Privacy Policy

Oliver Bernard Ltd is committed to providing quality services to you and this policy outlines our ongoing obligations to you in respect of how we manage your personal information. Oliver Bernard’s core business activity is recruitment, we assist individuals in finding work with our hirer clients, whether this is directly or using a third party, we assist hirers in introducing or supplying the staff that they require. We also recruit staff to work for us to provide our recruitment services

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) replaces The Data Protection Act 1998. It is designed to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, to protect and empower all EU citizens data privacy and to reshape the way organisations approach data privacy. It aims to protect the rights of individuals, to ensure their personal data remains private and secure. It provides individuals with several rights, including the right to access information and correct any errors.

Section 1

Applies to individuals whom wish to use or are using our recruitment services or those looking for a role to work with Oliver Bernard:

The personal data we collect or receive includes the following as applicable:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Email and other contact details
  • Date of birth
  • Job history
  • Educational history, qualifications & skills
  • Visa and other right to work or identity information
  • Passport
  • Bank details
  • National insurance and tax
  • Next of kin and family details
  • Contact details of referees
  • Personal information relating to hobbies, interests and pastimes
  • Information contained in references and pre-employment checks from third parties
  • Other sensitive personal information such as health records (see ‘Sensitive Personal Data’ section below)

We may obtain your personal data from the following sources (please note that this list is not exclusive):

  • You (e.g. a Curriculum Vitae, application or registration form)
  • A client
  • Other candidates
  • Online jobsites
  • Marketing databases
  • The public domain
  • Social Media
  • At interview
  • Conversations on the telephone or video conferencing (which may be recorded)
  • Notes following a conversation or meeting
  • Our websites and software applications

Where you are a Candidate and we have obtained your personal data from a third party such as an online job board, it is our policy to advise you of the source when we first communicate with you.

The processing of your personal information may include:

  • Collecting and storing your personal data, whether in manual or electronic files
  • Notifying you of potential roles or opportunities
  • Assessing and reviewing your suitability for job roles
  • Introducing and/or supplying you to actual or potential Clients
  • Engaging you for a role with us or with our Clients including any related administration e.g. timesheets and payroll
  • Sending information to third parties with whom we have or intend to enter into arrangements which are related to our recruitment services
  • Providing information to regulatory authorities or statutory bodies, and our legal or other professional advisers including insurers
  • To market our services
  • Retaining a record of our dealings
  • Establishing quality, training and compliance with our obligations and best practice
  • For the purposes of backing up information on our computer systems

Why we process your personal data:

In order to provide our services, we may enter into a contract with you and/or a third party. In order to enter into a contract, we will need certain information, for example your name and address. A contract will also contain obligations on both your part and our part, and we shall process your data as is necessary for the purpose of those obligations.

Compliance with legal obligations:

We must comply with several statutory provisions when providing our services, which necessitate the processing of personal data. These include the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, which requires us to:

  • Verify your identity
  • Assess your suitability for an external job role
  • Maintain records for specific periods

Where we engage a person to work for us (directly or to supply to a client), there are other statutory obligations that must be complied with including payroll, tax, social security, HMRC reporting requirements, and any other law or regulation.

We are also required to comply with statutory and regulatory obligations relating to business generally, for example complying with tax, bribery, fraud/crime prevention and data protection legislation, and co-operating with regulatory authorities such as HMRC or the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Our legitimate interests:

In providing our services, we will carry out the processing of personal data which is necessary for the purpose of our legitimate interests, which include:

  • Retaining records of our dealings and transactions and where applicable, use such records for the purposes of:
    • establishing compliance with contractual obligations with Clients or suppliers
    • addressing any query or dispute that may arise including establishing, exercising or defending any legal claims
    • protecting our reputation
    • maintaining a backup of our system, solely for the purpose of being able to restore the system to a point in the event of a system failure or security breach
    • evaluating quality and compliance including compliance with this Privacy Notice
    • determining staff training and system requirements
  • Using your personal data to:
    • assess suitability and contact you regarding potential opportunities and/or our services
    • collate market information or trends including providing analysis to potential or actual Clients
    • source potential opportunities or roles as part of our recruitment services
    • personalise your experience and our offering

This means that for our commercial viability and to pursue these legitimate interests, we may continue to process your personal data for as long as we consider necessary for these purposes.

