GRBusiness

10 Things HR professionals need to do as GDPR comes into force

Published

6 years ago

May 25, 2018

By Paul Burrin, Vice President, Sage People

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force today, which will govern the levels of protection and privacy for all individuals.

It represents oneof the biggest shakeups as to how personal data should be handled.

As gatekeepers and processors of personal data, HR and People teams have a crucial role to play. So, here’s a check list of things you need to have actioned in preparation.

Identify why you need that personal data

As an employer, you must have a lawful basis to gather and process personal data. In most cases, this will be for lawful, contractual or legitimate purposes. For example, you may need to gather candidate contact information for communication purposes, or you may need social security numbers for tax and payment purposes.

However, in some instances, you may need to obtain consent from the individual to use the data for a specific purpose that falls outside the usual employer-employee relationship.

Action: Make sure you have clearly identified the lawful basis for all personal data you are capturing to manage data and consents accordingly.

Capture and manage consent for personal data

Under the new GDPR rules, where you process data on the basis of consent, that consent must be a freely given. In fact, it must be specific, informed and a clear indication of the individual’s wishes as shown by a statement or by a clear affirmative action. So, assumption, pre-ticked boxes, no-reply email and inactivity do not amount to consent.

Furthermore, you also need to keep a record of this consent. Consider how you will track and update consent against each data point so that if consent or circumstances change, you are able to make the necessary adjustments quickly.

Action: get consent for the data you hold, make it easy to amend when necessary and set up an action to revisit periodically whether you still need the consent.

Keep employees informed about their personal data rights

The GDPR gives employees significantly more control over their personal data so as employers you need to let them know this.

Action: Keep your employees informed. Update your privacy notice statements for all employees and candidates explaining: what data you hold on them, what you’ll do with that data, where it is stored, how long you’ll hold it and what their rights are in respect of that data.

Use self-service to manage data access requests quickly and efficiently

Employees have always been entitled to request information about the data you hold on them, but The GDPR now makes this more accessible for employees. You’ll need an efficient way of enabling employees to see their data, change it as necessary, and understand how it is being used. This is where self-service comes in.

If your workforce can manage their own data through self-service functionalities in a HR or People system, then everything is suddenly significantly easier.

This also means that you can automate processes and notifications to the HR or People team regarding changes they may have to make when personal data is updated.

Action: manage change through automation and introduce self-service functionality to your HR systems.

Ensure you can provide data in an accessible format, and delete it, if requested

The GDPR allows employees to access their personal data if they wish, and in some circumstances, have their personal data erased.

Make sure you can provide the information requested in an accessible and machine-readable format, such as CSV, and you have processes for identifying, rectifying and deleting the data in line with requests.

Some cloud HR and People systems, such as the Sage Business Cloud People system, enable you to export data in the necessary formats and to anonymize and delete data where required.

Action: ensure the data you hold is held in an accessible format and easy to amend.

Audit all personal data held on employees

Does your department have boxes of paper scattered across the office? Bringing all your data into one place doesn’t just mean getting a handle on your electronic information but understanding and auditing paper copies you might have also.

Action: Securely destroy information you no longer need or have a legitimate reason to store. Upload any necessary data you still need to retain to your electronic single source of truth, before then securely destroying this too when ready. If you retain any of this paperwork electronically, make sure you have consent to do so.

Control who has access to the data

Do you know who can access your employee data? Carry out an audit of permissions to assess who needs to access what, why and when. Remember, you may need to communicate to employees who can access their data if they request information on this, so take this into account when deciding permissions

Action: Update your permission settings for your HR or People system to ensure that only relevant HR and People team members can access personal data.

Hold data security in a single source of truth

To prepare for the GDPR, you need to securely document all the personal data you hold, including information on where it came from and who you share it with.

This is hard when your data may be currently across spreadsheets or multiple disparate systems.

Action: Introduce a single cloud-based HR and People system, this will help control the data more effectively and give you greater confidence that what you hold is accurate.

Assess suppliers for their ability to comply with GDPR

Are the systems you use fully committed to ensuring your business is GDPR ready? Sage has a proactive GDPR strategy in place and are committed to ensuring the Sage Group products are GDPR ready. We are fully committed to our customers’ success, and regularly review our products to assist with this.

Action: Engage with your suppliers to check they are ready for the regulation.

Finance

EFCC Chairman Tasks Nigerian Youths Against Crimes And Fraudulent Acts

Published

2 days ago

May 4, 2024

Alice Ginika Simon

The Chairman of Economic Finance Crime Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has stressed the need for Nigerian Youth to see themselves as agents of positive change that have a lot to contribute to the socioeconomic development of the Nation.

Speaking at the 2nd edition of a Leadership Trainings Programme in Abuja, Olukoyede, who was represented by the Head Enlightenment and Re-orientation unit, (EFCC), Aisha Mohammed, said the commission’s dream is to see the youth contribute meaningfully to the society, emphasizing on the need to work together in bringing positive change to society.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Boss declared the readiness of his agency to work with all Stakeholders, including the youth towards changing the narrative and reposition the country to greater exploit.
Also speaking, the representative of the Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Sonny Echono, appealed to the youths is to eschew social vices that could deter their full potential in life.

