This Privacy Notice and Data Retention Policy Notice covers our use of personal information which we collect through our web site, via third parties (online CV databases and social media websites) or through our direct contact with you. Lexstra PLC is committed to protecting your personal information. This policy discloses our information gathering and processing practices.

  1. Privacy Notice
  2. Data Retention Policy Notice

PRIVACY NOTICE

Lexstra plc is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This notice, together with our Terms of Use, sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect will be processed by us.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) is a new regulation which replaces the Data Protection Regulation (Directive 95/46/EC) The Regulation aims to harmonise data protection legislation across EU member states, enhancing privacy rights for individuals and providing a strict framework within which commercial organisations can legally operate.

Even though the UK has expressed its intention to leave the EU in March 2019, the GDPR will be applicable in the UK from 25th May 2018. The Government intends for the GDPR to continue in UK law post Brexit and has also introduced a Data Protection Bill to replace the current Data Protection Act in due course.

Your new rights under the GDPR are set out in this notice and will only apply once the GDPR becomes law on 25th May 2018.

Please read the following carefully to understand our practices and policies regarding your personal data and how we process it.

For the purposes of data protection legislation in force from time to time, the Data Controller is Lexstra plc of Connect House, 133-137 Alexandra Road, London SW19 7JY

Our nominated Data Privacy Manager is:

  • Jon Cashman, Managing Director.

Who we are and what we do

We are a recruitment agency and recruitment business as defined in the Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003. We collect the personal data of the following types of people to allow us to undertake our business:

  • prospective and placed candidates for permanent, contract or temporary roles;
  • prospective and current client contacts;
  • supplier contacts to support our services;
  • employees, consultants, temporary workers.

We collect information about you to carry out our core recruitment business and associated administrative functions.

Information you give to us or we collect about you

This is information about you that you give us by filling in forms on our website, or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. It includes information you provide when you use our website, the websites of third party job boards and CV databased, participate in discussion boards or other social media functions on our website or other websites on which we have user accounts/agreements in place, enter a competition, promotion or survey, and when you report a problem with our site.

The information you give us or we collect about you may include your name, address, private and corporate e-mail address and phone number, financial information, compliance documentation and references verifying your qualifications and experience and your right to work in the United Kingdom, curriculum vitae and photograph, links to your professional profiles available in the public domain e.g. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or other corporate websites (job boards and online CV databases).

Information we collect about you when you visit our website

With regard to each of your visits to our site, we will automatically collect the following information:

Technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information if applicable, browser type and version, operating system and platform;

Information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time), products or information you viewed or searched for’, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), methods used to browse away from the page, and any phone number used to call our office.

Information we obtain from other sources

This is information we obtain about you from other sources such as LinkedIn, corporate websites, job board websites, online CV databases, etc. In this case consent to collect your information is likely to have been provided by a third party.

We work with third parties including companies within our Group, business partners, sub-contractors in technical, professional, payment and other services, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers, credit reference agencies, and professional advisors. We may receive information about you from them, for the purposes of our recruitment services and ancillary support services, such as your name, address, private and corporate e-mail address and phone number, financial information, criminal record information, compliance documentation and references verifying your qualifications,  experience and your right to work in the United Kingdom, curriculum vitae and photograph, links to your professional profiles available in the public domain e.g. Companies House or other such corporate websites.

Purposes of the processing and the legal basis for the processing

We use information held about you in the following ways:

The core service we offer to our candidates and clients is the introduction of candidates to our clients for the purpose of temporary, contract or permanent engagement.  However, our service expands to supporting individuals throughout their career and to supporting businesses’ resourcing needs and strategies.

To carry out our obligations arising from any Contracts we intend to enter into or have entered into between you and us and to provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us or we have a legitimate reason to believe it will be of interest to you because it is relevant to your career or to your organisation.

Our legal basis for the processing of personal data is Legitimate Interest, described in more detail below, although we will also rely on Contract, Legal Obligation and Consent for specific uses of data.

We will rely on Contract if we are negotiating or have entered into a placement agreement with you or your organisation or any other contract to provide services to you or receive services from you or your organisation.

We will rely on Legal Obligation if we are legally required to hold information on to you to fulfil our legal obligations or if we are legally required to disclose information about you to any third parties, government or law enforcement.

We will in some circumstances rely on Consent for particular uses of your data and you will be asked for your express consent, if legally required.  Examples of when Consent may be the lawful basis for processing include permission to introduce you to a client (if you are a candidate).

Our Legitimate Business Interests

“Legitimate Interests” means the interests of our company in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/products and the best and most secure experience.

