16 February, 2024
Ensuring data security while onboarding an R&R platform: An HR Checklist
As a leading rewards and recognition solutions provider in India, we often interact with prospective customers who have a looming concern about integrating external R&R platforms with their HRMS. No matter how attractive the platform’s features are, most HR personnel fear the ‘IT’ factor- clearance from their IT teams for any third-party software. This article is written to help HR identify any data security-related threats upfront, so they appear smart in front of the technology guys (and girls).
On a more serious note though- data privacy for employees and data security in general are some of the top concerns for HR tech in 2024. Considering the rise of AI-driven tech, each organization and its members have the right to identify how their information is going to be used by any technology provider. Consider this article as a checklist to ensure security and autonomy when it comes to data handshaking between two organizations, especially in the context of a rewards and recognition platform.
Minimizing Data Exchange
HR is the custodian of sensitive employee data, including contact details, addresses, and payroll information. The first step to data security is ensuring that the vendor requires minimum employee data points to get started, like name and work email/employee codes. Any additional data like phone numbers or employee grades can be optionally provided, using only end-to-end encryption.
Manual Data Uploading
Having the option to directly upload data on the R&R platform using an admin panel can be a great way to ensure that employee data is being used for its targeted purpose. This can be especially useful in cases where bulk distribution of rewards or bulk nominations are involved. This can also come in handy when supplying attrition-related data to the system. However, this is not the most efficient way to share data, and more streamlined, yet secure options will be covered in the next point
Integrations for Data Exchange
To keep both systems in sync, data exchange is needed. Automated data integration using SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) is the preferred approach for securely transferring data from your organization’s HRMS to the R&R platform. For an added layer of security, files can be encrypted, or password protected. Data sharing frequency can be daily, weekly, or fortnightly as needed.
Another approach to data exchange is through API integration. The R&R platform provides secure APIs to seamlessly integrate with your HRMS system to manage employees (create/modify and deactivate) in the R&R platform in real time.
Anonymized Data
As mentioned in the first point, encryption helps anonymize sensitive employee data when stored in the platform’s database, boosting data security. In addition, anonymization can come in handy when it comes to getting survey/feedback responses within the platform, or even individual employee mood reports, such as those supplied by our patented moodometer.
Compliance and Certifications
Most of the top R&R solution providers have all of these compliance-related certifications, but requirements may vary depending on the geographical areas you operate in. The basic ones are
- ISO 27001 (International Standard for Information Security)
- GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
- PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)
- SOC (Voluntary compliance standard for service organizations)
Secure Access
Finally, access to the R&R platform for your organization can be secured in multiple ways. SSO (Single Sign-On) allows users to use their corporate credentials to log in. The advantage here is that user authentication is driven by the organization. This means that once an employee leaves an organization, their access to the R&R portal will be automatically revoked. Better yet, auto-login from the intranet itself can ensure ease of use along with security. Other ways to secure access are through 2-factor authentication (OTP-based login) and role-based access, which limits access to some features for certain types of employees.
As per SHRM data, 61% of CHROs plan to invest in AI to streamline HR processes in 2024. The move towards increasing HR tech adoption is inevitable, as it has the potential to transform the HR function- right from employing chatbots to improve the employee experience to using AI-driven analytics to make policy decisions, technology is here to stay. Therefore, the best for HR is to select technology vendors that follow the highest standards in coding, data usage, and even data deletion in case the contract ends.