Privacy Policy

Acumen - Best Healthcare & Medical Recruitment Agency London UK :Privacy Policy

About this Privacy Policy document

  1. This document is intended to inform individuals applying for jobs or assignments with Acumen Staffing Management Ltd about the nature of the Personal Information that we propose to collect from them, how this data can be used and for what purposes.
  2. This document provides you with certain information that must be compulsorily provided under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR (Regulation (EU) 2016/1679) is a new regulation which replaces the Data Protection Regulation (Directive 95/46/EC). The Regulation aims to harmonise data protection legislation across EU member states, enhancing privacy rights for individuals and providing a strict framework within which commercial organisations can legally operate.
  3. By complying with the GDPR, Acumen Staffing Management Ltd acts as the “data controller”. Being the ‘data controller’ makes us responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information we collect from you.
  4. By applying to work with us or for any vacancy, you comply and agree with the GDPR policies we have enlisted here. This document gives you details about how and why the Personal Information collected from you will be used, namely for the recruitment purposes, and how long it will usually be retained for.

What you (the candidate) need to do

As a candidate looking for job opportunities with us, you need to read this Privacy document carefully before sending your requests for application with us. By submitting a request for information on an open position and/or applying to work with us indicates your acceptance of the privacy terms mentioned in the document here.

Data protection principles

We will comply with data protection law and principles, which means that your data will be:

    1. Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
    2. Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
    3. Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
    4. Accurate and kept up to date.
    5. Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
    6. Kept securely.

What kind of Information do we Collect?

a) When you submit your application to work with us, we will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

  1. The information you have provided to us in your curriculum vitae and covering letter.
  2. If applicable, the information you have provided on our application form, including name, title, address, telephone number, personal email address, date of birth, gender, employment history and qualifications.
  3. All information you share with us during the interview.
  4. The information or results of any skills based tests that you took in connection to the job application.

b) We may also, but only if absolutely necessary and relevant to the job, collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information:

  1. Information about your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records.
  2. Information about criminal convictions and offences.

c) We currently do not collect information in the following ways, but we may do at a point in the future (and we will tell you if that comes to pass):

  1. Information suitable for Equal Opportunities monitoring e.g. relating to your racial origin, sexual orientation, religion or belief etc.

How is your personal information collected?

The following sources are used to collect personal information about you (candidates):

  1. You, the candidate
  2. Any recruitment agency we may use or online portal including our own website, from which we may collect the following categories of data: Name, previous experience, qualifications, contact details, 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 the organisation needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process; and information about your entitlement to work in the UK etc.
  3. Disclosure and Barring Service in respect of criminal convictions.
  4. Your named referees, from whom we collect the following categories of data: Previous role held or capacity that they worked with you in and the general experience of working with you.

How we will use information about you

We will use the personal information we collect about you to:

  1. Assess your skills, qualifications, and suitability for the role.
  2. Carry out reference checks.
  3. Communicate with you about the recruitment process.
  4. Keep records related to our hiring processes.
  5. Comply with legal or regulatory requirements.

We do not currently use information in the following ways, but we may do at a point in the future (and we will tell you if that comes to pass):

  1. Equal opportunities monitoring.
  2. It is in our legitimate interests to decide whether to appoint you to the role since it would be beneficial to our business to appoint someone to that role.
  3. We also need to process your personal information to decide whether to enter into a contract of employment with you or to progress your application.
  4. Having received your CV and covering letter or your application form and the results from any applicable test, we will then process that information to decide whether you meet the basic requirements to be shortlisted for the role. If you do, we will decide whether your application is strong enough to invite you for an interview. If we decide to call you for an interview(s), we will use the information you provide to us at the interview(s) to decide whether to offer you the role. If we decide to offer you the role, we will then take up references and if applicable carry out a criminal record check before confirming your appointment with us.

If you fail to provide personal information

In the event that you fail to provide information when requested, which is necessary for us to consider your application (such as evidence of qualifications or work history), we will not be able to process your application successfully. For example, if we require references for this role and you fail to provide us with relevant details, we will not be able to take your application further.

How we use particularly sensitive information

We will use your particularly sensitive personal information in the following ways:

  1. We will use information about your disability status to consider whether we need to provide appropriate adjustments during the recruitment process, for example whether adjustments need to be made during a test or interview.
  2. We will use information about your race or national or ethnic origin, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, or your sexual life or sexual orientation, to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting.