For example, we have an interest in making sure our marketing is relevant for you, so we may process your information to send you marketing that is tailored to your interests.

It can also apply to processing that is in your interests as well.

For example, we may process your information to protect you against fraud when transacting on our website, and to ensure our websites and systems are secure. When we process your personal information for our legitimate interests, we make sure to consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative), and your rights under data protection laws. Our legitimate business interests do not automatically override your interests – we will not use your Personal Data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law).

As a recruitment business and recruitment agency, our core service is to introduce candidates to clients for permanent employment, temporary worker placements or independent professional contracts.  The exchange of personal data of our candidates and our client contacts is a fundamental and essential part of this process. In order to support our candidates’ career aspirations and our clients’ resourcing needs, we require a database of candidate and client personal data containing historical information as well as current resourcing requirements. And to maintain, expand and develop our business we need to record the personal data of prospective candidates and client contacts.

You have the right to object to this processing if you wish, and if you wish to do so, please contact us via contracts@lexstra.co.uk.

Consent

Should we want or need to rely on Consent to lawfully process your data we will request your consent by email or by an online process for the specific activity we require Consent for and record your response on our CRM system.  Where Consent is the lawful basis for our processing you have the right to withdraw your consent to this processing at any time.

Other uses we will make of your data:

  • use of our website;
  • to notify you about changes to our service;
  • to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.

We will use this information:

  • to administer our site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
  • to improve our site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
  • to allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;
  • as part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure;
  • to measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you;
  • to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our site about goods or services that may interest you or them.

We do not undertake automated decision making or profiling. We do use our computer systems to search and identify personal data in accordance with parameters set by a person. A person will always be involved in the decision-making process.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see our Terms of Use.

Disclosure of your information inside and outside of the EEA

As part of the services offered to you through our site, the information you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”).  This may happen if any of our servers are from time to time located in a country outside of the EEA or one of our service providers is located in a country outside of the EEA. These countries may not have similar data protection laws to the EEA. If we transfer your information outside of the EEA in this way, we will take the appropriate steps to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected. In addition, if you use our services while you are outside the EEA, your information may be transferred outside the EEA in order to provide you with those services.  Except as set out in this privacy policy, we will not disclose any personally identifiable information without your permission unless we are legally entitled or required to do so (for example, if required to do so by legal process or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime) or if we believe that such action is necessary to protect and/or defend our rights, property or personal safety and those of our users/customers etc.

We will share your personal information with selected third parties including:

  • clients for the purpose of introducing candidates to them;
  • candidates for the purpose of arranging interviews and engagements;
  • clients, business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance and compliance obligations of any contract we enter into with them or you;
  • subcontractors including email marketing specialists, event organisers, payment and other financial service providers;
  • analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site;
  • credit reference agencies, compliance partners and other sub-contractors for the purpose of assessing your suitability for a role where this is a condition of us entering into a contract with you.

We will disclose your personal information to third parties:

  • in the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
  • if Lexstra PLC or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
  • If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Lexstra PLC, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

The lawful basis for the third party processing will include:

  • their own legitimate business interests in processing your personal data, in most cases to fulfil their internal resourcing needs;
  • satisfaction of their contractual obligations to us as our data processor;
  • for the purpose of a contract in place or in contemplation;
  • to fulfil their legal obligations.

Where we store and process your personal data

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (”EEA”). It may be transferred to third parties outside of the EEA for the purpose of our recruitment services. It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. This includes staff engaged in, among other things, our recruitment services and the provision of support services. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy notice.

All information you provide to us is stored on secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Retention of your data

We understand our legal duty to retain accurate data and only retain personal data for as long as we need it for our legitimate business interests. You have the right to request a copy of the information we hold on you or to request that we erase the data we hold on you. Accordingly, we have a data retention notice and run data routines to remove data that we no longer have a legitimate business interest in maintaining. A full data retention schedule can be provided on request.

We aim to keep our information about you as accurate as possible.  If you would like to review or change the details you have supplied us or if you would like us to remove your details from our database please contact contracts@lexstra.co.uk

We do the following to try to ensure our data is accurate:

  • prior to making an introduction we check that we have accurate information about you;
  • we keep in touch with you so you can let us know of changes to your personal data;
  • we monitor social media such as LinkedIn to check the accuracy of your data.

We segregate our data so that we keep different types of data for different time periods.  The criteria we use to determine whether we should retain your personal data includes:

  • the nature of the personal data;
  • its perceived accuracy;
  • our legal obligations;
  • whether an interview or placement has been arranged; and
  • our recruitment expertise and knowledge of the industry by country, sector and job role.

