Softwerx Ltd Job Applicant and Candidate Privacy Notice

Data Controller: Softwerx Ltd “the organisation” 

Joint Data Controller with Clearsprings (Management) Limited the Parent Company with whom the organisation has a shared central services model. 

As part of any recruitment process, the organisation 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.

What information does the organisation collect?

The organisation collects a range of information about you. This includes the following: 

• your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number
• details of your qualifications, skills, experience, and employment history
• information about your current level of remuneration, including benefit entitlements
• whether or not you have a disability for which the organisation needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process
• details provided on the Softwerx Ltd Criminal Records Declaration Form (once a conditional offer of employment is made) 
• information about your entitlement to work in the UK in accordance with the Home Office Right to Work Checklist (page 5 IDVT Check using an IDSP) 

The organisation collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be collected from an employment agency which you are registered with, contained in application forms, CVs or resumes, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment.

The organisation will also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, and information from criminal records checks through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) as provided to the organisation by the umbrella Registered Body, Checks Direct. Please review the Softwerx Ltd DBS and Recruitment of Ex-Offenders Policy, and the Softwerx Ltd Policy on Processing Special Category and Criminal Records Data.  

The organisation will seek information from third parties only once a conditional 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 including Sage HR and on other IT systems (including email).

Why does the organisation process personal data?

The organisation needs to process data to take recruitment steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you. It also needs to process your data to enter into a contract of employment with you.

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. We will process your personal data (including special categories of personal data) in line with our obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018.

The organisation 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. The organisation may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.

Where the organisation 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 job applicants, employees or workers and has concluded that they are not.

The organisation 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 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 monitoring purposes as permitted by the Data Protection Act 2018.

The organisation will not use your data for any purpose other than the recruitment exercise for which you have applied.

Who has access to data?

If you apply for a job at Softwerx Ltd through a recruitment agency or use an external job board to apply for a job at the organisation, please refer to the relevant Privacy Notice of that third party organisation. 

Your information will be shared internally at Softwerx Ltd for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes the organisation’s Director’s, managers in the business area with a vacancy, and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles such as for shipping IT equipment to your home address.

Your information will be shared with the human resources department of our Parent Company, Clearsprings (Management) Limited with whom we have shared central services model (Joint Data Controller).  

Your information will be shared with our external human resources advisors, Red Kite HR Services Limited who serve as our outsourced human resources function at the organisation. 

The organisation will not share your data with other third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. The organisation will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you, and the DBS Registered Body, Checks Direct to obtain necessary background checks. 

Your information will also be shared and stored on the relevant job advertisement board from which you subscribe, which could be an external job board or recruitment agency, or a vacancy on the organisation’s website. For further information on how the relevant job board processes personal information please refer to the relevant website privacy policy. 

The organisation will not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area.

How does the organisation protect data?

The organisation 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.

For how long does the organisation keep data? 

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 and the HR Retention Policy.

If your application for employment is unsuccessful, your recruitment documentation (including application forms, CVs and interview notes, assessment exercises or tests, will be retained for 12 months after notifying the candidate of the outcome of the recruitment exercise. 

Your rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:

• access and obtain a copy of your data on request;
• require the organisation to change incorrect or incomplete data;
• require the organisation to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing;
• object to the processing of your data where the organisation is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing; and
• 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.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact the Group Data Protection Officer (DPO) Nigel Couchman, Quality Manager and Data Protection Officer at Clearsprings (Management) Limited: [email protected]

If you believe that the organisation has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner.

What if you do not provide personal data?

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 satisfactory completion of the criminal records declaration form and references.

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.

Automated decision-making

Recruitment processes are not based solely on automated decision-making.