Robert Half, the British financial recruitment firm, reports that two thirds (66%) of chief information officers will hire additional permanent staff to cope with the requirements of the European Union's General Data Protection Directive. A further 64% will hire temporary staff to manage the change in data management in May 2018.

The new data protection legislation will reshape the way organisations approach data privacy, providing the public with more visibility into data breaches. As organisations concentrate on compliance initiatives, demand for permanent project managers (33%), business analysts (26%) and data protection officers (26%) that oversee how data is processed, will increase.

With the happy event drawing closer, financial businesses are realising that a combination of soft and technical skills is the secret. Analytic ability (44%), knowledge of regulation and compliance (39%), and project management skills (38%) will be indispensible. Strategic thinking (39%), communication skills (39%) and attention to detail (31%) are also required to ensure that compliance people can act as business leaders and play an effective part in influencing data practices and policies.

GDPR certified practioners are in short supply, but Robert Half believes that project managers and business analysts with experience implementing MiFID ll and the Sarbanes Oxley Act, among other pieces of legislation, have the requisite skills to support firms' efforts, especially temporarily and on projects.

Small-to-medium firms are more likely to hire project managers (32%) to help with compliance while larger organisations are placing a greater emphasis on recruiting data protection officers (33%).