Candidate Agreement

Candidate Agreement 

CareerSpot is a website owned and operated by Fitzgerald HR Ltd. For the purposes of this Candidate Agreement, Fitzgerald HR is the Data Controller.

1. Introduction

In this Candidate Agreement, “we”, “our”, or “us” refer to Fitzgerald HR Limited.

We are a company number 07952148 registered in England, United Kingdom. Our registered office is at Team House, Riverside Road, Pottington Business Park, Barnstaple, Devon, EX31 1QN.

We are committed to being transparent about how we collect and use your data and to meeting our data protection obligations. Our policy complies with UK law accordingly implemented, including that required by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This Candidate Agreement explains how we collect, use and process your personal data and how we will comply with our legal obligations to you. It covers information that could identify you (“personal information”) and information that could not. In the context of the law and this policy, “process” means collect, store, transfer, use or otherwise act on information.

We may process your personal data if:

  • you have applied for a job that we have advertised (candidate and job applicant);
  • you have subscribed to job alerts on our website (subscriber);

Except as set out below, we do not share, or sell, or disclose to a third party, any information collected from you.

This Privacy Statement may be amended from time to time and we will post any changes here.

2. Candidate and Job Applicant Data

The data we collect and how it is collected

We need to process certain information about you to assist with your job search and to enable us to make recommendations to our clients when short-listing candidates for a particular role. The majority of the personal information you provide to us is freely given by you when you apply for a job or subscribe to job alerts.

We will collect your data when:

  • you apply directly for an advertised role on CareerSpot;
  • you apply for a role that we have placed on a third-party job site; or
  • you create a profile on CareerSpot in order to subscribe to job alerts.

We only ask for details that we genuinely need, such as your name, age, contact details, education details and employment history. When necessary for our clients, we may also collect information related to your health, diversity information or details of any criminal convictions.

During the recruitment process, we may collect further information from you (for example by email, interviews, testing, telephone conversations) in relation to your employment preferences, skills and work experience. This information may be stored on your account within CareerSpot.

The data that we collect about you may include the information listed below.

  • General identification and contact information, such as:  your name; address; email; telephone numbers; gender; marital status; family status; date and place of birth; nationality/citizenship; IP address; photograph.
  • Sensitive personal data such as: trade union membership, religious beliefs, political opinions or racial or ethical origin, and criminal record.
  • Details about your education, skills, qualifications, employment history and professional memberships.
  • Social media accounts where you provide this (e.g. LinkedIn or Twitter).
  • Emergency contacts and details of any dependants.
  • Referee details.
  • Evidence of your right to work in the UK.
  • A copy of your driving licence and/or passport/identity card.
  • Financial information (where we need to carry out financial background checks).
  • National Insurance Number.
  • Health related information including physical or mental health and disability-related information.
  • Details of any criminal convictions if this is required for a role that you are applying for.
  • Details about your current remuneration, pensions and benefit packages.
  • Information about your interests and needs regarding future employment, which may be collected directly from you, or inferred, for example from jobs viewed or articles read on our website.
  • Extra information that you or your referees choose to tell us about you.
  • Extra information that our Clients may tell us about you, or that we find out from other third-party sources such as job sites or recruitment testing companies.
  • The dates, times and frequency with which you access our services.

Please note that the above list of categories of personal data we may collect is not exhaustive.

Why we process your personal data

We need to process your personal data to determine your suitability for a role that you have applied for, or to tell you about other roles that you may be interested in based on the profile that you have given us, and to communicate with you as part of our business.

In some cases, we need to process data to ensure that we are complying with our legal obligations. For example, we may be required 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 your suitability for employment and to support our clients in deciding to who to offer a job to. We may also need to process data from job applicants and candidates to respond to and defend against legal claims.

We may process special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation or religion or belief, to monitor recruitment statistics. We may also collect information about whether or not applicants are disabled to make reasonable adjustments for candidates who have a disability. We process such information to carry out our obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

For some roles, we may seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where we seek this information, we do so on behalf of our clients because it is necessary for them to carry out their obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

We will only send you job alerts with your consent and we will cease to process data after consent is withdrawn.

If your application for a role is unsuccessful, we may keep your personal data on file in case there are future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. You explicitly consent to this at the time of creating an account with CareerSpot but you are free to withdraw your consent at any time by either logging into your account, or emailing communications@careerspot.co.uk.

