Staff recruitment

Birmingham City University is the data controller and you are welcome to contact our Data Protection Officer by emailing informationmanagement@bcu.ac.uk or by post to:

Data Protection Officer, Information Management Team, Birmingham City University, Floor 1, Joseph Priestley Building, 6 Cardigan Street, Birmingham, B4 7RJ, or by phoning 0121 202 4597.

Much of the personal data collected in the staff recruitment process is the data on the online application form(s) for the recruitment of staff. These vary depending on the type of role you apply for so please refer to the online application form for the exact answer to this question. Examples of your personal data collected via the application form include your name, contact details, qualifications, professional experience, reason for applying for the role, your referees’ name and contact information. If you voluntarily choose to provide it, the online system processes equal opportunities information, which includes special category data.

Personal data is also collected from referees, recruitment agencies and relevant other agencies (where relevant to the role applied for, such as UKVI or agencies relating to safeguarding) and the IT recruitment platforms BCU uses to facilitate the staff recruitment process. When you create an account to apply for a role, you are providing your personal data to a third party who is working on behalf of BCU.

If your application for a role is successful and you are employed by Birmingham City University, our Employee Privacy Notice explains how your personal data will be processed as a staff member.

The personal data that the online recruitment site collects about you will be used for the purposes of processing your application, for monitoring and improving the recruitment and selection process, and for the compilation of anonymous statistics. If your application is successful, it will be used to form the basis of your staff record.

In compliance with current data protection laws, the information contained in your application is used to shortlist and select for each position you apply for. If you are successful in your application, your application and equal opportunities information will form part of your manual and computerised personal file, and your personal data will be used for employment and payroll processing purposes. Staff personal files are kept for up to seven years after a staff member has left BCU employment.

For candidates who are not successful in their application, the information in the application is usually kept for a period of six months after the closing date and then destroyed. In a small number of cases, we are required to keep recruitment information longer than six months, until informed by UK Visa and Immigration (UKVI) that it can be destroyed.

Special Category Data

Equal opportunities data is collected for the purpose of monitoring the effectiveness of the University’s Equal Opportunities Policy and to provide anonymised statistical reports. This data is not used in the recruitment decision making process. Only collated, anonymised data from the Equal Opportunities Monitoring section is kept after the retention periods stated above to enable effective monitoring to take place.

If you choose to provide BCU with any special category data (apart from for equal opportunities monitoring) as part of the applicant process, BCU will only use this information for that purpose and will only retain that information for the length of time necessary to fulfil that purpose.

As example of this would be if you chose to provide health information when requesting BCU provides a reasonable adjustment in order for you to participate in the application process.

Criminal Offence Data

Data about criminal convictions or barring decisions will only be collected where it is necessary. Processing of this nature is necessary to meet our legal obligations and will be subject to suitable safeguards. Criminal offence data may also be processed for the purposes of safeguarding you or others. See the Appropriate Policy Document at the end of the Data Protection Policy for more information about when and why BCU processes criminal offence data.

Cookies are used on this website to allow access to authenticated areas of the website (e.g. applying for a vacancy), for storing individual user preferences, and for gathering analytical visitor data. For more information, please visit the Cookies information page.

Unless otherwise stated at the time, the University processes your personal data provided as part of the recruitment and selection process on two lawful bases:

• ‘For the performance of contract’ because it is necessary to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract for employment. This relates to information that we collect as part of the application and selection process.
• ‘Legal obligation’. There is a legal obligation placed on BCU as the potential employer to report on equality of opportunity, and to fulfil safeguarding and immigration requirements.

Where other lawful bases / special conditions of processing do not apply, we will process your data on the basis of your explicit consent. This often applies for ‘special category data’ which includes information about your health (physical or mental), race, ethnic origin, religious or political beliefs, membership of a trade union and sexual orientation. However, there are other lawful reasons for BCU to process special category data, which includes for equal opportunities purposes, to prevent the loss of life or to defend legal claims.

There is no statutory or contractual obligation for you to provide Birmingham City University with your personal data for the staff recruitment process. However, we may not be able to process your application in the event that you do not provide the information.

Hard copies of personal data are kept in a secure location and personal data stored electronically is on servers are located within the UK or EU.

Applicant personal data will only be shared with relevant BCU staff, and will only be disclosed to third parties to fulfil the purposes described above, including but not limited to the following examples: to use the IT recruitment platforms used for the application process, conduct referencing, ascertain accuracy, carry out surveys relating to applications, if BCU seeks legal advice, or if the third party has a legitimate, statutory right to the information.

We share personal data with First Advantage, UK Visas and Immigration, Eversheds, Sponsorship Management System, recruitment platforms used by BCU and the referees listed in your application. Information is shared with the UK Visas and Immigration and Sponsorship Management System under the lawful basis of legal obligation. Any information shared with First Advantage, Eversheds, recruitment platforms used by BCU and your referees is part of our recruitment process and is shared under the lawful basis of performance of a contract. In addition to the circumstances stated above we will share your personal information if we believe someone’s life is in danger or we believe we are compelled to by law.

Where information is shared with third parties, we will seek to share the minimum amount necessary. If we share information with a third party as detailed above, we will always ensure that appropriate controls are in place to ensure data is safe, it is only used for the allowed purpose and it is permanently deleted after the task has been completed. All third-party service providers that process data on our behalf are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your data in line with our policies. We do not allow them to use your data for their own purposes. We permit them to process your data only for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

You have the right to correct or update your personal data at any time. Please get in touch with your main contact at the University to update your details. If you cannot contact them, please email informationmanagement@bcu.ac.uk to update your personal data. You may have the right to have your personal data deleted, the right to restrict processing, the right to object and / or the right to data portability and you have the right to know about and challenge automated decision making and profiling. Follow the links to find out whether those rights apply in these circumstances. To do any of those things or if you have followed the links but would like clarification, please email informationmanagement@bcu.ac.uk.

You have the right to request to see the personal data we hold about you. You can submit a Subject Access Request (SAR) in accordance with the Subject Access Requests (SAR) Procedure.

If you are not content with how we handle your information, please contact our Data Protection Officer to help you in the first instance using the contact details in the introduction to this privacy notice. If you are dissatisfied with the response, you also have the right to complain directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office. You can find out more about this on the ICO’s complaints website.

BCU Data Protection Policy and Appropriate Policy document

Birmingham City University's Privacy Notices

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) information for members of the public