As part of the recruitment process, Saffery LLP collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. The firm is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.
We collect a range of information about an individual. This includes:
- Name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number;
- Details of qualifications, skills, experience and employment history;
- Information about an individual’s current level of remuneration, including benefit received;
- Whether or not an individual has a disability for which the firm needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process;
- Information about an individual’s entitlement to work in the UK; and
- Equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about gender, ethnicity, age, marital status and nationality.
We collect this information in a variety of ways. Data might be contained in application forms, CVs or resumes, obtained from passport or other identity documents, or gathered through interviews or other forms of assessment processes, including group exercises, case studies and online tests or personality questionnaires. This information is collected in hard copy or electronically.
We also collect personal data about individuals from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks. We will seek information from third parties only once a job offer has been made and will inform the individual that it is doing so.
Data is stored in a range of different places, including on an initial application record, in our HR database and on other IT systems (including email).
In some cases, we need to process data to ensure that the firm is complying with its legal obligations. For example, we are required to check a successful applicant’s eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts.
Saffery 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 firm to manage the recruitment process, assess and establish a candidate’s suitability for employment and decide who to offer a job to.
Where we rely on legitimate interests as a reason for processing data, have have considered that those interests are not overridden by the rights and freedoms of employees or workers.
We process health information if we need to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process for candidates who have a disability. This is to carry out its obligations and exercise a candidate’s specific rights in relation to equality legislation.
Where we process other special categories of data, such as ethnicity, this is done for the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring with the explicit consent of job applicants. This consent can be withdrawn at any time.
For some roles, we are obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where we seek this information, we do so because it is necessary for us to carry out our obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.
We will not use an individual’s personal data for any purpose other than the recruitment exercise for which an individual has applied.
Personal data will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the HR department, partners, managers and other staff appropriately trained and involved in the recruitment process.
We will not share personal data with third parties, unless an individual’s application for employment is successful and we make a formal offer of employment. We will then share an individual’s data with former employers to obtain references, employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and the Disclosure and Barring Service to obtain necessary criminal records checks.
We will not transfer personal data outside the EU without putting in place adequate safeguards.
We take the security and protection of personal data seriously. We have internal policies and controls in place to ensure that personal data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by our trained staff and managers in the proper performance of their duties.
If an individual’s application for employment is unsuccessful, we will hold personal data on file for up to two years after the end of the relevant recruitment process. At the end of that period, or once an individual withdraws their consent, personal data is securely deleted or destroyed.
If an individual’s application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to the individual’s personnel file and retained during employment. The periods for which personal data will be held will be provided to an individual in a formal privacy notice and data protection policy which forms part of the firm’s staff handbook.
As a data subject, an individual has a number of rights. An individual can:
- Access and obtain a copy of personal data on request;
- Require us to amend incorrect or incomplete data;
- Require us to delete or stop processing personal data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was originally required;
- Object to the processing of personal data where we are relying on legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing; and
- Ask us to stop processing personal data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not an individual’s interests override the firm’s legitimate grounds for processing personal data.
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact [email protected]
If you believe that we have not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk
An individual is under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to us during the recruitment process. However, if they do not provide the information, we may not be able to process their application for recruitment purposes.
An individual is under no obligation to provide information for equal opportunities monitoring purposes and there are no consequences for an individual’s application if they choose not to provide such information.