Other speakers at the event, including the Chairperson, Zero Tolerance for Social Immoralities Initiative (ZEITI) Africa, Rasak Jeje called on all stakeholders to join hands in collective pursuit of empowering new generation of leaders to curb the rising tides of social Vice among Nigerian youths.

The Chairperson, Zero Tolerance for Social Immoralities Initiative (ZEITI) Africa, Rasak Jeje made the call while addressing journalists at the 2nd edition of it Leadership Trainings Programme in Abuja on Thursday.
He said the training was aimed to intimate students leaders with knowledge and insights that will help them drive positive change and become exemplary leaders in their respective spheres.

Finance

AISA Has Refunded The Fees Paid By Yahaya Bello To EFCC

Published

1 week ago

April 27, 2024

Alice Ginika Simon

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says the American International School Abuja (AISA) has refunded the fees paid by the immediate past governor of Kogi state, Yahaya Bello, for his children attending the school.

In response to a letter addressed to the Lagos zonal commander of the EFCC, the school said $845,852 was paid in tuition “since the 7th of September 2021 to date”.

AISA said the sum to be refunded is $760,910 because it had deducted educational services already rendered.

“Please forward to us an official written request, with the authentic banking details of the EFCC, for the refund of the above-mentioned funds as previously indicated as part of your investigation into the alleged money laundering activities by the Bello family.

Since the 7th September 2021 to date, $845,852.84 (Eight Hundred and Forty-Five Thousand, Eight Hundred and Fifty Two US Dollars and eighty four cents) in tuition and other fees has been deposited into our Bank account.

We have calculated the net amount to be transferred and refunded to the State, after deducting the educational services rendered as $760,910.84. (Seven Hundred and Sixty Thousand, Nine Hundred and Ten US Dollars and Eighty Four cents).

No further additional fees are expected in respect of tuition as the students’ fees have now been settled until they graduate from ASIA.”

In a chat with The Cable, the spokesperson of the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, confirmed that the school has refunded the money.

‘’The money has been paid into public account,” Dele Oyewale was quoted as saying

Finance

Godwin Emefiele Disobeyed Direction Of Law With Intent To Harm The Public, He Printed ₦684.5M Using ₦18.9B Says EFCC in fresh charge

Published

2 weeks ago

April 23, 2024

Alice Ginika Simon

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has filed a fresh charge at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory against the embattled former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele.

EFCC in the charge accused Emefiele of approving the printing of N684,590,000 at the rate of N18.96 billion.

EFCC also alleged that Emefiele broke the law with intent to harm the public during his implementation of the naira swap policy of the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The anti-graft agency also accused Emefiele of unlawfully approving the withdrawal of N124.8 billion from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.

EFCC’s top prosecutor, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN revealed that Emefiele will be arraigned on a new four-count charge before Justice Hamza Muazu

Counts one to four of the charge, read,

“STATEMENT OF OFFENCE: Public Servant disobeying direction of law with intent to cause injury to the public contrary to and punishable under Section 123 of the Penal Code Law, Cap. 89 Laws of the Federation, 1990.

“PARTICULARS OF THE OFFENCE: That you GODWIN IFEANYI EMEFIELE between the 19th day of October 2022 and 5th March 2023 in Abuja, knowingly disobeyed the direction of Section 19 of the CBN Act, 2007, by approving the printing of N375,520,000.00 pieces of colour swapped N1, 000, at the total cost of N11,052, 068,062 without the recommendation of the Board of Central Bank and the strict approval of the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria which conduct of yours caused injury to the public and you thereby committed an offence.”

This and three other charges were stated against him. They read;

“COUNT 2: “That you, GODWIN IFEANYI EMEFIELE, between the 19th of October 2022 and 5th March 2023 in Abuja, knowingly disobeyed the direction of Section 19 of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007, by approving the printing of 172,000,000 pieces of colour swapped N500 (Five Hundred Naira) Notes, at the total cost of N4, 471,066,040 without the recommendation of the Board of Central Bank and the strict approval of the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria which conduct of yours caused injury to the public and you thereby committed an offence.

“COUNT 3: “That you GODWIN IFEANYI EMEFIELE between the 19th day of October 2022 and 5th March 2023 in Abuja, knowingly disobeyed the direction of Section 19 of the CBN Act, 2007, by approving the printing of 137,070,000 pieces of colour swapped N200 (Two Hundred Naira) Note, at the total cost of N3, 441, 005, 280 without the recommendation of the Board of Central Bank and the strict approval of the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria which conduct of yours caused injury to the public and you thereby committed an offence.”

“COUNT 4: “That you, GODWIN IFEANYI EMEFIELE, on or about the 7th day of October 2020, in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, knowingly disobeyed the direction of Section 80 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As Amended), by approving the withdrawal of the total sum of N124, 860, 227, 865.16 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation in a manner not prescribed by the National Assembly, which conduct of yours caused injury to the public and you thereby committed an offence.”