The data we share with third party providers is limited to the minimum that is required to fulfil our legitimate business requirements.

If your application for employment is successful and you are made an offer of employment, we may then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you, employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and the Disclosure and Barring Service to obtain necessary criminal records checks, at which point we will gain your consent.

How long we will keep the data

At the end of the recruitment process, whether your application for employment is successful or unsuccessful, we will hold your data on file for six months following the end of the recruitment process, after which it will be deleted or destroyed. If you agree to allow us to keep your personal data on file, we will hold your data for consideration for future employment opportunities until you withdraw your consent for us to do so. At this time, your data will be deleted or destroyed.

If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to the client who employed us to recruit to your role.

If you do not wish to 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.

3. Job Alerts and Newsletters for Candidates and Customers

The data we collect and how it is collected

To subscribe to job alert emails, you will be required to provide your name, e-mail address and a basic profile of yourself in relation to your employment preferences (location, industry and role). This will be used for the purpose of keeping you informed, by e-mail, of the latest jobs in your preferred industry(s) and/or location(s). If you have subscribed to our job alert emails you may have done this online (on our website or blog) or through off-line consent at a careers fair or when using one of our services. Should you decide that you no longer wish to receive this information, unsubscribe links are provided in every job alert email that you receive.

If you have also subscribed to our careers and jobseekers’ newsletter, you may have done this online (on our website or blog) or through off-line consent at a careers fair or when using one of our services. Should you decide that you no longer wish to receive this information, unsubscribe links are provided in every newsletter email that you receive.

Why we process your personal data

We process this data in order to send you job alerts and/or newsletters that you have signed up for and that you have provided explicit consent for us to send to you.

How long we will keep the data

You will continue to receive job alerts and newsletters from us until you opt out of receiving these. If you remove consent for us to contact you in this way we will cease immediately.

If you do not wish to provide personal data

You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to us. However, if you do not provide the information, we will not be able to send you job alerts or newsletters.

4. Website Visitors

As a visitor to our website, we may automatically collect data about you, even if you do not use our services or subscribe to one of our services. This includes your IP address, information about the way that you access and browse the website, as well as the date, times and frequency that you do so.
We collect your data automatically via cookies. Please click here to read our cookies policy.

5. Who has access to your Data

We may share your personal data with the following categories of people and organisations.

  • The client whose job vacancy you have applied for or other potential employers. We will never share personal information or a Curriculum Vitae with a Client without your consent.
  • A third-party provider for the purpose of assessment (for example testing companies such as psychometric assessments or task assessment).
  • Individuals and organisations who hold information regarding your reference or application to work with us, such as current, past or prospective employers, education establishments, examining bodies and employment/recruitment agencies.
  • Our internal staff including IT, finance and marketing teams.
  • Third party business providers such as accountants, auditors, experts, lawyers and other outside professional advisors.
  • IT systems, support and hosting service providers, recruitment software providers.
  • Marketing technology platforms and suppliers.
  • Document and records management providers, and data storage and cloud providers where we have an appropriate processing agreement (or similar protections) in place
  • Relevant third-party vendors and outsourced service providers that assist us in carrying out business activities.
  • Third party suppliers who provide services such as reference, qualification and criminal convictions checks.
  • Consultants and associates who assist us in providing our services.
  • For legal reasons, where we are required to do so by law, such as by HMRC, an employment tribunal or where we are acquired or merge with another business in the future.

The data we share with third party providers is limited to the minimum that is required to fulfil our legitimate business requirements.

6. Transfer of Data Outside the Economic Union

Your personal information is usually stored and kept inside the European Economic Area.

However, some of the technology that we use is provided by third parties with servers and systems outside the EEA. Where this is the case we only use providers who can demonstrate their compliance with the GDPR, with whom we enter into legal contracts with. We only transfer the minimum amount of data necessary, encrypt it where possible and we aim to ensure these third parties handle your personal information in accordance with this privacy policy and the GDPR.

7. Security of your Personal Data

We take the security of your data seriously.

We have internal policies, procedures and controls in place to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed. These policies are:

  • Data Protection and Security Policy
  • Employee Data Protection Policy
  • Data Retention Policy

In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. Employees of third parties who fail to comply with our policies may be disciplined or their contract terminated if they fail to meet these obligations.

We periodically review our information collection, storage and processing practices to ensure they are robust and your data is secure.