Consent to our processing of your data:

We may process your personal data on the basis that you have consented to us doing so for a specific purpose, for example, if you apply for a specific role you may have consented to our processing of the data that has been provided for the purpose of progressing your application and considering your suitability for that role.

You may withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal information for a particular purpose at any stage.

What if we obtain your personal data from a third party?

Part of our business activity involves researching information relating to individuals for the purposes of filling job roles. This may include obtaining personal data from online sources, for example we may obtain information from social media sites such as LinkedIn and job boards, some information being publicly available but others being from sites or providers to which we subscribe. From time to time we may also receive personal information about you from hiring organisations, colleagues and former employers, or from persons for whom you have provided services or been otherwise engaged.

Where information from a third-party source is of no use to us, or where you have notified us that you do not want us to provide you with services, we shall discard it.

Sensitive Personal Data (SPD)

Sensitive personal data is information which is intensely personal to you and is usually irrelevant to our consideration of your suitability for a job role. Examples of SPD include information which reveals your political, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, race or ethnic origin, or information relating to your health.

Regardless of the basis for your dealings with us, we request that you do not provide us with any sensitive personal data unless necessary However, to the extent that you do provide us with any sensitive personal data, such data which you choose to share with us in conversation, we shall only use that data for the purposes of our relationship with you or for the provision of our services. This will be for one or more of the following reasons:

  • You have explicitly consented to the processing
  • For the purpose of our assessment of your suitability for job roles or working capacity
  • Where processing is necessary for the purpose of obligations or rights under employment, social security or social protection law
  • To maintain records of our dealings to address any later dispute, including but not limited to the establishment, exercise or defence of any legal claims

Who we share personal data with:

We shall not share your personal information unless we are entitled to do so. The categories of persons with whom we may share your personal information include:

  • Individuals, hirers and other third parties necessary for the provision of our Recruitment Services
  • Any regulatory authority or statutory body pursuant to a request for information or any legal obligation which applies to us
  • Parties who process data on our behalf, which may include
  • outsourced payroll providers
  • IT support
  • storage service providers including cloud
  • background screening providers
  • Legal and professional advisers
  • Insurers

Section 2

Applies to where you are an individual working for a third party with whom we do business with.

We may collect your personal data in the course of our dealings, and this may include the following:

  • Your contact information, full name, job role, contact telephone number and email
  • Your statements and opinions about candidates and/or other personnel e.g. a reference
  • Information relating to our relationship with you or the party for whom you work including records of any meetings or discussions
  • Your marketing preferences

We may obtain your personal data from the following sources (please note that this list is not exhaustive):

  • You, including where you have provided us with your contact details or other information for the purposes of using our services
  • Staff or other representatives of the organisation you represent
  • Candidates
  • Marketing databases
  • Social media
  • The public domain
  • Conversations, with you or others, on the telephone or video conferencing (which may be recorded) or in meetings
  • Notes following a conversation, with you or others, or meetings you attend

How we will use your personal data:

We will process your personal data in the context of our dealings with the third party for whom you work and as part of our services. This may include:

  • Collecting and storing your personal data, in manual or electronic files
  • Using the data to communicate with you
  • Sending information to third parties with whom we have or intend to enter into arrangements
  • Actions necessary to further any obligation on us pursuant to a contract between ourselves and the third party you work for
  • Collating market or sector specific information and providing the same to our clients
  • Providing information to regulatory authorities or statutory bodies and our legal or other professional advisers including insurers
  • Retaining records of our dealings with you and the organisation whom you represent
  • Establishing quality, training and compliance with our obligations and best practice

Our legitimate interests (carrying on the commercial activity of our services):

In providing our recruitment services, we will carry out some processing of personal data which is necessary for the purpose of our legitimate interests, which include:

  • Using your personal data:
    • to contact you regarding our Recruitment Services
    • to assess suitability of Candidates and roles, referencing etc…
    • to collate market information or trends including providing analysis to potential or actual Clients
    • as otherwise necessary to provide our services and/or to meet our obligations towards either the party whom you represent, other clients or suppliers
    • to personalise your experience and our offering, whether via our website or otherwise
  • Retaining records of our dealings and transactions and where applicable, use such records for the purposes of:
    • establishing compliance with contractual obligations with Clients or suppliers
    • addressing any query or dispute that may arise including establishing, exercising or defending any legal claims
    • protecting our reputation
    • maintaining a backup of our system, solely for the purpose of being able to restore the system to a point in the event of a system failure or security breach
    • evaluating quality and compliance including compliance with this Privacy Notice
    • determining staff training and system requirements

Consent

We may process your personal data on the basis that you have consented to us doing so, for example, if you have provided your contact details in order that we may use these to provide you with details of our services.

