Job applicant privacy notice

Data controller: Newydd Group is the data controller. It controls and processes data on behalf of its subsidiaries Newydd Housing Association (1974) Ltd and Newydd Maintenance Ltd.

Data protection officer: The role of Data Protection Officer is carried out by the Corporate Officer, if you have any questions about the administration of your personal information please contact us on 0303 040 1998 or at:

Eleanor Chard, Head of Customer Services, Newydd Housing Association,  5 Village Way, Tongwynlais CF15 7NE

We take privacy seriously
This Privacy Policy covers treatment of personally identifiable information that we collect when you are on the Newydd Housing Association website jobs page, register as a job applicant with Newydd Housing Association, set up a job alert with Newydd Housing Association or apply for a job via the Newydd Housing Association website.

As part of any recruitment process, the organisation collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. The organisation is 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?
Personal identifiable information is collected via the Newydd Housing Association website when you:

• register as a job applicant
• set up a job alert
• apply for a job

To register as a job applicant or to set up a job alert you will need to provide your name and email address. Once you register as a job applicant or set up a job alert with Newydd Housing Association you are not anonymous to us. We may contact you regarding site changes or recruitment changes. 

When you apply for a job the organisation 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 the organisation needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process;
• information about your entitlement to work in the UK;
• your criminal history;
• details of any connections you have with board members, employees and suppliers of the group;
• confirmation whether you are a tenant or leaseholder of the Group;
• equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, health, and religion or belief.

As well as your application form the organisation collects this information in a variety of other ways. For example, data might be contained in CVs, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment including online tests.

The organisation will also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, pre employment medical assessment information from our occupational health provider and information from criminal records checks. The organisation 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 electronically and in paper copy in a range of different places, including our online applicant tracking system and on other IT systems (including email).

Why does the organisation process personal data?
The organisation needs to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you. It also needs to process your data to enter into a contract with you.

In some cases, the organisation needs 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.  The Housing Act also requires us to identify any connections between you and the organisation prior to job offer.

The organisation 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. The organisation may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.

Where the organisation relies on legitimate interests as a reason for processing data, it has considered whether or not those interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of employees or workers and has concluded that they are not.

Some special categories of personal data, such as information about health or medical conditions, is processed to carry out employment law obligations (such as those in relation to job applicants with disabilities and for health and safety purposes). For instance, the organisation may need to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process for candidates who have a disability. For physically demanding roles a condition of the job offer is that the chosen candidates are required to undergo a pre-employment medical assessment to ensure they are suitably fit and able to carry out the requirements of the role.

For some roles, the organisation is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where the organisation seeks this information, it does so because it is necessary for it to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

Where the organisation processes other special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age, gender or marital status, this is done purely for the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring with the explicit consent of job applicants, which can be withdrawn at any time.

The organisation will not use your data for any purpose other than the recruitment exercise for which you have applied. If your application is unsuccessful, the organisation may wish to contact you regarding future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. The organisation will ask for your consent before it keeps your data for this purpose and you are free to withdraw your consent at any time.

Who has access to data?
Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the HR team, the recruiting manager, members of the shortlisting and interview panels and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.

We operate a blind sifting process therefore neither the hiring Manager nor other members of the short-listing panel can see your name, address, date of birth, equality monitoring, disability adjustment requirements or criminal record disclosures.  This is to ensure a fair and unbiased selection process.    

The organisation will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. The organisation will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you, employment background check providers to obtain necessary criminal records checks, our occupational health provider to obtain a pre-employment medical assessment for specific roles.

The organisation will not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area.

How does the organisation protect data?
The organisation takes the security of your data seriously. It has 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.

The Applicant Tracking system is password protected and has restrictions in place for different categories of users ensuring only authorised individuals have access to your data.

Sensitive personal information (e.g. equality information such as sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origin etc.) is stored separately from your personal information in the group’s applicant tracking system.  It is completely anonymous and cannot be accessed by anyone within Newydd. This type of information is collected purely for equality and diversity statistical and monitoring purposes.

You may amend your personal details and reset your password when required if you have concerns regarding the security of your personal account. You can also close and delete your Job Seeker account at any time if you wish. These options are available by signing in to your Job Seeker account and going to My Homepage or by contacting the HR Team. On the anniversary of your account being registered you will also receive an email asking you if you want to retain your account. If there is no response to this email, then your account and all data entered by you will be deleted.

Personal information is scanned and stored electronically to increase data security. Personal information is held in HR folders on the S drive which only HR employees can access. 

Full details are outlined in the Group’s Data Protection policy.

Where the organisation engages third parties to process personal data on its behalf, they do so on the basis of written instructions, are under a duty of confidentiality and are obliged to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of data.

For how long does the organisation keep data?
If your application for employment is unsuccessful, the organisation will hold your data on file for one year after the end of the relevant recruitment process. At the end of that period your data is deleted or destroyed with the exception of equality monitoring information (e.g. ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion, gender) which is stored separately from your job application record. The equality information is completely anonymised and cannot be attributed to an individual person. This information is not deleted and is retained for equality and diversity statistical and monitoring purposes only.

You will still be able to access your job seeker account and your basic personal information providing you renew your account when instructed in an automated email alert.

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 employee 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 the organisation to change incorrect or incomplete data;
• require the organisation 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 the organisation is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing; and
• ask the organisation to stop processing data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override the organisation's legitimate grounds for processing data.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact the Data Protection Officer.

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.

You are under no obligation to provide information for equal opportunities monitoring purposes and there are no consequences for your application if you choose not to provide such information.

Automated decision-making
Some of the organisation's recruitment processes are based solely on automated decision-making. Pre-screening yes/no questions are used prior to completing the online application form to deter candidates that do not meet specific essential requirements of the person specification from applying. Candidates that give a no response to any of the questions will not be able to progress completing the application form.