Candidate Privacy Policy

Data controller: Software Solved, 8 Cranmere Court, Matford Business Park, Exeter EX2 8PW 

As part of any recruitment process, Software Solved collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. We are 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?

Software Solved 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;
• information about your current level of remuneration, including benefit entitlements;
  whether or not you have a disability for which we need to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process;
• information about your entitlement to work in the UK; and
  employment background checks and obtain necessary criminal records checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service.

We may collect 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.

Software Solved may 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. 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 IT systems (including email).

Why does Software Solved process personal data?

Software Solved needs 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, we need 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.

Software Solved 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 may 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.

We are obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences to fulfil its client contractual arrangements. Where we seek this information, it does so because it is necessary for it to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment and its client’s contracts.

If your application is unsuccessful, we will keep your personal data on file in case there are future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. We will not use your data for any purpose other than the recruitment exercise for which you have applied.

Who has access to data?

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

We 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 references for you, employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and the Disclosure and Barring Service to obtain necessary criminal records checks.

How does Software Solved protect data?

Software Solved takes the security of your data seriously. We have 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 Software Solved keep data?

If your application for employment is unsuccessful, we will hold your data on file for up to one year after the end of the relevant recruitment process.

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.

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 Software Solved to change incorrect or incomplete data;
• require Software Solved 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 Software Solved is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing;
• and If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact data protection officer at dpo@softwaresolved.com.

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.

Automated decision-making

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