We may archive part or all of your personal data or retain it on our financial systems only, deleting all or part of it from our main Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) system. We may pseudonymise parts of your data, particularly following a request for suppression or deletion of your data, to ensure that we do not re-enter your personal data on to our database, unless requested to do so.

For your information, Pseudonymised Data is created by taking identifying fields within a database and replacing them with artificial identifiers, or pseudonyms.

Our current Data Retention Notice is available below this Privacy Notice.

Your rights

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes and we will collect express consent from you if legally required prior to using your personal data for marketing purposes.

You can exercise your right to accept or prevent such processing at any time by contacting us at contracts@lexstra.co.uk

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

The GDPR provides you with the following rights. To:

  • 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 particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
  • 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 certain formats, if practicable.
  • Make a complaint either directly to contracts@lexstra.co.ukor to a supervisory body which in the United Kingdom is the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Access to information

The Data Protection Act 1998 and the GDPR give you the right to access information held about you.  We also encourage you to contact us to ensure your data is accurate and complete. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Data Protection Act and the GDPR.

A subject access request should be submitted to contracts@lexstra.co.uk.  No fee will apply.

Changes to our privacy notice

Any changes we make to our privacy notice in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy notice.

Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy notice are welcomed and should be addressed to contracts@lexstra.co.uk

DATA RETENTION NOTICE

Purpose, Scope and Users

This Notice describes our guidelines to create, preserve and access Lexstra PLC (the “Company”) data and sets the required retention periods for specified categories of personal data and sets out the minimum standards to be applied when destroying certain data within the Company.

This Notice applies to all business units, processes and systems in all countries in which the Company conducts business and has dealings or other business relationships with third parties. It applies to all Company officers, directors, employees, agents, affiliates, contractors, consultants, advisors or service providers that may collect, process, or have access to data (including personal data and / or sensitive personal data). It is the responsibility of the above to familiarise themselves with this Notice and ensure adequate compliance with it.

This notice applies to all information used at the Company. Examples of documents include:

  • Emails
  • Hard copy documents
  • Soft copy documents
  • Video and audio
  • Data generated by computer and physical access control systems

Reference Documents

EU GDPR 2016/679 (Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC)

Company Data Protection Notice.

Creating Records

We place high value on our company’s records. By creating, retaining and accessing data, we are able to:

  • Make better decisions
  • Support our day-to-day operations
  • Forecast and prepare for the future
  • Learn from past mistakes
  • Preserve and defend our company’s legality
  • Evaluate our operations and employee productivity over time
  • Develop plans to improve and grow the company

What records do employees need to create?

Creating and storing certain types of records are mandatory. Employees should keep records that:

  • Are mandated by law (e.g. obtaining and storing proof of Right to Work in the UK as required by the Home Office);
  • Are necessary for them or other employees to perform their jobs;
  • Indicate internal or external changes that affect our operations, employees, partners or customers;
  • Include decisions, reports, data and activities that are important to our business;
  • Describe business ventures, deals and communication with regulatory bodies or the public.

We have a few general guidelines for creating records. Employees should:

  • Ensure that information is accurate and complete;
  • Store records in appropriate mediums;
  • Name, categorise and share records properly;
  • Mark appropriate records as confidential;
  • Clarify who’s authorised to access records.

Employees should also check records electronic systems automatically generate to ensure their accuracy and proper storage.

Authorisation

Records may have different levels of authorisation that limit their accessibility. The authorisation level is usually determined by those who create the records, our company’s official policy or the law (the law always takes precedence.) The following records are strictly confidential and require a high-level authorisation:

  • Staff employment records
  • Unpublished financial data
  • Customer contracts and financial data
  • Candidate placement records (financial records, sensitive personal data, contracts)

Access to those records is restricted to employees who directly manage that information. Other types of records, like company performance metrics and internal policies, may be accessible by all permanent employees. Employees must not disclose records to people outside of our company, unless authorised.

Retaining records

Our employees must protect our records, whether marked as confidential or not.

Physical records

Printed records must be stored safely in filing cabinets or closed offices. Important, confidential files mustn’t be left in open office areas. When employees need to carry physical records out of our offices, they must prevent them from being damaged, lost or stolen. We advise our employees to avoid relocating records as much as possible.

