Specsavers Candidate & Employee Privacy Policy

Specsavers are committed to protect the privacy and security of your personal information.

This privacy policy describes how we collect and use personal information about you during the application process and throughout your working relationship with us. This policy applies to former and current candidates, employees and contractors.

1. Who we are?

Each Specsavers store is a company within the Specsavers Group. Details of each store company are available in the relevant store.

We are the data controller regarding the personal information we may process in relation to you whether during the recruitment process or as a Specsavers employee. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you.

This policy is to provide you with information as to how we process your personal information and does not form part of any contract. It is important that you read this policy as well as any other we may provide on specific occasions when we collect information about you so that you are aware of how and why we are using the information.

2. The personal information we may collect and hold about you

Personal information can take many forms however in general it means information from which an individual can be identified.

As part of the recruitment process and for successful candidates we may collect and process the following information about you:

  • Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses.
  • Date of birth.
  • Gender.
  • Marital status and dependants.
  • Next of kin and emergency contact information.
  • National Insurance number, national identification number, social security number or its equivalent.
  • Bank account details, salary and payroll records and tax status information.
  • Nationality and information relating to your immigration status.
  • Annual leave, pension and benefits information.
  • Trade union membership.
  • Copy of driving licence.
  • Information about criminal convictions and offences and information gathered when undertaken background checks (if appropriate given the nature of the role and where we are legally able to do so).
  • Recruitment information (including copies of right to work documentation, references and other information included in a CV or cover letter or as part of the application- and recruitment process).
  • Employment records (including job titles, work history, location of employment or workplace, working hours, holidays, training records and professional memberships, reason for leaving).
  • Performance information including appraisals and performance review.
  • Disciplinary and grievance information.
  • Information about your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records where this is related to your work.
  • Information about your use of our information and communications systems which will include information about the devices you use including mobile devices, location, browser, messaging systems, communications history and IP address.
  • CCTV footage and other information obtained through electronic means such as your security pass.
  • Photographs for an identity card or in marketing or promotional materials.

3. How do we collect information about you?

In general, we will collect information from you as part of the recruitment process where you submit a CV or during an interview or through the submission of an application form.

We may also collect information about you from other sources for example from a recruitment agency, professional or social networking website, a former employer or background check provider.

4. How and when we use your personal information

We will only use your personal information where we are permitted to do so by law. For example, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

  • During the recruitment process to manage your application with a view to offering you a contract with us;
  • For successful candidates, to enter into a contract with you and manage our ongoing relationship with you;
  • Where we need to comply with a legal obligation, for example compliance with Tax legislation or other such legal obligations
  • Where it is necessary for legitimate interests pursued by us or a third party and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.

We may also use special categories of information about you, this information is more sensitive in nature, for example information relating to your health. This information requires a greater level of protection and we require further justification to process this information.

We may only process special category information in the following circumstances: where it is necessary to meet our legal obligations or exercise rights in connection with your employment, for example the consideration of health information to determine whether we need to provide reasonable adjustments for you; where we have your explicit consent or less commonly in relation to a legal claim; where it is necessary to protect your vital interests or where you have already made the information public.

5. How we protect your personal information

We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal information from unauthorised access and use.

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

6. Sharing your personal information

We may share your data with other entities in the Specsavers group, third parties, including third-party service providers for example those who support our IT and communications system such as Microsoft as well as third party providers of our People Management Systems for the purposes to simplify and manage our people processes. In this case we will enter into a contract which obliges third parties to protect data in accordance with relevant data protection legislation.

We may transfer your personal information outside EU and UK. If we do, we will ensure an appropriate safeguard is in place and additional security measures are employed to protect your personal information.

7. How long do we keep your personal information?

Personal information will be retained by Specsavers no longer than is necessary however we may be required by law (for example tax laws) to retain your personal information for a certain period

If we wish to retain your personal information on file, on the basis that a further opportunity may arise in future and we may wish to consider you for that, we will write to you separately, seeking your consent to retain your personal information for a fixed period on that basis.

If your application with us is successful, the personal information gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your Personnel file and retained during your working relationship with us. The periods for which your personal information will be held in accordance with our Retention Schedule and Policy.

8. Your rights regarding your personal information

You have certain rights under data protection legislation, which you may exercise at any time. These include the right to:

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 (see below).
  • 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 situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground
  • 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.
  • Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.
  • In limited circumstances where you may have provided consent for the collection, processing and transfer of personal information for a specific purpose, you may withdraw that consent for that purpose at any time.

If you are concerned about how we use your personal information you can make a complaint at any time to a data protection supervisory authority. For those based in the UK, the supervisory authority is the Information Commissioners Office and may be contacted via this link or by telephone on 0303 123 1113 For those based in the European Union please see this link for information relating to supervisory authorities and how to contact them.

To exercise any of the rights listed above, please contact the Data Protection team at datapro*******@**ecsavers.com.

Please note that on receipt of a request, it may be necessary for us to request information from you to verify your identity, this ensures that the information will not be not disclosed to a person who has no right to receive it.

9. Updates to this policy

This privacy policy (and any potential future updates) is available on our intranet (Connect+ and Greenpoint) as well as a local language version on our country specific websites.

10. Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact data protection team via datapro*******@**ecsavers.com or write to our Data Protection Officer at our Legal Department, Specsavers Optical Group, La Villiaze, St Andrews, Guernsey, GY6 8YP

Last edited Jan 2023/RM

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