As part of our recruitment process we collect and process personal data relating to your application. This means we are a Data Controller. As a Data Controlled we are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information and have responsibility for deciding and informing you about how we hold and use this. We are also committed to being transparent about how we collect and use your personal data and to meeting our GDPR and Data Protection obligations.
General Data Protection Principles
In collecting and processing your personal data, we will comply with the data protection law in force at the time. This requires that the personal data we hold about you must be:
1. Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way;
2. Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes;
3. Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes;
4. Accurate and kept up to date;
5. Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about;
6. Kept securely.
What Personal Data Do We Collect?
We will collect, store, and use a variety of categories of personal information about you. Those categories are detailed below:
- your full name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone numbers
- information about your eligibility to work in the UK and any relationship to Senior Management or Board of Trustees;
- details of your employment history, references, education and qualifications, professional membership, skills and experience;
- equality and diversity information including whether or not you have a disability for which the organisation needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process.
How Is Your Personal Data Collected?
We may collect your personal data in a number of ways; for example via an Application Form or CV, from your passport or other ID documents or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment.
We may also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers (please note we will only seek information from third parties once a job offer is made and will inform you that we are doing so) and occupational health or DBS check providers.
How is Your Personal Data Stored?
Your personal data is stored in a range of different places including on your application record, in HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).
Why Do We Process Your Personal Data?
We need to process your personal data to enable us to take steps, at your request, prior to entering into a contract with you or to enter into a contract with you. In some cases, we need to process personal data to ensure that we are complying with our legal obligations; for example it is mandatory to check a successful applicant's eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts.
We have a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from job applicants allows us to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm an applicant’s suitability for the post and decide to whom to offer a job. We may also need to process personal data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.
We may process special categories of data, such as data about ethnic origin, sexual orientation or religion or belief, to monitor recruitment statistics. We may also collect data about whether or not you are disabled to make reasonable adjustments for you. We process such data to carry out our obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.
If your application is unsuccessful we may keep your personal data on file in case you choose to appeal the recruitment decision.
What If You Do Not Provide Your Personal Data?
You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to us during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, we may not be able to process your application properly or at all.
Who Has Access to Your Personal Data?
Your personal data may be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This could include members of the HR & OD Team, Recruiting Manager and Interviewers, Company Management Team and Senior Leadership Team. In addition, IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.
We will not share your personal data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and we make 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 occupational health providers to obtain medical checks.
What If You Do Not Provide Your Personal Data?
You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to us during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, we may not be able to process your application properly or at all.
Who Has Access to Your Personal Data?
Your personal data may be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This could include members of the HR & OD Team, Recruiting Manager and Interviewers, Company Management Team, Senior Leadership Team and Board of Trustees. In addition, IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.
We will not share your personal data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and we make 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 occupational health providers to obtain medical checks.
How Do We Protect Your Personal Data?
We take the security of your personal data seriously and have internal policies and controls in place to ensure that this is not accidentally lost, destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by our employees in the proper performance of their duties.
In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees and third parties who have a legitimate interest in it. 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.
How Long Do We Keep Your Personal Data?
We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for. If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your HR Personnel File (electronic and paper based) and retained during your employment. The periods for which your data will be held will be provided to you through an Employee Privacy Notice.
If your application for employment is unsuccessful, we will hold your data on file for upto six months after the end of the relevant recruitment process. At the end of that period your data is deleted or destroyed.
Your Rights Regarding Your Personal Data
As a Data Subject, you have a number of rights which are summarised below; please note that your rights may be limited and subject to restrictions in certain cases. You can:
- 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;
- 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 would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Under normal circumstance you will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances. If you do request access to your personal data we may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.
Complaints To The ICO
If you believe that we have not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Changes To This Job Applicant Privacy Notice
We reserve the right to update this Employee Privacy Notice at any time, and we will produce a new one when we make any substantial updates.
Contact Address
Link4Life, PO Box 428, Floor 3, Number One Riverside, Smith Street, Rochdale OL16 1ZL
