Job applicant privacy notice

Where we refer to ‘we’ or ‘us’ in this Privacy Notice, we are referring to Progress Housing Group (the Group).

The Group is the 'data controller' of your personal identifiable information because we determine the use of this information. As a registered social housing provider, we are regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).

Progress Housing Group are a 'Group' of companies. In this Privacy Notice, when we refer to ‘Group’, we mean other members of our ‘Group’ of companies, including holding and subsidiary companies. View our group of companies and their ICO References here: https://ico.org.uk/esdwebpages/search

The Group collects and processes a range of information about you. This includes:

• your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number, date of birth and gender;
• details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history, including start and end dates, with previous employers and with the Group;
• information about your remuneration, including entitlement to benefits such as pensions or insurance cover;
• national insurance number;
• information about your nationality and entitlement to work in the UK;
• information about your criminal record;
• details of your schedule (days of work and working hours) and attendance at work;
• details of periods of leave taken by you, including holiday, sickness absence, family leave and sabbaticals, and the reasons for the leave;
• assessments of your performance, including appraisals, performance reviews and ratings, training you have participated in, monitoring evidence in relation to performance, performance improvement plans and related correspondence;
• information about medical or health conditions, including whether or not you have a disability for which the Group needs to make reasonable adjustments;
• equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion or belief;

The Group collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, directly from you; through employment agencies; through application forms or CVs; obtained from your passport or other identity documents such as your driving licence; from forms completed by you at the start of or during employment (such as benefit nomination forms); from correspondence with you; or through interviews, meetings or other assessments.

In some cases, the Group collects personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers and information from criminal records checks permitted by law.

Data is stored in a range of different places, including in your personnel file, in the Group's HR management systems and in other IT systems (including the Group's email system).

The Group needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. For example, it is required to check an employee's entitlement to work in the UK, For certain positions, it is necessary to carry out criminal records checks to ensure that individuals are permitted to undertake the role in question.

In addition to the above the Group has a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process.

The Group has considered whether or not these interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of employees or workers and has concluded that they are not.

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

During the recruitment process, the Group may also collect personal data about you from third parties such as references supplied by a former employer.

Your information will be shared internally, including with members of the HR and recruitment team, line manager, managers in the business area in which you are looking to work and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for performance of their roles. 

 The Group shares your data with third parties in order to obtain pre-employment references from other employers and obtain necessary criminal records checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service.

The Group also shares your data with third parties that process data on its behalf, in connection with the management and support of HR information systems and recruitment.

The Group will not transfer your data to countries outside the European Economic Area unless appropriate safeguards are in place.

The Group takes the security of your data seriously. The Group 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. Your full personal details will be stored in our HR information system which is accessible to the HR & OD Team with authorised log-in details.  Some personal details will also be kept within electronic personnel folders, accessible to members of the HR Team.  IT staff may also be able to access this data if necessary for the performance of their roles.

Your line manager will also be able to access some basic personal details relating to your recruitment through the HR information system.  This will required authorised log-in details. 

Where the Group 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 you are unsuccessful in your application for employment then the Group will hold your personal data for twelve months after the end of the recruitment process.

Should you be successful then your personal data gathered in the recruitment process will be transferred to your personnel file and retained during your employment.

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

• access and obtain a copy of your data on request;
• require the Group to change incorrect or incomplete data;
• in certain circumstances require the Group 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 Group is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing; and
• ask the Group to stop processing data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override the Group's legitimate grounds for processing data.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact the Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@progressgroup.org.uk. 

If you believe that the Group has not complied with your data protection rights, please contact the Group’s Data Protection Officer.  You can also complain to the Information Commissioner and further details and contact information are available at ico.org.uk.

You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to the Group during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, we may not be able to process your application.