Privacy policy for the Synectics Solutions employer branding and recruitment

Date of publication: 11-12-2024

1. Introduction

We are Synectics Solutions Ltd., a fraud prevention agency which works with organisations, including businesses from the finance sector, insurance sector in the fight against fraud and financial crime.

2. What we process and share

The personal data you as a job applicant have provided, has been collected from you, or has been received from third parties such as employment agencies may include your:

your personal details including your name, address, date of birth, email address, phone numbers

your photograph

gender

equal opportunities information, and whether or not you have a disability

information included on your CV including references, education history and employment history

documentation relating to your right to work in the UK

driving licence

occupational health screening results

financial information.

2.1 Special category personal data

You may provide more sensitive personal data on a voluntary basis, such as:

race or ethnicity

religious beliefs

sexual orientation

political opinions

trade union membership

health data, such as medical conditions and sickness records, which may include genetic and biometric data.

2.2 Criminal conviction data

We only collect information about criminal convictions or allegations of criminal behaviour:

where it is appropriate to your role

if it is legally lawful to do so

as part of the recruitment process.

3. How we collect your data

We collect data about you in a variety of ways including the information you would normally include in a CV or a job application cover letter, or notes made by our recruiting officers during a recruitment interview. Further information will be collected directly from you when you complete forms at the start of your employment, for example, your bank and next of kin details. Other details may be collected directly from you in the form of official documentation such as your driving licence, passport or other right to work evidence.

In some cases, we will collect data about you from third parties, such as employment agencies, former employers when gathering references or credit reference agencies.

Personal data is kept in personnel files or within the Company’s HR and IT systems.

4. Why we process your data

When we process your personal data, we do so on the basis that we have a legitimate interest in the recruitment of suitable employees, to verify identity, to protect the business and to comply with laws that apply to us. Such processing may also form part of the contractual relationship between us.

We will use your special category personal data:

for equal opportunities monitoring (with information provided on a voluntary basis)

to ensure we provide appropriate adjustments during the recruitment process.

We will use information about criminal convictions or allegations:

to make decisions regarding suitability for the role.

5. If you do not provide your data to us

One of the reasons for processing your data is to allow us to carry out an effective recruitment process. Whilst you are under no obligation to provide us with your data, we may not be able to process, or continue with your application.

6. Data transfers

Your data will be shared with colleagues within the Company where it is necessary for them to undertake their duties with regard to recruitment. This includes, for example, the HR department, those in the department where the vacancy is who responsible for screening your application and interviewing you, the IT department where you require access to our systems to undertake any assessments requiring IT equipment.

In some cases, we will collect data about you from third parties, such as employment agencies.

Your data will be shared with third parties if you are successful in your job application. In these circumstances, we will share your data with, but not limited to, “The Referencing Agency Ltd”, occupational health screening and fraud prevention agencies in order to obtain references, criminal records checks, credit reference checks, fraud prevention checks and occupational health checks as part of the recruitment process. “The Referencing Agency Ltd” privacy policy can be located here https://www.thereferencingagency.com/page/privacy.

The Information provided in an application for employment will be used to process your application. It will not be passed to third parties or used for other purposes other than as described above.

The information will be accessed and processed by us from within the European Economic Area (EEA). Your Data will be hosted on servers located within the EEA, but may be transferred outside of the EEA by the hosting provider (including where support and maintenance are required to the hosting infrastructure). Any transfer of your personal data outside of the EEA shall only be to Hosting Providers who: (a) are located in a country for which the European Commission has made a positive finding of adequacy; or, (b) have entered into a sub-processing agreement with the hosting provider under the standard contractual clauses or such other appropriate terms to ensure appropriate safeguards and require compliance with Data Protection Legislation, for the transfer of personal data outside of the EU.

7. Consequences of processing

All candidates who take up employment with Synectics Solutions will have their details checked against Cifas and other fraud prevention databases. Should our investigations identify fraud or the commission of any other criminal offences by a candidate when applying for, or during the course of your employment with us, we will record the details of this on the relevant fraud prevention databases.

The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found by following this link https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.

Please contact the HR Department on HR@synectics-solutions.com if you wish further details of the relevant fraud prevention databases through which we share information.

8. How long we keep your data for

If you are successful in your application, and take up employment with us, we will retain your details throughout your employment and for 7 years after the end of employment. If you are unsuccessful, we will retain your details for 12 months for potential future opportunities. You are free to withdraw your consent to this and there will be no consequences for withdrawing consent. At the end of this period, we will delete or destroy your data, unless you have already withdrawn your consent to our processing of your data in which case it will be deleted or destroyed upon your withdrawal of consent.

9. Your rights in relation to your data

The law on data protection gives you certain rights in relation to the data we hold on you. These are:

the right to be informed. This means that we must tell you how we use your data, and this is the purpose of this privacy notice

the right of access. You have the right to access the data that we hold on you. To do so, you should make a subject access request

the right for any inaccuracies to be corrected. If any data that we hold about you is incomplete or inaccurate, you are able to require us to correct it

the right to have information deleted. If you would like us to stop processing your data, you have the right to ask us to delete it from our systems where you believe there is no reason for us to continue processing it

the right to restrict the processing of the data. For example, if you believe the data we hold is incorrect, we will stop processing the data (whilst still holding it) until we have ensured that the data is correct

the right to portability. You may transfer the data that we hold on you for your own purposes

the right to object to the inclusion of any information. You have the right to object to the way we use your data where we are using it for our legitimate interests.

Where you have provided consent to our use of your data, you also have the unrestricted right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent means that we will stop processing the data that you had previously given us consent to use. There will be no consequences for withdrawing your consent. However, in some cases, we may continue to use the data where so permitted by having a legitimate reason for doing so.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights explained above, please contact recruitment@synectics-solutions.com.

10. Making a complaint

For more information or to exercise your data protection rights please, please contact our compliance team and data protection officer on compliance@synectics-solutions.com or in writing to PO Box 3700, STOKE-ON-TRENT, ST6 9ET. The supervisory authority in the UK for data protection matters is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). If you think your data protection rights have been breached in any way by us, you are able to make a complaint to the ICO https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.