In my experience, most are pretty good. But I have to ask, because I’m staggered to see that, after 20 years, there are still a few recruitment firms out there that believe they are bound by something called the “Recruitment Industry Privacy Code”. They proudly publish the fact in their privacy policies and on their websites.

Fact check…

The Recruitment Industry Privacy Code was the brainchild of ITCRA (APSCo Australia). It was never approved or implemented.  It did not become “a thing”.

It gets worse…

Despite the fact that the RIPC originally contemplated that ITCRA would be the Code Adjudicator, several recruitment firms, perhaps because they weren’t members of ITCRA, simply swapped out references to ITCRA for references to either RCSA or the Privacy Commissioner. And perhaps, because they weren’t members of ITCRA, they didn’t get the memo about the RIPC being withdrawn from the approval process.

Rubbing salt into the wounds

To make matters worse, most of those firms that are still proclaiming their adherence to the RIPC, claim to be committed to protecting the privacy of their clients and candidates … in compliance with the National Privacy Principles … which were replaced in 2014.

I’m sure they are committed, in their own way. But it can’t be much of an advertisement for professionalism if you’re a couple of decades out of date.

Update your awareness

If you need to update your awareness of recruitment privacy, you might like to register for WorkAccord/ The Recruiters’ Casebook webinar on 3 May 2022, when we’ll be Talking Privacy and What Recruiters Need to Know.

Let’s talk!

Andrew C. Wood