Recruitment privacy notice

We meet the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018.

Data controller: Gillespies LLP, West Gate House, 44 Hale Road, Hale, Cheshire, WA14 2EX (head office)

As part of any recruitment process, Gillespies collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. We are committed to being transparent about how we collect and use that data and to meeting our data protection obligations.

What information does the organisation collect?

We collect information about you, including:

  • 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;
  • information about your entitlement to work in the UK.

We collect this information in a variety of ways. For example, data may be contained in CVs, cover letters or portfolios submitted, or obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment.

Gillespies 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 (if required for role). We 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 our servers, our management software and on other IT systems (including email).

Why does the organisation process personal data?

We need to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you. We also need to process your data to enter into a contract with you.

In some cases, Gillespies needs to process data to ensure that we are complying with our legal obligations. For example, we are required to check a successful applicant's eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts.

Gillespies 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.

We have considered whether our legitimate interests as the reason for processing data are overridden by the rights and freedoms of employees or workers, and we have concluded that they are not.

Gillespies 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, and your express consent will be requested.

If your application is unsuccessful, we will keep your personal data on file for 12 months in case there are other future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. You can withdraw your consent to this at any time however, by emailing datacontroller@gillespies.co.uk

Who has access to data?

Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise, with the HR and admin teams, interviewers and managers involved in the recruitment process, as well as IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.

Gillespies 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 basic employment references for you and employment background check providers to obtain background checks, if necessary.

How does the organisation protect data?

Gillespies takes the security of your data seriously. It has internal policies and controls to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by the relevant employees of the organisation in the proper performance of their duties.

Job applications received via email are saved securely on our server, and then deleted. The server files are only made available to the appropriate employees to perform their duties, for example HR and management reviewing applications. Applications are moved from email to a secure location on the network and a link made available to management so that applications are not emailed unnecessarily. All data access is strictly controlled using the least access privilege approach.

For how long does the organisation keep data?

If your application for employment is unsuccessful, the organisation will hold your data on file for twelve months after the end of the relevant recruitment process. At the end of that period (or once you withdraw your consent), your data is deleted or destroyed. You can withdraw your consent to this at any time however, by emailing datacontroller@gillespies.co.uk

If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your personnel file and retained throughout your employment and for six years following the end of your employment, as per our data retention policy.

Your rights

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

  • ask us to change incorrect or incomplete data
  • ask us to delete or stop processing your data, if 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
  • access and obtain a copy of your data on request
  • ask us to stop processing data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override our legitimate grounds for processing data.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please email datacontroller@gillespies.co.uk

If you believe that we have not complied with your data protection rights, you should first take it up with the Head of People and Culture. If after investigation you feel that your rights are still compromised you can escalate this to a Partner.

Data breaches and reporting

If it becomes apparent that a potential data breach has occurred, Gillespies will endeavour to report this to the ICO within 72 hours of becoming aware of the data breach. This will be the case if the data breach is likely to result in damage to a person’s reputation, financial loss, loss of confidentiality, or major financial or social disadvantage. If the breach is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of the data subject the Company will also contact the data subject without undue delay.

Data breaches will be reported to the Information Commissioner Office (ICO) by calling the dedicated personal data breach helpline on 0303 123 1113.

What if you do not provide 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.

Automated decision-making

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