As part of any recruitment process, OSTC Limited 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 meet its data protection obligations.

What information do we collect?

OSTC Limited 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; video interview recordings, information about your current level of remuneration, including benefit entitlements; information about your entitlement to work in the country you are planning to work in.

OSTC Limited 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 or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment.

As part of the recruitment process, we will collect your personal data, which will be anonymised and used to improve our recruitment process.

We may also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers. We will seek information from third parties only once a job offer to you has been made 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 the HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).

Why does OSTC Limited process personal data?

We need to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you. We 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 before employment starts.

OSTC Limited 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.

We process such information to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

We also process the data for analysis to improve our recruitment process through our Zishi adaptive tool. Please find the privacy policy for Zishi Adaptive here: https://www.ostc.com/zishi-adaptive-privacy-notice/

If your application is unsuccessful, OSTC Limited 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 for this purpose and you are free to withdraw your consent at any time.

Who has access to data?

Your information may be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the HR 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.

We will not share your data with third parties unless your application for employment is successful and we make you an offer of employment. We will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you, employment background checks providers to obtain necessary background checks.

How does OSTC Limited 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.

For how long does OSTC Limited keep data?

If your application for employment is unsuccessful, the organisation will hold your data on file for 24 months after the end of the relevant recruitment process for trading vacancies and 12 months after the end of the relevant recruitment process for back office functions. If you agree to allow us to keep your personal data on file, we will hold your data on file for a further 12 months for consideration for future employment opportunities. At the end of that period, or once you withdraw your consent, your data is deleted or destroyed. You will be asked when you submit your CV whether you give us consent to hold your details for the full period (24, or 36 months depending on whether it’s back office or trading function) in order to be considered for other positions or not.

If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your HR file (electronic and paper-based) and retained during your employment.
The periods for which your data will be held will be provided to you in a new 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 and;
  • object to the processing of your data where OSTC Limited is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at gdpr@ostc.com.

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 OSTC Limited during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, we may not be able to process your application properly or at all.