Upon its introduction in May of 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became the most stringent set of privacy and security rules in the world. Although it was introduced by the European Union (EU), it impacts companies anywhere in the world that collect and manage data related to EU citizens. The GDPR will impose significant penalties against any organization that violates the privacy and security standards it outlines. Its penalties can reach well into the tens of millions of euros.
An Overview of the GDPR Requirements
The GDPR requirements were created to bring more consistent protection of consumer and personal data for EU citizens. Some of the fundamental privacy and data protection requirements the regulation brings include:
Making the consent of subjects for data processing a requirement
Enforcing privacy protection by anonymizing collected data
Providing notifications of data breaches
Administering for the safe handling of data across borders
The requirement of some companies to assign a data protection officer with the role of overseeing GDPR compliance
Overall, the GDPR requires a baseline set of standards for any organization that collects or manages the data of EU citizens as a way to achieve better protection with regard to the processing and transfer of their personal data.
Employee Training Requirements Under the GDPR
The process of meeting the GDPR´s data protection standards includes the obligation of companies to examine their areas of work and the impact on data privacy. Given this, the regulation’s requirements are primarily met through the actions of their employees. And so proper employee training is a clear prerequisite for GDPR compliance. Through proper training, employees are taught how to identify personal data and its proper handling, per the regulation.
To be effective, GDPR employee training should start at the top of the organization with the firm objective of building an aware and a compliant work culture. Online training courses can be supplemented with role-based training designed to meet the unique requirements of each functional area within the organization.
eLearning for GDPR Employee Training
In the past, the primary way of achieving any employee training objective was through in-person, classroom-based training. But in recent years, as cloud-based technologies have continued to evolve and workforces have become increasingly remote (a trend that began several years ago that has been accelerated by COVID-19), online learning, or “eLearning” has emerged as the cornerstone of many corporate training and workforce development programs.
eLearning eliminates the need for employee and instructor travel, along with the associated expenses. It also removes the burden of bringing your employees together for in-person training as this can be both inconvenient and costly in terms of lost work production.
An eLearning program that leverage state-of-the-art cloud technologies, is cost-effective and convenient. It provides a comfortable learning experience for employees and is proven to provide greater opportunities for comprehension and retention (which is critical, given what is at stake with non-compliance of the GDPR).
Learning Management Systems as GDPR Compliance Software
The core technology that drives and supports all types of eLearning programs, including workforce development and GDPR employee compliance training is a Learning Management System, of “LMS”. And LMS is a software application for building, delivering, and tracking eLearning programs.
While some companies choose to deploy their LMS on-premises, these tend to be larger organizations that have the up-front capital available to purchase the software, hardware, and supporting infrastructure. These companies also have the resources available (both financial and labor) to support the ongoing management and maintenance of the system.
In contrast, a cloud or “SaaS-based” LMS eliminates the need for a large initial investment as the cloud vendor provides all of the LMS software and infrastructure for their clients. They also handle the day-to-day management of the application and ensure its security and availability.
Given the rigorous employee training requirements the GDPR imposes and the industry shift to eLearning, an LMS is commonly viewed as a strategic software component for meeting GDPR compliance.
LMS Portals: Cloud-Based GDPR Compliance Software
LMS Portals offers a cloud-based, multi-tenant learning management system that allows our clients and partners to launch and manage multiple private eLearning environments (portals) for any type of corporate training initiative, including GDPR compliance training. Using our system, you can launch and manage private eLearning environments on-demand, and manage everything from one centralized console.
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