UK Privacy Notice

HARVEY NICHOLS AND COMPANY LIMITED

CANDIDATE PRIVACY NOTICE

We have provided you with a copy of this Privacy Notice because you are applying for work with us (whether as an employee, worker or contractor).

This Privacy Notice explains what personal data (information) we hold about you, how we collect it and how we use and may share information about you for the purposes of the recruitment exercise, and for how long it will usually be retained. We are required to notify you of this information under data protection legislation.

Please ensure that you read this Privacy Notice and any other similar notice we may provide to you from time to time when we collect or process personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.

This Privacy Notice applies to current and former employees, workers and contractors. This Privacy Notice does not form part of any contract of employment or other contract to provide services. We may update this Privacy Notice at any time.

MEANINGS OF TERMS USED IN THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

In this Privacy Notice:

Harvey Nichols and Company Limited ("Harvey Nichols") includes its holding company and any of its subsidiary or associated companies from time to time or those of any such holding company wherever registered or incorporated (together group companies or group);

Holding company and subsidiary are defined in Section 1159 of the Companies Act 2006 and associated company means any company which any such holding company or subsidiary holds or controls more than 20 percent of the equity share capital);

References to we or us mean Harvey Nichols and our group companies.

WHO COLLECTS THE INFORMATION

Harvey Nichols is a data controller. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. This information is also used by our group companies.

DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES

We will comply with the data protection principles when gathering and using personal information, as set out in our Data Protection policy.

ABOUT THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND HOLD

Our Data Protection policy summarises the information we collect and hold, how and why we do so, how we use it and with whom it may be shared.

We will collect, hold and use personal information about you that you have provided to us in your curriculum vitae and covering letter along with any information you provide to us during an interview.  We may also collect, hold and use more sensitive personal information that you provide to us, such as information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and political opinions, your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records and any information about criminal convictions and offences.

You agree that, in addition to collecting personal information directly from you, we may collect personal information about you from third parties, for example, from recruitment agencies, in connection with a background or employment check, from the Disclosure and Barring Service, or an employment reference (subject to your consent where required by law) or, to the extent permitted by law, from a recruiting or other web site.

We process personal data for legitimate human resources and business management purposes.  These include to assess your skills, qualifications and suitability for the role, to carry out background and reference checks where applicable, to communicate with you about the recruitment process, to keep records related to our hiring processes and to comply with legal or regulatory requirements.  
We may perform background and criminal checks where required and permitted by law.  We may also use more sensitive personal information, such as health information or nationality, if relevant for a role and permitted by law. 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.  To the extent you make Sensitive Candidate Data available to Harvey Nichols, you consent to Harvey Nichols processing such Data in accordance with this Notice

We seek to ensure that our information collection and processing is always proportionate. We will notify you of any changes to information we collect or to the purposes for which we collect and process it.

IF YOU DO NOT PROVIDE PERSONAL DATA

You are not obliged to provide your personal data nor to consent to us processing it and may withdraw your consent at any time.  However, if you withhold your personal data, decline to consent to processing, withdraw such consent or exercise any of your other rights in relation to your personal data, we will be obliged to act on the information available to us at that time.  If 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 a credit check or references for this role and you fail to provide us with relevant details, we will not be able to take your application further.

WHERE INFORMATION MAY BE HELD

Information may be held at our offices and those of our group companies and by third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above. Information may be transferred internationally for the reasons described above to other locations (where we currently have group offices or companies) and to other countries around the world, including countries that do not have data protection laws equivalent to those in the UK. We have security measures in place to seek to ensure that there is appropriate security for information we hold including those measures detailed in our Data Protection policies, which are available from the HR Department.

HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION

We will retain your personal information for a period of 12 months after we have communicated to you our decision about whether to appoint you to the role. We retain your personal information for that period so that we can show, in the event of a legal claim, that we have not discriminated against candidates on prohibited grounds and that we have conducted the recruitment exercise in a fair and transparent way. After this period, we will securely destroy your personal information in accordance with our data retention policy.

We may also wish to hold and use your personal information to consider you for other positions. In such cases, we will write to you separately, seeking your explicit consent to retain your personal information for a fixed period on that basis.

YOUR RIGHTS TO CORRECT AND ACCESS YOUR INFORMATION, TO ASK FOR IT TO BE ERASED OR TO WITHDRAW CONSENT

Please contact Human Resources who can be contacted via email  if (in accordance with applicable law) you would like to correct or request access to information that we hold relating to you or if you have any questions about this Privacy Notice. You also have the right to ask for some but not all of the information we hold and process to be erased (the right to be forgotten) in certain circumstances. We will provide you with further information about the right to be forgotten, if you ask for it.

By applying for a role with us, you provided consent 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 Human Resources via email. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your application and, subject to our data retention policy, we will dispose of your personal data securely.

KEEPING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION SECURE

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.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

HOW TO COMPLAIN

We hope that Human Resources can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information. If not, contact the Information Commissioner at ico.org.uk/concerns/ or telephone: 0303 123 1113 for further information about your rights and how to make a formal complaint.