Information about criminal convictions

We may, if the role requires it, process information about criminal convictions.

If necessary, we will collect information about your criminal convictions history if we would like to offer you the role (conditional on checks and any other conditions, such as references, being satisfactory). We are entitled to carry out a criminal records check in order to satisfy ourselves that there is nothing in your criminal convictions history which makes you unsuitable for the role. In particular:

  1. We may be legally required by a regulated body to carry out criminal record checks for those carrying out certain roles such as working with children or vulnerable adults.
  2. Your role may be one which is listed on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 and is also specified in the Police Act 1997 (Criminal Records) Regulations so is eligible for a standard or enhanced check from the Disclosure and Barring Service.
  3. The role may require a high degree of trust and integrity as it may involve dealing with high cash value goods, taking cash itself and so we may ask you to seek a basic disclosure of your criminal records history.

Our Data Protection Policy describes safeguards which we are required by law to maintain when processing such data.

Automated Decision Making

You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making. If in future we employ ADM you can opt out by emailing us.

Data Sharing

  1. When you accept an offer of employment from us, we might have to share your personal information with third parties for the purpose of processing your application. This could include arranging a DBS check and collecting references. Once an offer of employment has been accepted the Privacy Notice for employees etc. will apply.
  2. If you have applied for a vacancy that we are recruiting for, we will need to share all relevant information relating to your application if we shortlist you for the role. If you object to our sharing information you should indicate your objection by sending us an email at info@acumenrecruits.com or by choosing not to apply for the vacancy through us.
  3. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your Personal Data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your Personal Data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Data Security

  1. Our Data Protection Policy describes measures we take to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. 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. Details of these measures may be obtained from our Data Protection Policy which can be found on our website.
  2. The Data Protection Policy describes our procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach, under which we will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

Data Retention

If we engage you to work, either as a direct employee or as a temporary worker via a client we understand our legal duty to retain accurate data and only retain personal data for as long as is required for statutory purposes, our legitimate interests and that you are happy for us to do so. 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.

The following sets out the lengths of time we are required by law to retain your data or certain elements of your data:

  1. For 12 months from the date we last provided our recruitment services to you for the purposes of providing evidence of the recruitment services we provided to you (Regulation 29 of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003).
  2. For 2 years from the end of your last period of engagement of employment for the purposes of providing evidence that right to work checks were carried out under The Immigration (Restrictions of Employment) Order 2007.
  3. For 3 years from the end of the relevant year for the purposes of any parental/adoption leave records or statutory maternity or paternity pay (The Statutory Maternity Pay (General) Regulations 1986 (SI 1986/1960) as amended).
  4. For 6 years from the end of each tax year for the purposes of retaining payroll records under the Income Tax (Employment and Pensions) Act 2003.
  5. For 6 years from the end of each tax year for the purposes of keeping VAT records for any VAT registered limited company contractors
  6. For 3 years for accident books and accident records and reports under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) and Limitation Act 1980.
  7. For 6 years for wage and salary records including bonuses, overtime and expenses under the Taxes Management Act 1970.
  8. For 2 years from the date on which they were made for records relating to Working Time under The Working Time Regulations 1998 (SI1998/1833).

At any time you can submit a request to rectify any data or action of any of your rights.

We segregate our data so that we keep different types of data for different time periods.

Rights of access, correction, erasure and restriction

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

  1. Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
  2. Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
  3. Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing.
  4. Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
  5. Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
  6. Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your Personal Data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact us in writing our Recruitment Manager, 3rd Floor Suite 16, EasyHub Croydon, 22 Addiscombe Road, Croydon, CR0 5PE.

Other uses of your data

Other uses of your data may include use of our website, to notify you about changes to our service and to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer. We will use this information for the below reasons. Please note this list is not exhaustive and may be changed:

  1. To administer our site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes.
  2. To improve our site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
  3. To allow you to participate in interactive features of our service when you choose to do so.
  4. As part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure.
  5. To measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you.
  6. To make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our site about goods or services and may interest you or them.

Right to withdraw consent

When you applied for a role with us you provided consent on the date you submitted your application to us processing your personal information for the purposes of the recruitment exercise.

You have the right to withdraw your consent for processing for that purpose at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact us as above. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your application and, subject to our retention policy, we will dispose of your Personal Data securely.

Data Protection Specialist

Our Director oversees compliance with this privacy policy. If you have any questions about this privacy document or how we handle your personal information, please contact us. You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.