Corporate Doc: 405
Owner: Head HR & DPO
Reviewed/Updated Jul 2024 Next Review Jun 2025 Issue: 3
Job Applicant Privacy Notice
1.0 Introduction
1.1
As part of any recruitment process, Social Care in Action Group (SCiA) collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. The organisation is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.
2.0 What Information Does the Organisation Collect?
2.1
SCiA collects a range of information about you. This includes:
2.1.1
your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number;
2.1.2
details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history;
2.1.3
information about your current level of remuneration, including benefit entitlements;
2.1.4
whether or not you have a disability for which the organisation needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process;
2.1.5
information about your entitlement to work in the UK; and
2.1.6
equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion or belief.
2.2
SCiA collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms, CVs or resumes, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment, including online tests.
We may will also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks. The organisation will seek information from third parties only once a job offer to you has been made and will inform you that it is doing so.
Data will be stored in a range of different places, including on your application record, in HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).
3.0 Why does SCIA Process Personal Data?
3.1
The organisation needs to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you. It also needs to process your data to enter into a contract with you.
3.2
In some cases, the organisation needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. For example, it is required to check a successful applicant's eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts.
3.3
SCiA has a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from job applicants allows the organisation to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate's suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. We may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.
3.4
SCiA processes health information if it needs to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process for candidates who have a disability. This is to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.
3.5
Where the organisation processes other special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is for equal opportunities and recruitment monitoring purposes as permitted by the Data Protection Act 2018/reasons of substantial public interest.
3.6
For some roles, the organisation is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where the organisation seeks this information, it does so because it is necessary for it to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment, to comply with regulatory requirement to establish whether the individual has committed an unlawful act or been involved in dishonesty or other improper conduct, or for purposes of preventing or detecting unlawful acts.
3.7
If your application is unsuccessful, the organisation will keep your personal data on file in case there are future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. The organisation will ask for your consent before it keeps your data for this purpose and you are free to withdraw your consent at any time by contacting the HR Department.
4.0 Who Has Access to Data?
4.1
Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the HR team, interviewers involved in the recruitment process, managers in the business area with a vacancy and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.
4.2
SCiA will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. We will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you, employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and the Disclosure and Barring Service to obtain necessary criminal records checks.
4.3
The organisation will not transfer your data outside the UK.
5.0 How Does the Organisation Protect Data?
5.1
SCiA takes the security of your data seriously. It has internal policies and controls in place to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by our employees in the proper performance of their duties.
6.0 How Long Does the Organisation Keep Data?
6.1
If your application for employment is unsuccessful, the organisation will hold your data on file for six months after the end of the relevant recruitment process. This is to enable SCiA to fulfil its legal obligations in the event of a legal claim being brought against SCiA in relation to the recruitment and selection process. At the end of that period or once you withdraw your consent, your data is deleted or destroyed.
6.2
If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your HR file and retained during your employment. The periods for which your data will be held will be provided to you in a new privacy notice.
7.0 Your Rights
7.1
As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:
7.1.1
access and obtain a copy of your data on request;
7.1.2
require the organisation to change incorrect or incomplete data;
7.1.3
require the organisation to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing;
7.1.4
object to the processing of your data where the organisation is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing; and
7.1.5
ask the organisation to stop processing data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override the organisation's legitimate grounds for processing data.
7.2
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact the Data Protection Officer or the Head of HR. Contact details are listed under Section 10.0 'Contacts'.
7.3
If you believe that the organisation has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office. Contact details are listed under Section 10.0 'Contacts'.
8.0 What if You Do Not Provide Personal Data?
8.1
You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to the organisation during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, the organisation may not be able to process your application properly or at all. If your application is successful, it will be a condition of any job offer that you provide evidence of your right to work in the UK and references which are satisfactory to the organisation.
8.2
You are under no obligation to provide information for equal opportunities monitoring purposes and there are no consequences for your application if you choose not to provide such information.
9.0 Automated Decision Making
9.1
Recruitment processes are not based solely on automated decision-making.
10.0 Contacts
10.1
Data Protection Officer / Head of HR
Post Data Protection Officer
Social Care in Action Group
1 Paynes Road
Southampton SO15 3DL
Email DPO@sciagroup.co.uk
Post Karen McCarthy - Head of HR
Social Care in Action Group
1 Paynes Road
Southampton SO15 3DL
Email karen.mccarthy@sciagroup.co.uk
10.2
Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
Post Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF