Job Applicant Privacy Notice

This privacy policy sets out the data processing practices of SSAFA with respect to applicants for careers at SSAFA.
  1. Who are we?
  2. Scope
  3. How to contact SSAFA about your personal data
  4. Purpose for processing your data
  5. What information does SSAFA collect?
  6. What will we do with the information you provide to us?
  7. Our lawful basis for processing your personal data
  8. Sharing your personal data
  9. International data transfers
  10. How does SSAFA protect data?
  11. For how long does the organisation keep data?
  12. Your rights to your personal data
  13. What if you do not provide personal data?
  14. Automated decision-making
  15. Your right to withdraw consent


Appendix:

  1. Stage 1 – The application
  2. Stage 2 – Shortlisting and assessments
  3. Stage 3 - Decision about your application

 

 

1. Who are we?

SSAFA is the Data Controller of your personal data. Our legal and working tittles are:

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen and Families Association – Forces Help: Registered charity in England and Wales (210760), Scotland (SC038056) and the Republic of Ireland (20202001)

• SSAFA Forces Help

• SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity

SSAFA is a company registered as:

• Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen and Families Association - Forces Help: company number: RC000571

• SSAFA Forces Help Enterprise Limited, registration number: 02493614

• SSAFA Family Health Services, registration number: 03137764

We refer to these companies as ‘SSAFA’ collectively throughout this Notice. They are each a controller of your personal data – but have a single point of contact for you as set out in this Notice.

Our registered address is:

SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, Queen Elizabeth House, 4 St Dunstan’s Hill, London, EC3R 8AD.

 

 

2. Scope

This Privacy Notice explains how SSAFA collects and uses the personal information of individuals who apply for employed roles.

 

 

3. How to contact SSAFA about your personal data

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or the way we use your personal data, you should contact the Data Governance Team as follows:

Data Governance Manager
SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity
Queen Elizabeth House
4 St Dunstan’s Hill
London
EC3R 8AD

Email: data.governance@ssafa.org.uk

You can also contact our Data Protection Officer, Raphaelle Conyard by email at raphaelle.conyard@ssafa.org.uk.

 

 

4. Purpose for processing your data

As part of any recruitment process, SSAFA collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. SSAFA is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.

Please note that all data collected will be used and held in accordance with the requirements of the UK GDPR as amended by the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). We do not collect more information than we need to fulfil our stated purposes and will not retain it for longer than is necessary.

 

 

5. What information does SSAFA collect?

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

  • Your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number
  • Details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history
  • 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 and
  • Equal opportunities monitoring information, including about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health, and religion or belief.

SSAFA 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.

SSAFA will also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers. SSAFA may also, where appropriate, collect information from background check providers relating to your health, criminal records and security.

SSAFA 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 HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email) (see Appendix 1 for the recruitment process).

 

 

6. What will we do with the information you provide to us?

All of the information you provide during the recruitment process will only be used for the purpose of progressing your application, or to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements if necessary. We will not share any of the information you provide during the recruitment process with any third parties for marketing purposes.

The information you provide will be held securely by us and/or our data processors whether the information is in electronic or physical format. We will use your contact details to inform you of the progress of your application and your additional information to assess your suitability for the role you have applied for.

 

 

7. Our lawful basis for processing your personal data

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

SSAFA 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 SSAFA to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate's suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. Where SSAFA 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. SSAFA 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. For some roles, SSAFA is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where SSAFA 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.

 

 

8. Sharing your personal data

Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the HR team, interviewers involved in the recruitment process, and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.

If you are invited to interview your name and email address will be shared with our third-party assessment services for the purposes of assessing your suitability for employment.

SSAFA will not share your data with any other third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. SSAFA will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you and, where appropriate, background checks to obtain information about your health, criminal records and security status.

 

 

9. International data transfers

We do not transfer your personal data outside of the UK for the purposes of assessing and processing your application.

