Hiring is one of the most data-heavy things you do. From CVs and interview notes to background checks and equality data, every step of the recruitment process involves handling personal information. That means, under GDPR and the Irish Data Protection Act 2018, your hiring process is a regulated activity, not just an admin task.
For HR leaders, this matters on several levels. Getting GDPR wrong can mean complaints, investigations and potential fines. But even before that, it can damage your employer brand and candidates’ trust. People are more privacy-aware than ever, and how you handle their data during recruitment says a lot about how you’ll treat them as employees.
This checklist was created to make GDPR in hiring practical for busy HR teams in Irish SMEs. It focuses on two areas that cause the most confusion and risk:
- What documents you should have in place
- How long you should keep different types of hiring records.
Use it as a step-by-step guide to sense-check your current process, tighten up any gaps, and show that your organisation takes candidate privacy and compliance seriously from the get-go.
For more information on how you can ensure your business is prepared, compliant, and audit-ready, download our whitepaper: The SME HR Compliance Survival Guide - Ireland 2026
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