At a time when data protection and data privacy are of paramount importance, new research from ISACA released during Data Privacy Month explores the latest issues and opportunities in enterprise privacy—from privacy workforce and privacy by design to privacy challenges and the future of privacy—in its new Privacy in Practice 2022 survey report, sponsored by OneTrust.
Respondents in India indicate that they have unfilled positions in both legal/compliance (31 percent) and technical privacy roles (43 percent). At a global level this issue has only worsened since last year. On the same note, among India-based respondents, 21 percent indicate that it takes anywhere between three and six months to fill positions for legal/compliance privacy roles, while 25 percent of the respondents have indicated a similar time frame for filling open technical privacy positions. To overcome the skill gap, 50% of the respondents in India have indicated they train non-privacy staff who are interested in moving into privacy roles.
Given the current emphasis and importance on data protection and privacy, respondents also largely expect that privacy professionals will only become more in-demand, with 72 percent of the global respondents anticipating increased demand for technical privacy roles and 63 percent expecting increased demand for legal/compliance roles.
In seeking professionals to fill these roles, respondents worldwide indicate they are looking for three key things: compliance/legal experience (62 percent), prior hands-on experience in a privacy role (56 percent) and technical experience (48 percent). However, they indicate that candidates do not always have the skills required for these roles, citing these top three most common skills gaps:
- Experience with different technologies and/or applications (64 percent)
- Understanding the laws and regulations to which an enterprise is subject (50 percent)
- Experience with frameworks and/or controls (50 percent)
- Lack of technical experience (46 percent)