 

 

10. How does SSAFA protect data?

SSAFA uses appropriate technical and organisational safeguards to ensure we keep your personal data secure. We have security measures in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, and alteration of the data under our control. Our cyber security arrangements and framework of data protection policies, procedures and training are kept under regular review to ensure that 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.

 

 

11. How long does the organisation keep data?

If your application for employment is unsuccessful, SSAFA will hold your data on file for 12 months after the end of the relevant recruitment process. At the end of that period, 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.

 

 

12. Your rights to your personal data

You have rights under data protection law over your personal data. You are entitled to request:

• access to (i.e. ask for a copy of) your personal data

• correction of your personal data if it is incorrect

• erasure of your personal data

• that we stop using your personal data if you believe that the information, we hold is wrong, or that we don’t have a valid reason for using it

• that we stop using your personal data where you object to us using it

• that we transfer the information you gave us from one organisation to another or give it to you.

These rights are subject to eligibility and to legal exemptions, and we may need to verify your identity before we are able to respond to your request.

Please note your personal data is stored on our recruitment system and following a successful application you would be provided with access rights so that you can ensure your personal data is being kept up to date.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights or have question on how we are processing your data please contact the Data Governance Manager by email data.governance@ssafa.org.uk or write to us at Data Governance Manager, SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, Queen Elizabeth House, 4 St Dunstan’s Hill, London, EC3R 8AD.

If you believe that SSAFA has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to our Data Protection Officer who will consider the matter for you.  You can contact them by email at raphaelle.conyard@ssafa.org.uk.

If you are still not satisfied, you can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office here –  or by telephone on: 0303 123 1113 - or in writing: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

 

 

13. What if you do not provide personal data?

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

 

 

14. Automated decision-making

Our recruitment processes are not based on automated decision-making except for our due diligence on-line screening questions.

 

 

15. Your right to withdraw consent

Where you have given us your consent, please note you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. If you wish to exercise any of your individual rights including your right to withdraw consent, you can do so by contacting us at data.governance@ssafa.org.uk, or writing to:

Data Governance Manager
SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity
Queen Elizabeth House
4 St Dunstan’s Hill
London
EC3R 8AD

We will respond within one month, on receipt of your written request.

Please note that we might refuse to comply with subject access requests which would reveal sensitive information about third parties, such as those who access our services, even if they are a family member or are otherwise known to you.

 

 

Appendix 1

 

Stage 1 – The application

If you use our online application system, you will provide the requested information directly into our recruitment platform. It asks you for your personal details including name and contact details and to upload your CV or resumes detailing information as set out in paragraph 4, above.

If you use a “paper” application form (completed either electronically in Microsoft Word or by hand), we ask for the same information. Equal opportunities information will not be made available to any staff outside of our HR team, including recruiting managers.

 

 

Stage 2 – Shortlisting and assessments

Our recruiting managers and their chosen interview panel members shortlist applications for interview.

If you are shortlisted, we will invite you to attend an interview. You might also be asked to complete aptitude tests, occupational personality profile questionnaires or other forms of tests as part of the selection process.

Saville Assessment provide online aptitude tests and occupational personality profile questionnaires for us. If we ask you to complete one of these tests, we will send you a link to the test. Your answers will be provided to and held by Saville Assessment. It is then marked, and the result is generated automatically to SSAFA. All other information generated as a result of the assessments will be held by SSAFA.

If you are unsuccessful following assessment for the position you have applied for, we will retain all the documentation relating to your application and assessment for a period of six months from the date that the vacancy is filled.

 

 

Stage 3 - Decision about your application

Final recruitment decisions are made by recruiting managers and the interview panel. All of the information gathered during the application process is taken into account. If we make a conditional offer of employment, we will ask you for information so that we can carry out pre-employment checks. All offers of employment are subject to the successful completion of pre-employment checks. We are required to confirm the identity of our staff, their right to work and seek assurance as to their suitability for the role.

You are able to ask about decisions made about your application by speaking to the HR team by emailing them at hr@ssafa.org.uk.