw that is not being effectively managed by recruitment agencies. You have the associations with your clients and you know (or should) that the legislation is coming and there is a need for your business and your customers / clients to be moving on this.
   • The model long term contracts and full time GDPR employment positions is NOT what is needed now in the market place. Yes the big boys need those BA / PM and Programme contracts need to be filled as they are more compliance aware and further down the journey, but that is a tiny fraction of what is out there need wise and opportunity wise ..
   • What is needed is an awareness campaign in businesses and a promotion of a pure consulting pre-education phase to those businesses that don’t know what they need and don’t know about the ‘GDPR what’ enough to make the next step to contract or full time recruitment that the recruitment industry relies on for it’s bread and butter.
   • These small financial value placements are palatable both to the SME’s asking and wanting this service and to those consultants and employees not gainfully utilised that would gladly take the initiative and the money it brings!
   • Granted the agency commission of a 2 day /  1 to 4 week consulting placement won’t make you a commission millionaire, but do enough of them and get feedback from the customers that it’s been a huge help, and the bread and butter longer term stuff WILL follow and, quite likely, to your agency. Think of it as a loss leader if you like with a tail wind that could put you on that beach sipping tequilas…
   • I will cede credit in this particular rant as i do know some companies (and there may be others) that are working on this type of offering (Karl Fontinari @ CNA International Associates)  and (Andy Chesterman @ DAMM Solutions) but there is such a requirement that the other big players really do need to do it as well; and fast. The market is NOT saturated with MILLIONS of UK businesses in scope there really is an untapped market here and there are a lot of idle consultants with fat on their books that could jump fast .. and boy to companies need it ..

I hope you found the post informative and thought provoking.

I am always happy to have a chat and look forward to comments and thoughts; even offering you consulting in this area.

Dave Wylie – CIPP/E