Concept Management were invited to speak at the prestigious Nat West GDPR Seminar held at the Village Hotel, Bury.
It was aimed at the banks SME client base and designed to demystify GDPR and it was well supported and around 150 delegates attended.
GDPR, which goes live on 25th May 2018 touches most aspects of a business. Although there is a lot of detail on the regulation by taking a common sense, pragmatic approach it is possible to define the current situation, assess the risk and take specific actions to ensure compliance in a controlled process.
The workshop was aimed at business owners who want to decide on a course of action appropriate to their company and the market they operate in.
The emphasis is to relate the issues that GDPR raises to existing process and operating models to make each company’s decisions on actions relevant and proportional.
The format of the workshop was a facilitated, interactive session in which peer to peer discussion plays a key part.
There were some tangible take-aways that enabled the companies to take positive action immediately.
GDPR has been written to drive the management of personal data including information classified as sensitive.
Personal data is ‘sensitive’ if it relates to:
- racial or ethnic origin
- political beliefs
- religious or philosophical beliefs
- trade union membership
- genetic or biometric data
- physical or mental health
- sex life or sexual orientation
To start the process, complete the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) readiness survey online, submit the results then save and print out the results. This is completely anonymous.
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/resources-and-support/data-protection-self-assessment/data-protection-assurance
It may not be obvious what data is held and managed so the preparation is aimed to allow you to make an assessment for your business. To help with what to look for below are some examples of personal data usage which may be held/manged internally or externally:
Staff:
- Payroll
- Pensions
- HR contracts
Customers:
- CRM
- Accounts
- Operations
- Contracts
Suppliers:
- Contracts
- Accounts
These are just examples of the data that is typically used but may not have been considered in GDPR terms.
For the preparation research with the following in mind.
- How is personal data used in the company today?
- Where is that data stored?
- Who has responsibility
This should provoke some thinking about the value of data and deciding on what is important to the business.
The workshop hopefully gave clarity and immediate actions but is likely to highlight other areas in the business which require attention.
The workshop is the first element of a facilitation programme which can be tailored to individual company requirements based on the outcome of the workshop. In addition to providing the facilitation of the programme any specialist service requirements such as legal, insurance, HR and IT for example can be sourced and managed should they be identified as a requirement during the workshop or an immediate follow up.
For information call Mark Wilding on 01204 363184