Terms & Conditions


HSS Hire Terms

Privacy Introduction

The HSS Hire Group is committed to protecting the personal data of its job applicants. This Notice sets out important information about how HSS and its associated companies ("we" or "us") collect and use your personal data during the course of the application and recruitment process.

Scope
This Notice applies to job applicants located in the UK and Ireland. In connection with the recruitment process, the relevant data controller is The HSS Hire Group, registered address: Oakland House, 76 Talbot Rd, Manchester, M16 0PQ. You should read this Notice carefully and raise any questions you may have with Karl Neimarlija, Recruitment Team Leader (kneimarlija@hss.com).

What personal data do we collect?
Personal data means information which identifies you and relates to you as an individual. HSS will collect, use and store your personal data for a variety of reasons in connection with the application and recruitment process. We have set out below the main categories of candidate personal data which we process in connection with our recruiting activities:

  • personal contact information (including your name, home address, personal telephone number(s) and personal e-mail address)
  • work history and other relevant experience including information contained in CV, cover letter or job application form
  • education information including degrees awarded, transcripts and other information provided in support of the job application
  • professional memberships and qualifications
  • compensation history (including current salary and benefits)
  • information collected during phone screenings and interviews (including information regarding previous criminal convictions)
  • details regarding the type of employment sought, desired salary, willingness to relocate, job preferences, and other information related to compensation and benefits
  • reference information and information received from background checks (where applicable) including information provided by third parties
  • information related to previous applications to us or previous employment history with us
  • documents evidencing your right to work (including information about your nationality / citizenship and immigration status where relevant)
  • date of birth
  • gender

information gathered through HSS' monitoring and/or recording of its IT systems, audio conferencing and telephone systems and building access records

The majority of the personal data to be provided by you is mandatory in connection with our recruiting activities. Failure to provide mandatory personal data may affect our ability to accomplish the purposes stated in this Notice, including considering your suitability for employment.

The list set out above is not exhaustive, and there may be other categories of personal data which HSS collects, stores and uses in the context of the application and recruitment process.

The majority of the personal data which we process will be collected directly from you. However, your personal data may also be provided to us by third parties, such as recruitment agencies, former employers, official bodies (such as the FCA) medical professionals and/or education facilities.

Referencing and vetting
As part of our referencing and vetting procedures, HSS may contact certain third parties in order to verify your personal information (including personal information that you provide as part of the application and recruitment process). These third parties may include:

  • former employers in order to verify your previous employment history
  • universities and/or other establishments for higher education that you attended in order to verify your education history
  • credit referencing agencies (when this is required we will contact the candidate directly through the recruitment process) 

We will only seek this information in relation to successful candidates that have accepted a conditional offer of employment with us and we will specifically inform such candidates that we will be contacting these third parties in advance of doing so.

How and why do we use your personal data?
HSS uses your personal data for a variety of purposes in order to take steps necessary to enter into an employment contract with you, to comply with legal obligations or otherwise in pursuit of its legitimate business interests. We have set out below the main purposes for which candidate personal data is processed:

  • to identify and evaluate job applicants, including assessing skills, qualifications and experience
  • verifying candidate information and carrying out prior employment, background and reference checks, where applicable and in order to prevent fraud
  • communicating with you about the recruitment process and your application
  • to comply with our legal, regulatory, or other corporate governance requirements 
  • to perform analysis of recruitment trends

In addition to using your personal data to consider you for the role you applied for, we will retain and process your personal data to inform you about and to consider you for other roles that may be appropriate for you. If you do not want us to consider you for other roles which we consider may be appropriate for you, please inform your HR contact.

This list is not exhaustive and HSS may undertake additional processing of personal data in line with the purposes set out above.

What special categories of personal data do we process?
Certain categories of data are considered "special categories of personal data" and are subject to additional safeguards.

HSS will always treat special categories of personal data as confidential and will only share such data internally where there is a specific and legitimate purpose to do so.

HSS limits the special categories of personal data which it processes as follows:

Health Information
HSS may process information about a candidate's physical or mental health in compliance with our obligations owed to disabled applicants.

If a candidate is successful, any health information processed as part of the recruitment process that is relevant to HSS’ compliance with its obligations in connection with employment will be retained and processed in accordance with the Colleague Privacy Notice. 

Equal Opportunities Information
We are committed to providing equal opportunities for employment and monitor information relating to [ethnic origin, race, nationality, disability and sexual orientation] of applicants alongside information relating to gender and age, for the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring.