You may withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal data for a particular purpose at any stage.

What if we obtain your personal data from a third party?

Part of our business activity involves researching information for the purposes of finding and filling job roles. This may include obtaining personal data from sources including job boards, advertisements, LinkedIn or other social media, some information being publicly available but others being from sites or providers to which we subscribe. From time to time we may also receive personal data about you from hiring organisations, colleagues and former employers, or from persons for whom you have provided services or been otherwise engaged.

Where information from third party sources is of no use to us, we shall discard it. Where we consider that information may be of use to us in pursuance of the provision of our services, any processing will be in accordance with this Privacy Notice.

Who we share personal data with:

We shall not share your personal data unless we are entitled to do so. The categories of persons with whom we may share your personal information include:

  • Candidates and other third parties necessary for the provision of our Recruitment Services
  • Any regulatory authority or statutory body pursuant to a request for information or any legal obligation which applies to us
  • Parties who process data on our behalf, which may include
  • outsourced payroll providers
  • IT support
  • storage service providers including cloud providers
  • background screening providers
  • Legal and professional advisers
  • Insurers

Section 3

Applies to all personal data - Transfer of data to other jurisdictions

In the course of the provision of our services we may transfer data to countries or international organisations outside of the EEA. Where information is to be so transferred, it may be to a country in respect of which there is an adequacy decision from the EU Commission. However, if this is not the case, it is our policy to take steps to identify risks and in so far as is reasonably practicable, ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place.

Group companies & transfer

In the event of a sale, merger, liquidation, receivership or the transfer of all or part of our assets to a third party, we may need to transfer your information to a third party. Any transfer will be subject to the agreement of the third party to this Privacy Notice and any processing being only in accordance with this Privacy Notice.

Data Security and Confidentiality

It is our policy to ensure, in so far as is reasonably practicable, that our systems and records are secure and not accessible to unauthorised third parties in line with contemporary practice.

Retaining your data

In most circumstances your data will not be retained for more than 6 years from the last point at which we provided any services or otherwise engaged with you and it is our policy to only store your personal data for as long as is reasonably necessary for us to comply with our legal obligations and for our legitimate business interests.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice is regularly reviewed and may be updated from time to time to reflect changes in our business, or legal or commercial practice. Where an update is relevant to our processing of your data, we shall notify you of the same.

Section 4

Applies to your rights

We take the protection of your personal data very seriously and it is important that you know your rights within that context, which include rights to:

  • Request a copy of the personal data that we hold
  • Object to our processing of your data where that processing is based upon legitimate interest and there are no compelling grounds for the continued processing of that data
  • Request that data is erased where the continued use of that data cannot be justified
  • Object to any decision, which significantly affects you, being taken solely by a computer or via another automated process
  • Withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal data for a particular purpose at any stage. However, please note that we may continue to retain, or otherwise use your personal information thereafter where we have a legitimate interest or a legal or contractual obligation to do so. Our processing in that respect will be limited to what is necessary in furtherance of those interests or obligations
  • Request that inaccurate or incomplete data is rectified
  • Request that data provided directly by you and processed by automated means is transferred to you or another controller; this right only being applicable where our processing of your data is based either on your consent or in performance of a contract

Please note that should you exercise your right to request that we erase data or cease any processing activity, we may retain a record of this request and the action taken in order to both evidence our compliance, and to take steps to minimise the prospect of any data being processed in the future should it be received again from a third party source.

If you have any questions concerning your rights or should you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact– gdpr@oliverbernard.co.uk

Complaints

If you are dissatisfied about any aspect of the way in which your data is processed, please contact – info@oliverbernard.co.uk