Careers Privacy Statement
This is the Privacy Notice of Northern Ireland Co-Ownership Housing Association Limited (Co-Ownership) for job applicants. It tells you about the information we collect from you, what we ask others to tell us about you and what we do with your information and who we share it with. At Co-Ownership we treat your Data with the highest standards of security and confidentiality, in accordance with Data Protection Law.
As part of any recruitment process, Co-Ownership collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. Co-Ownership is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.
1. What information do we collect?
Co-Ownership 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;
- whether or not you have a disability for which we need to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process; and
- information about your entitlement to work in the UK.
Co-Ownership 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, certificates of qualifications or evidence of membership of professional bodies or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment, including online tests.
We may also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by third parties such as former employers. We will seek information from third parties only once a job offer has been made to you and will inform you that we are doing so.
Data will be stored in a range of different places, including on your application record, in HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).
2. Why do Co-Ownership process personal data?
Co-Ownership needs to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you. It may also need to process your data to enter into a contract with you.
In some cases, we need to process data to ensure that we are complying with its legal obligations. For example, it is mandatory to check a successful applicant’s eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts.
Co-Ownership 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 us 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.
Co-Ownership 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.
If your application is unsuccessful, Co-Ownership may keep your personal data on file in case there are future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. We will ask for your consent before we keep your data for this purpose and you are free to withdraw your consent at any time.
3. Who has access to data?
Your information may be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the HR and recruitment team, 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.
Co-Ownership 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 third parties such as former employers to obtain references for you, employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and occupational health providers if required.
4. How does Co-Ownership protect data?
We take 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.
5. For how long do we keep data?
If your application for employment is unsuccessful, the organisation will hold your data on file for 12 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.