We have implemented appropriate physical, technical, and organisational security measures designed to secure your personal data against accidental loss and unauthorized access, use, alteration, or disclosure. 

In addition, this monitoring will always take place in accordance with appropriate safeguards as required under applicable law, including:

  • the provision of information relating to ethnic origin, race, nationality, and disability for the purposes of monitoring will be voluntary and processed for this purpose only with your consent;
  • wherever possible, the monitoring will be conducted on the basis of using anonymised data so individual employees cannot be identified;
  • the information processed for monitoring purposes will be maintained separately from general management and HR records.

When do we share your personal data?
HSS will share your personal data with other parties only in limited circumstances in order to take steps necessary to enter into the employment contract where necessary to comply with a legal obligation, or otherwise in pursuit of its legitimate business interests as follows:

  • recruitment agencies
  • background vetting specialists
  • occupational health providers and appointed doctors
  • accountants, lawyers and other professional advisers
  • any applicable regulatory body
  • pension and/or healthcare providers
  • colleague benefit providers


Other than where HSS shares personal data with a regulatory or governmental body, your personal data will only be shared under the terms of a written agreement between HSS and the third party which includes appropriate security measures to protect the personal data in line with this Notice and our obligations. The third parties are permitted to use the personal data only for the purposes which we have identified, and not for their own purposes, and they are not permitted to further share the data without our express permission. 

For how long will my personal data be retained?
HSS’ policy is to retain personal data only for as long as needed to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or otherwise as required under applicable laws and regulations.  Under some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you.  We reserve the right to retain and use such anonymous data for any legitimate business purpose without further notice to you.

For unsuccessful candidates:

  • we will typically retain personal data collected during the recruitment process for a maximum period of 6-12 months from the end of the process subject to any exceptional circumstances.
  • we will typically retain personal data held in archived e-mails or other electronic files for approximately 6 months

If you are offered and accept employment with us, the personal data we collected during the application and recruitment process will become part of your employment record and we will use it in connection with your employment in accordance with the Colleague Privacy Notice.

What are my rights in relation to my personal data?
HSS will always seek to process your personal data in accordance with its obligations and your rights.

You will not be subject to hiring decisions based solely on automated data processing without your prior consent.

In certain circumstances, you have the right to seek the erasure or correction of your personal data, to object to particular aspects of how your data is processed, and otherwise to seek the restriction of the processing of your personal data. You also have the right to request the transfer of your personal data to another party in a commonly used format. If you have any questions about these rights, please contact Karl Neimarlija, Recruitment Team Leader - kneimarlija@hss.com.

You have a separate right of access to your personal data processed by HSS. You may be asked for information to confirm your identity and/or to assist HSS to locate the data you are seeking as part of HSS’ response to your request.  If you wish to exercise your right of access you should set out your request in writing to: HSS Hire, HR Dept., Oakland House, 76 Talbot Rd, Manchester, M16 0PQ.

Finally, you have the right to raise any concerns about how your personal data is being processed with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) by going to the ICO's website: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or contacting the ICO on 0303 123 1113 or casework@ico.org.

At HSS, we understand and respect your concerns regarding security and the privacy of any information you supply while visiting our web site. If you have questions about this privacy policy or concerns about personal information you have supplied please contact HSS customer service or webmaster@hss.com.

Personal Information
HSS also aggregates your website activity so that we may better understand the users that are visiting our site. For example, we may produce reports on the most popular search terms by collecting general search term data based on individual searches. However, this aggregate data is anonymous and does not contain any personally identifiable information.

Cookies
When you visit a HSS website, a small file called a cookie will be saved on your computer's hard drive. Cookies allow HSS to make its web site more useful by storing information about your preferences. For example, cookies make it easier for you to log on and use the website during future visits. Cookies do not personally identify an Internet user, although they do identify a user's computer.

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but, if you wish, you can set your browser to prevent it from accepting cookies. The 'help' portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. However, by disabling cookies, you may not be able to access all of the features on the site.

HSS websites may issue Cookies for the following purposes:

Analytics - allow us to monitor how people use the website and optimize our content accordingly to improve user experience
Login settings and preferences - in order for us to remember your preferences after logging in
Remarketing - in order for us to re-advertise to you when you are browsing other websites
Email marketing - in order for us to tailor our email messages to make them more relevant based on how you use the website