As part of any recruitment process, Empower Energy 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 meeting its data protection obligations.

What information does Empower Energy collect?

Empower Energy 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;
• information about your current level of remuneration, including benefit entitlements;
• whether or not you have a disability for which Empower Energy needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process;
• information about your entitlement to work in the UK; and
• equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion or belief.

Empower Energy 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 including online tests.

The organisation may also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks. The organisation will seek information from third parties only once a job offer to you has been made and will inform you that it is doing so.

Data will be stored in a range of different places, including on your application record, in HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).

Why does Empower Energy process personal data?

Empower Energy needs to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you. It may also need to process your data to enter into a contract with you. In some cases, the organisation needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. For example, it is required to check a successful applicant's eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts.

Empower Energy 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 the organisation to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate's suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. The organisation may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.The organisation may process information about whether or not applicants are disabled to make reasonable adjustments for candidates who have a disability. This is to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

Where the organisation processes other special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is for equal opportunities monitoring purposes.

For some roles, Empower Energy is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where the organisation seeks this information, it does so because it is necessary for it to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

Empower Energy will not use your data for any purpose other than the recruitment exercise for which you have applied.

Who has access to data?

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

Empower Energy will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. The organisation will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you, employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and to obtain necessary criminal records checks (Access NI for Northern Ireland, Disclosure & Barring Service for GB & Garda Vetting for ROI).

The organisation will not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area.

How does Empower Energy protect data?

Empower Energy takes the security of your data seriously. It has 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. All company data is protected by file and folder permissions control. Access to company data requires a valid username and password that has been granted access to each particular area of data storage.

For how long does Empower Energy keep data?

If your application for employment is unsuccessful, Empower Energy will hold your data on file for up to six months after the end of the relevant recruitment process. The organisation where appropriate may contact you regarding other employment opportunities within the organisation. At the end of that period, your data is deleted or destroyed.

If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your personnel file 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 the organisation is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact the Human Resources Department or email careers@empowerenergy.co.uk.

If you believe that Empower Energy has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

What if you do not provide personal data?

You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to Empower Energy during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, Empower Energy may not be able to process your application properly or at all.

Automated decision-making

Recruitment processes are not based solely on automated decision-making.