We provide internal training to all employees who are responsible for processing personal data.

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.

You can request these policies from communications@careerspot.co.uk.

8. Automated Decision-making

We may use our technology to select appropriate candidates for us to consider based on criteria we have identified. The process of finding suitable candidates is automatic, however, any decision as to who we will engage to fill the job opening will be made by our Clients.

9. The Legal Bases that we rely on to process your Personal Information

Consent

The GDPR states that (opt-in) consent is "any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject's wishes by which he or she, by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her."

To gain explicit consent, we will usually provide a tick box or a double opt-in confirmation via email marketing. We will always be clear about what you are consenting to you at the time that we seek your consent. We will also keep records of the consent that you have provided in this way.

Where we rely on your consent to process your personal data, you have the right to withdraw consent at any time. Where consent is the only legal basis for processing, we will cease to process data after consent is withdrawn.

There are two types of consent which are “opt-in consent” or “soft opt-in consent”. If we rely on soft opt-in consent it will be when we market products or services to you which are related to the recruitment services we provide. We are allowed to do this as long as you do not actively opt-out from these communications.

You can opt out at any time using the opt out information on our marketing materials or by emailing communications@fitzgeraldhr.co.uk.

The processing is necessary to fulfil a contract

We may process your data when we need to do this to fulfil a contract with you, such as a contract or agreement that we have signed in relation to our services or your services.

Legitimate Interest

We will process your data when it’s in our legitimate interests to do this and when these interests are not overridden by your data protection rights.

When we are relying on our legitimate interests to process your data it is in order to:

  • communicate with you as part of our business in order to ensure you’re responded to appropriately, and that we can build good working relationships with our stakeholders;
  • provide you with relevant information about our services, including promoting, marketing and advertising, so that we can raise awareness of our services and run a profitable business;
  • send you important information regarding changes to our policies and other terms and conditions so that we remain legally compliant and meet our legal obligations;
  • carry out market research and analysis, including satisfaction surveys so that we can continue to improve existing products and services and develop new products and services;
  • manage our infrastructure and business operations, and comply with internal policies and procedures, including those relating to auditing, finance and accounting, billing and collections, IT systems, data and website hosting, business continuity, records, document and print management so that we can run our business smoothly, efficiently and legally;
  • comply with requests from our stakeholders to resolve complaints, and handle requests for data access or correction;
  • sell and supply goods and services to our customers, candidates, job applicants and clients so that we can run a profitable business whilst helping our clients fill roles and our customers and job applicants find the right opportunities for them;
  • use the services of our suppliers to help us run our business and provide the services our clients and customers are asking for;
  • protect customers, employees and other individuals and maintain their health and safety;
  • establish and defend legal rights, protect our operations or our rights, privacy, safety or property, and pursue available remedies or limit our damages;
  • fulfil our duties to our customers, colleagues, shareholders and other stakeholders.

The processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation

We may process your data to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations (for example:  complying with a disclosure request from an employment tribunal; supplying relevant information to HMRC; or working with law enforcement agencies and supplying information when required).

We may also process your data to take legal advice or defend our company in any legal proceedings.

10. Retention Period for Personal Data

Except as otherwise mentioned in this Privacy Policy, we keep your personal information only for as long as required by us:

  • to provide you with the services you have requested;
  • to comply with other law, including for the period demanded by our tax authorities; and/or
  • to support a claim or defence in court.

Generally, if we have not had any meaningful contact with you for two years, we will erase your data.

11. 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 us to change incorrect or incomplete data;
  • require us 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 we are relying on our legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing;
  • receive the personal data concerning you, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit the data to a third party in certain situations

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact our Communications Manager by emailing: communications@careerspot.co.uk

If you believe that we have not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or telephone: 0303 123 1113.

12. Managing and Deleting Your Personal Data

If you are receiving marketing materials from us which you no longer wish to receive, you can unsubscribe.

If you have created an account on CareerSpot, it is protected by your password and may only be accessed by you. You can manage your account by logging into your account at any time.

The data that you provide in your account can only be viewed by our Resourcing and HR team.

If you upload any content that, in our opinion, is illegal or offensive, we reserve the right to remove this content from our database.

You can de-activate or delete your account at any time. To do this, please go to "My Account".

If you believe that we hold personal data about you that you want us to amend or delete, please email communications@careerspot.co.uk.

Please click here to view our full Privacy Policy.