Clients and business contacts

We contact potential clients and other business with news and promotional material. We obtain information about these persons from a variety of sources, these include:

• our dealings with a person (e.g. if someone attends one of our events, or provides data during the course of providing services or during correspondence);
• our own research;
• word of mouth referrals from existing clients and business contacts; and
• third parties from whom we receive details of businesses who might be interested in our services.

When we do contact potential clients, we take great care to respect their privacy rights and comply with applicable marketing laws, including by doing the following:

• before making marketing calls we screen numbers against the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and Corporate TPS lists;
• we always clearly identify ourselves and the number we are calling from;
• providing clear instructions on how to opt-out from future communications and details of how to access our privacy policy; and
• not emailing individual subscribers (including sole traders and general partnerships) without prior consent.

If you don’t want to hear from us you can simply unsubscribe, or you can contact us to object to direct marketing and/or to ask to have your information deleted (see ‘Your rights as a data subject’, below, for details).

The types of personal data we collect

The types of personal data we collect will vary but may include some or all of the following:

• contact information (such as name, address, telephone and email address); and
• bank details (for when we receive or make a payment).

We may process other types of personal information and, if we do, then it will be protected to the same high standard.

Why we need to use personal data

We use personal data because we need to for one or more of the following reasons:

• to perform a contractual obligation we owe to an individual;
• in order to comply with our legal obligations; or
• to pursue our legitimate interests in operating and promoting the success of our business (for example, it is in our legitimate interests to use marketing to promote our business to new clients and build business relationships), and also to perform our contractual obligations to third parties (such as paying our suppliers).

In limited circumstances, we may use personal data on the basis of your consent. If so, we will always clearly ask for your agreement to this. You are, of course, free to refuse this.

Individuals who participate in surveys and market research

We collect personal data about individuals who participate in surveys and market research. The information we collect is usually limited to your contact details (such as your name, email address and/or telephone number) and your views on topics and responses to questions we have asked. In addition, we may ask for information about your demographic (e.g. age, gender and postcode) to help us understand your responses and compare them with those of others.

This information is processed on the basis that it is in our legitimate interests (or those of our client) to carry out this research. We may contact you with follow up questions on the same basis. On occasion, third parties (such as our client) may want to contact you about your views or responses. We will only provide your contact details with your express consent.

The type of data processed in connection with surveys and market research will depend on the individual survey, though it will not usually involve the processing of special category data.

Recruitment

We collect, store and use personal data about individuals who apply to join us. This may include information:

• you provide to us (such as in CVs, application forms, and through correspondence);
• you provide during an interview;
• obtained from previous employers and referees; and
• provided to us by recruitment agencies.

The information we collect might include sensitive personal data, such as information about your health and sickness records. If we need to process sensitive personal data then we will ask for your explicit consent before doing so.

We only ask for references at the last stage of the application process, when making an offer of employment, and always act in accordance with the specific requirements of national laws.

How we use applicant information

We use the personal data we collect about you to:

• assess your skills, qualifications, and suitability for a role;
• carry out background and reference checks;
• communicate with you about your application; and
• keep records related to our hiring process.

We do all of this because either it is a necessary part of entering into a contract of employment with you or because we have a legitimate interest in ensuring that you are suitable for a particular role.

If you fail to provide personal data 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.

Retention of applicant information

We normally retain personal data about unsuccessful candidates for between 3 and 6 months from the time we inform them of our hiring decision. We retain personal data for this period so that we can demonstrate, in the event of a legal claim, we have not discriminated against an applicant and that the recruitment process was fair and transparent. After this period, we will securely destroy this applicant’s personal data. If we wish to retain personal data on file, in case future opportunities arise, we will contact the applicant and ask for his or her consent to do so.

If you are successful, the personal data you provided in the application process will be stored as part of your personnel file.