Electronic records

Electronic records will be protected by passwords, firewalls and other security settings (both locally and in the cloud.) Employees are responsible for keeping these records intact. For example, if an employee shares an online spreadsheet, they must decide whether to give colleagues permission to edit, view or comment. Employees should not grant editing privileges unless necessary. Also, when employees access electronic, confidential records outside of our offices, they should ensure that both their devices and networks are secure. They should not leave their screens and devices unattended while logged in to our company’s accounts.

Retention Rules

Retention General Principle

In the event, for any category of documents not specifically defined elsewhere in this Notice (and in particular within the Data Retention Schedule) and unless otherwise mandated differently by applicable law, the required retention period for such document will be deemed to be 7 years from the date of creation of the document.

Retention General Schedule

The Data Privacy Manager defines the time period for which the documents and electronic records should to be retained through the Data Retention Schedule.

As an exemption, retention periods within Data Retention Schedule can be prolonged in cases such as:

  • Ongoing investigations from Member States authorities, if there is a chance records of personal data are needed by the Company to prove compliance with any legal requirements; or
  • When exercising legal rights in cases of law suits or similar court proceeding recognised under local law.

Safeguarding of Data during Retention Period

The possibility that data media used for archiving will wear out shall be considered. If electronic storage media are chosen, any procedures and systems ensuring that the information can be accessed during the retention period (both with respect to the information carrier and the readability of formats) shall also be stored in order to safeguard the information against loss as a result of future technological changes. The responsibility for the storage falls to the Data Privacy Manager.

Destruction of Data

The Company and its employees should therefore, on a regular basis, review all data, whether held electronically on their device or on paper, to decide whether to destroy or delete any data once the purpose for which those documents were created is no longer relevant. See Appendix for the retention schedule. Overall responsibility for the destruction of data falls to the Data Privacy Manager.

Once the decision is made to dispose according to the Retention Schedule, the data should be deleted, shredded or otherwise destroyed to a degree equivalent to their value to others and their level of confidentiality. The method of disposal varies and is dependent upon the nature of the document. For example, any documents that contain sensitive or confidential information (and particularly sensitive personal data) must be disposed of as confidential waste and be subject to secure electronic deletion; some expired or superseded contracts may only warrant in-house shredding. The Document Disposal Schedule section below defines the mode of disposal.

In this context, the employee shall perform the tasks and assume the responsibilities relevant for the information destruction in an appropriate way. The specific deletion or destruction process may be carried out either by an employee or by an internal or external service provider that the Data Privacy Manager subcontracts for this purpose. Any applicable general provisions under relevant data protection laws and the Company’s Personal Data Protection Notice shall be complied with.

Appropriate controls shall be in place that prevent the permanent loss of essential information of the company as a result of malicious or unintentional destruction of information – these controls are described in the company’s IT Security Notice.

The Data Privacy Manager shall fully document and approve the destruction process. The applicable statutory requirements for the destruction of information, particularly requirements under applicable data protection laws, shall be fully observed.

Breach, Enforcement and Compliance

The person appointed with responsibility for Data Protection, the Data Privacy Manager has the responsibility to ensure that each of the Company’s offices complies with this Notice. It is also the responsibility of the Data Privacy Manager to assist any local office with enquiries from any local data protection or governmental authority.

Any suspicion of a breach of this Notice must be reported immediately to Data Privacy Manager. All instances of suspected breaches of the Notice shall be investigated and action taken as appropriate.

Failure to comply with this Notice may result in adverse consequences, including, but not limited to, loss of customer confidence, litigation and loss of competitive advantage, financial loss and damage to the Company’s reputation, personal injury, harm or loss. Non-compliance with this Notice by permanent, temporary or contract employees, or any third parties, who have been granted access to Company premises or information, may therefore result in disciplinary proceedings or termination of their employment or contract. Such non-compliance may also lead to legal action against the parties involved in such activities.

Document Disposal

Level I documents are those that contain information that is of the highest security and confidentiality and those that include any personal data. These documents shall be disposed of as confidential waste (cross-cut shredded and incinerated) and shall be subject to secure electronic deletion. Disposal of the documents should include proof of destruction.

Level II documents are proprietary documents that contain confidential information such as parties’ names, signatures and addresses, or which could be used by third parties to commit fraud, but which do not contain any personal data. The documents should be cross-cut shredded and then placed into locked rubbish bins for collection by an approved disposal firm, and electronic documents will be subject to secure electronic deletion.

Level III documents are those that do not contain any confidential information or personal data and are published Company documents. These should be strip-shredded or disposed of through a recycling company and include, among other things, advertisements, catalogues, flyers, and newsletters. These may be disposed of without an audit trail