How to assess GDPR knowledge in job candidates

Since 2018, any company that collects the data of EU residents has had to comply with the rules outlined in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This means that even businesses operating outside of the EU that process and handle European citizens’ data must conform to the GDPR in its entirety. 

Having most employees complete semi-regular training, including a data protection quiz or GDPR quiz, might suffice. However, if you’re recruiting for specific roles relating to data protection and privacy, you’ll need to make sure that you assess GDPR knowledge thoroughly. 

This article will describe which roles need GDPR knowledge, why GDPR compliance is so important, and how to assess GDPR knowledge in job candidates to help you hire experts with in-depth knowledge of how to handle, process, and store sensitive data.

Who needs to have good knowledge of GDPR? 

Data protection officers, HR managers, HR directors, marketing managers, marketing directors, and any other roles that involve developing and implementing procedures for handling and protecting personal data or developing a data privacy strategy require in-depth knowledge of GDPR. 

Why should you assess GDPR knowledge in candidates?

GDPR compliance is incredibly important for any business. Not only does your organization have a duty of care to ensure a secure environment for your customers’ personal information, but failure to conform to the regulations can also result in large financial penalties. 

A GDPR test assesses candidates’ understanding of GDPR principles and accountability requirements by having them answer questions about common workplace scenarios.

By testing this knowledge before you hire, you can identify which applicants can help you comply with GDPR rules on collecting, handling, and storing personal data. 

How to test applicants’ GDPR knowledge in 3 steps 

Ready to assess GDPR knowledge in your candidates?

Follow these three steps as part of the candidate-screening process to ensure you get the most out of GDPR testing.

Create a customized GDPR skills assessment

Now that you understand which applicants need GDPR knowledge and the importance of ensuring your business remains GDPR compliant, you can start building your own assessment for candidates.

TestGorilla’s GDPR & Privacy test evaluates candidates’ knowledge and skills in the following areas:

• Understanding the principles of GDPR and privacy

• Complying with GDPR in the workplace

• Understanding accountability requirements

However, the right candidate for the role will be a sum of many parts. This means that creating an assessment that evaluates candidate profiles as a whole – and doesn’t assess GDPR knowledge on its own – is critical to finding and hiring the best applicant.

Using TestGorilla, you can combine a variety of tests to create a comprehensive pre-employment assessment. This provides you with more meaningful insights into your applicants’ broader profiles and attributes – and ultimately helps you evaluate whether they would succeed in the role and the company. 

Creating a holistic assessment with TestGorilla involves combining the GDPR & Privacy test with other test types, such as role-specific skills tests, situational judgment tests, and personality and culture tests. 

You can even add your own custom questions to tests to glean broader insights into candidates’ relevant capabilities and characteristics for the role.

For example, if you’re assessing applicants for a data protection officer role, the following combination of tests will help you build a well-rounded assessment:

• Role-specific skills tests: Add our GDPR & Privacy test and Cybersecurity test to the assessment to evaluate candidates’ understanding of GDPR principles and compliance and their ability to mitigate threats and attacks to protect company data.

• Situational judgment tests: Assess applicants’ complementary abilities with our Leadership & People Management and Business Ethics & Compliance tests.

• Personality and culture tests: Add our customizable Culture Add test to find candidates whose values and behaviors align with your organization’s. 

Send candidates the GDPR assessment to complete

Once you’ve created a comprehensive GDPR assessment, it’s time to invite your applicants to complete it. 

With TestGorilla, you have three options for inviting candidates to complete an assessment: 

• Invite candidates to complete the assessment via an individual or bulk email

• Embed a public link visible on the job posting

• Add the assessment to one of the applicant tracking systems TestGorilla integrates with

When you send applicants an email link, TestGorilla also enables you to customize the email. This way, you can:

• Provide detailed information about your company’s hiring process (stages, next steps, etc.)

• Give details about the GDPR assessment and how candidates will be evaluated and ranked

• Include a deadline for completing the assessment 

Sending applicants the GDPR assessment before the interview stage saves you time and resources and ensures that only the best candidates proceed to the next step of the hiring process.

Analyze candidates’ GDPR assessment results

Once all of your applicants complete the GDPR assessment, you can easily identify which ones to move on to the next stage of the recruitment process. 

TestGorilla makes it easy to assess GDPR knowledge in your candidates’ results by automatically ranking them according to their average test scores. All applicants are ranked from high to low, and you can delve deeper into individual results by clicking on candidates’ names. 

You can access the results for each part of the test, enabling you to decide how much weight to give certain test scores. 

To help consolidate the assessment process into one platform, you can also make notes about individual candidates and assign them star ratings from within TestGorilla.

Make the best hire by assessing candidates’ GDPR knowledge with TestGorilla 

If your next hire needs knowledge of GDPR, don’t rely on applicants’ CVs to assess their expertise. 

Incorporating a GDPR and privacy skills assessment to assess GDPR and other knowledge  enables you to evaluate candidates’ full profiles to help you easily identify the best applicant for the position.

Sign up for TestGorilla today, and start using our GDPR & Privacy test to find the perfect candidate for your open role.