GDPR Candidate privacy notice – The Recruiters Room.
What is the purpose of this document?
The Recruiters Room is a "data controller". This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. You are being sent a copy of this privacy notice because you are applying for work with us (whether as an employee, worker or contractor). It makes you aware of how and why your personal data will be used, namely for the purposes of the recruitment exercise, and how long it will usually be retained for. It provides you with certain information that must be provided under the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) (GDPR).
Data protection principles
We will comply with data protection law and principles, which means that your data will be:
- Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
- Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
- Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
- Accurate and kept up to date.
- Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
- Kept securely.
The kind of information we hold about you
In connection with your application for work with us, we will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:
- The information you have provided to us in your curriculum vitae and covering letter.
- The information you have provided on our application form, including name, title, address, telephone number, personal email address, date of birth, gender, employment history, qualifications, salary expectations, current remuneration, emergency contact details, notice period, reference details, passports, driving license, birth certificate, proof of address, visa, social media links, reason for leaving employers, NI numbers and any other detail you have given on your online profile.
- Any information you provide to us during a face-to-face or telephone screening.
We may also collect, store and use the following "special categories" of more sensitive personal information:
- Information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and political opinions.
- Information about your health, including any medical condition that you have provided us with.
How is your personal information collected?
We collect personal information about candidates from the following sources:
- You, the candidate.
- The Recruiters Rooms online subscriptions to:
- Reed.co.uk
- Indeed.co.uk
- CV Library.co.uk
- Totaljobs.com
- Jobsite.co.uk
- Monster
CVs received from:
- The Recruiters Room website
- Word of mouth
- Enquiry via direct email
Your named referees, from whom we collect the following categories of data:
- Dates of employment
- Reason for leaving previous job
- Job Title
- Ability/performance rating
How we will use information about you
We will use the personal information we collect about you to:
- Assess your skills, qualifications, and suitability for a role.
- Carry out background and reference checks, where applicable. (Not without written consent)
- Communicate with you about the recruitment process.
- Keep records related to our recruitment processes.
- Comply with legal or regulatory requirements.
- Share your personal data and application with our clients.
Having received your CV and covering letter and/or your application form, we will then process that information to decide whether you meet the basic requirements to be shortlisted for a role. If you do, we will arrange a face-to-face/telephone screening or video call with you. We will use the information you provide to us during the screening and on your application to decide with you whether to forward your information to our client in respect of a role.
If you fail to provide personal information
If you fail to provide information when requested, which is necessary for us to consider your application (such as evidence of qualifications or work history), we will not be able to process your application successfully. For example, if we require a credit check or references for this role and you fail to provide us with relevant details, we will not be able to take your application further.
How we use particularly sensitive personal information
We will use information about your disability status to consider whether we need to instruct our client to provide appropriate adjustments during their recruitment process, for example whether adjustments need to be made during a test or interview.
Information about criminal convictions
We will collect information about any unspent criminal convictions you state you have and pass this along to our client if it is relevant to the role for which you are applying to or are being considered for. Our client is entitled to process information about any criminal convictions or carry out a criminal records check in order to satisfy that there is nothing in your criminal convictions which makes you unsuitable for the role.
Our client has in place an appropriate policy document and safeguards which they are required by law to maintain when processing such data.
Automated decision-making
You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making.
Data sharing
Why might you share my personal information with third parties?
We will only share your personal information with the following third parties for the purposes of processing your application:
- Our clients;
- External regulatory bodies;
- Employment checking companies;
- Reference checking companies;
- Online testing companies;
- Our accountants and Law enforcement;
- Disclosure and Barring Service;
All our third-party service providers and other entities in the group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
Data security
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need-to-know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.
Data retention
How long will you use my information for?
We will retain your personal information for a period of 2 years after we have used your personal information in the ways set out above. We retain your personal information for that period so that we can show, in the event of a legal claim, that we have not discriminated against candidates on prohibited grounds and that we have conducted reviews of your application and covering letter/CV in a fair and transparent way. After this period, we will securely destroy your personal information in accordance with our data retention policy.
If we wish to retain your personal information on file, on the basis that a further opportunity may arise in future and we may wish to consider you for that, we will write to you separately, seeking your explicit consent to retain your personal information for a fixed period on that basis.
Rights of access, correction, erasure, and restriction
Your rights in connection with personal information
Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:
- Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
- Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
- Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
- Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
- Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
- Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.
If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact us via the options below.
Right to withdraw consent
When you applied for a role via The Recruiters Room, you provided consent to us processing your personal information for the purposes of the recruitment process. You have the right to withdraw your consent for processing for that purpose at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact us via the options below. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your application and, subject to our retention policy, we will dispose of your personal data securely.
Contact If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please email us at info@therecruitersroom.co.uk, or write to us at The Recruiters Room, Thorne House, 267 High Street, Crowthorne, Berkshire, RG45 7AH.
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.