As part of any recruitment process, Haines Watts (the employer) collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. Haines Watts is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.
Haines Watts collects and processes a range of information about you, which includes:
Haines Watts 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.
Haines Watts 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. Haines Watts 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).
Haines Watts 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.
In some cases, the business 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.
Haines Watts 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 business to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate's suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. Haines Watts may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.
Where Haines Watts relies on legitimate interests as a reason for processing data, it has considered whether or not those interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of employees or workers and has concluded that they are not.
Haines Watts 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.
Where Haines Watts processes other special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is for equal opportunities monitoring purposes.
For some roles, Haines Watts is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where Haines Watts 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.
If your application is unsuccessful, Haines Watts will keep your personal data on file in case there are future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. Haines Watts will ask for your consent before it keeps your data for this purpose and you are free to withdraw your consent at any time.
Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the HR and recruitment 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.
Haines Watts will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. Haines Watts 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.
Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the HR and recruitment 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.
Haines Watts will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. Haines Watts 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.
Haines Watts will not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area.
Haines Watts takes the security of your data seriously. Haines Watts has internal policies and controls in place to try to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by its employees in the performance of their duties. Haines Watts has regular cleanses of their candidate data, (digital and paper) to ensure that data is not kept any longer than necessary and all irrelevant data is disposed of confidentially. Where Haines Watts engages third parties to process personal data on its behalf, they do so on the basis of written instructions, are under a duty of confidentiality and are obliged to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of data.
If your application for employment is unsuccessful, Haines Watts will hold your data on file for up to 12 months after the end of the relevant recruitment process. If you agree to allow Haines Watts to keep your personal data on file, Haines Watts will hold your data on file for a further up to 12 months for consideration for future employment opportunities. At the end of that period or once you withdraw your consent, your data is deleted or destroyed.
If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your personnel 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.
As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:
If you would like to contact Haines Watts about your data please contact HW Group Services Limited, 11Ai Park House, Milton, Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 4RS, 01235 835900 national@hwca.com.
If you believe that Haines Watts has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Telephone – 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745, Website: https://ico.org.uk/concerns
You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to Haines Watts during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, Haines Watts may not be able to process your application properly or at all.
Recruitment processes are not based solely on automated decision-making