Hiring slowdowns ahead unless recruiters modernise for DPDP compliance

As India operationalises Consent Managers under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, recruiters are beginning to confront a new reality: candidate drop-offs will soon be transparent, recorded, and attributable.

Industry experts expect an initial spike in early-stage withdrawals especially in processes with vague job descriptions, excessive data collection, or weak employer branding. But this may be short-term friction for long-term efficiency.

“When withdrawal is one click away and clearly visible, you may see higher early-stage drop-offs,” says Rishi Agrawal, CEO and Co-founder, Teamlease Regtech. “But that is exactly the signal the system needs. It forces employers and platforms to earn consent rather than assume it. In the long term, I expect fewer but more serious candidates in the funnel.”

This marks a complete shift in accountability within the hiring ecosystem. Drop-offs that were previously invisible will now be captured as recorded, auditable events. Agrawal calls that fundamental to restoring trust:

“The real risk is not that people withdraw consent. The real risk is not having a defensible, well-governed process when they do.”

Hiring Will Slow Down — But Only If Companies Don’t Modernise

For many organisations, the scramble has begun. Teams are urgently trying to retrofit Consent Manager flows onto old HR stacks.

“In the short term, yes, some organisations will see friction because they are trying to bolt Consent Managers onto legacy hiring workflows,” Agrawal explains. “If you treat consent as ‘one more compliance step’, you will slow down hiring. But if you redesign journeys with Consent Managers embedded by design… faster and cleaner hiring cycles can be expected.”

Recruiters will need to rethink their dependency on offline CV banks, old excel lists, and purchased databases.

Candidate Controls Will Reshape Recruiter Outreach

Consent granularity will directly influence hiring speed, says Yuvraj Shidhaye, Founder and Director, TreadBinary:

“If a candidate gives general authorization… data can flow continuously without repeated approvals. In such cases, hiring speed will remain unaffected.”

But there’s a catch:

“If a candidate opts for case-by-case consent… this could introduce delays.”

Shidhaye expects the biggest drop not in quality hiring pipelines — but in cold outreach fuelled by unofficial databases, which will shrink dramatically.

Cleaner Data, Faster Decisions

Organisations may soon discover that fewer profiles = better profiles, argues Yuvraj Bhardwaj, CEO and Co-founder, Petonic AI.

“Consent-verified data will reduce back-and-forth, eliminate unusable profiles, and minimise compliance risks,” he says. “Over time, organizations will experience faster, more confident decisions and higher-quality hires.”

The DPDP Act may force employers to go slow initially — so they can go fast sustainably.

Compliance Gaps Are the Real Bottleneck

Even before drop-offs and consent friction, DPDP readiness poses the bigger risk.

Deepesh Gupta, Director and Head of General Staffing at Adecco India, highlights the operational exposure ahead:

“Approximately 36 percent of organisations have appointed Data Protection Officers, and 50 percent lack the skills for DPDP compliance. Most HR systems are not yet equipped for seven-year consent logs, breach reporting within 24 hours, or automated erasure workflows.”

The result?

“Withdrawal rights under DPDP are absolute and enforceable, and Consent Managers will make them easy and traceable. Disputes in marketing programs and mass messaging are anticipated to attract a higher volume of conflicts.”

Gupta predicts a visible spike in grievances — but calls that a necessary correction phase.

The Consent Refresh India Needed

The early discomfort is real. Drop-offs will rise. Disputes will spike. Legacy tech will strain.

Yet the long-term outlook remains compelling:

• Data flows become cleaner

• Hiring pipelines become more serious

• Decisions become faster and defensible

• Candidate trust becomes earned, not assumed

The DPDP Act reinforces a shift that was overdue — one where consent isn’t a check-box at the bottom of a job application, but the foundation on which the hiring journey stands.