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HR Professional Services

What we do

HR Professional Services provides support to both current and prospective employees at the Royal Borough of Greenwich ('the Council'). HR Professional Services sits in the Council's Communities & Environment Directorate and is comprised of the following teams:

  • HR (Corporate and Core, Social and Care, and Schools)
  • Agency and Recruitment
  • Workforce Development
  • HR Quality and Service Assurance

This privacy notice also covers the Health, Safety & Wellbeing team, which sits within the Compliance Service, in Communities & Environment.

The HR Professional Service teams provide a range of services supporting council managers, staff and appropriate schools with all aspects of employee relations, including:

  • workplace advice
  • support and protection
  • through the processing of job applications
  • ensuring the safety of the workforce
  • providing training opportunities
  • undertaking analysis of workforce data.

If you're not a Council employee, you'll most commonly be interacting with HR Professional Services if you're:

  • applying for a job
  • a volunteer obtaining a DBS check
  • seeking placement opportunities
  • accessing training provided to the private and voluntary sector
  • researching information about the Council's workforce.

We also hold data related to several organisations (GS+ and Heritage Trust), Academies and local authority maintained schools who purchase our HR, Health and Safety, or Payroll services.

Why we need your information and how we use it

HR Professional Services hold data on:

  • current and former employees
  • job applicants
  • agency workers
  • apprentices
  • contractors
  • volunteers
  • those on work placement.

If you fall into one of these categories then you're a 'data subject' for the purposes of this policy. You should read this policy alongside your contract of employment (or contract for services), policies and procedures and any other notices that we issue to you from time to time in relation to your data.

The following section explains the reasons why HR Professional Services collects personal data and sets out how that data is used.

What is our power to obtain and use personal data?

The Council may process personal information lawfully for a number of reasons, including in order to:

  • create and perform an employment contract (for example during the recruitment process, and if successful to provide terms and conditions, pay you in accordance with your employment contract and to administer your pension)
  • comply with a legal obligation (for example to check your entitlement to work, respond to mandatory government returns, ensure compliance with health and safety laws)
  • protect the employee's or another individual's vital interests (for example medical data during a health emergency)
  • carry out a task exercising official authority vested in the employer by virtue of legislation (for example detecting fraud in relation to public funds) and to protect the interests of the employer or a third party.

In accordance with the Royal Borough of Greenwich contract of employment, HR policies and procedures and relevant employment legislation, the Council has an obligation to maintain a lawful and appropriate employment relationship with prospective, current and former Council employees.

HR Professional Services also process data before, during and after the end of the employment relationship.

What type of information we collect

Personal data might be provided to us by you, or someone else (such as a former employer, your doctor, or a government agency), or it could be created by us.

It could be provided or created during the recruitment process or during the course of the contract of employment (or services), or after its termination. It could be created by your manager or other colleagues.

We 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.

We may also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by previous employers, information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks (for applicable posts). We'll seek information from third parties only once a job offer to you has been made.

The Council is under a duty to protect the public funds it administers, and to this end may use the information you've provided in your application within this authority for the prevention and detection of fraud. We may also share this information with other bodies administering public funds solely for these purposes.

Data will be stored in a range of different places, including on our e-recruitment system, in HR management systems and on other IT systems. Hard copy personnel files may also be kept.

Once in Council employment HR professional services may require you to supply information about you such as experiences, events, incidents and accidents. This is in order to carry out relevant HR procedures, whether that's to investigate, advise, make a decision or provide training.

HR Professional Services will collect and use the following types of personal data:

  • your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number;
  • details of your qualifications (including driving licence), skills, experience and employment history, including whether you have any transferable local government service and professional memberships
  • the contact details of your emergency contacts
  • your gender
  • your marital status, family details and whether you have a personal relationship with any council officer
  • information about your contract of employment (or services) including start and end dates or employment, role and location, working hours, details of promotion, salary (including details of previous remuneration), pension, benefits and holiday entitlement
  • your bank details and information in relation to your tax status including your National Insurance number and any charitable donations you make
  • your identification documents including passport and driving licence and information in relation to your immigration status and right to work for us
  • information relating to disciplinary or grievance investigations and proceedings involving you (whether or not you were the main subject of those proceedings)
  • information relating to your performance and behaviour at work
  • training records
  • electronic information in relation to your use of IT systems, swipe cards and telephone systems
  • your images (whether captured on CCTV, by photograph or video)
  • any other category of personal data which we may notify you of from time to time.

'Special categories of personal data' are types of personal data consisting of information as to your:

  • racial or ethnic origin
  • political opinions
  • religious or philosophical beliefs
  • trade union membership
  • genetic or biometric data
  • health
  • sex life and sexual orientation
  • any criminal convictions and offences.

This is not an exhaustive list.

When using your personal data for monitoring and reporting purposes, unless otherwise legally required HR Professional Services will ensure that this information is anonymised.

This information is stored within the HR Management System, for which Employee Self Service permits you to select 'prefer not to say' at any time. Employees are entirely free to decide whether or not to provide such data and there are no consequences of failing to do so.

Who we may share your information with

Sometimes we might share your personal data with group companies or our contractors and agents to carry out our obligations under our contract with you.

We require these companies (see below) to keep your personal data confidential and to protect it in accordance with the law and our policies. They're only permitted to process your data for the lawful purpose for which it has been shared and in accordance with our instructions.

Your data may be shared with the following:

  • within HR Professional Services in order to complete HR procedures such as pre-employment checks, activities carried out to undertake HR casework, monitoring purposes
  • recruiting managers in the department which is advertising vacancies in order make a decision regarding your recruitment to the Council
  • management to enable ongoing performance and people management processes
  • departments across the Council in order to complete certain procedures (for example the setting up of relevant IT accesses, the creation of a payroll number, checking of outstanding debts to the Council)
  • other local authorities (HR departments and other services as appropriate)
  • schools
  • Disclosure and Barring Service (for appropriate positions)
  • other partner agencies that provide services on our behalf
  • agencies with whom we have a duty to co-operate, such as the Police.

We may also share your data with other third-party organisations, as allowed by law, who provide the following services (including but not limited to):

  • eRecruitment
  • Human Resource and Payroll Management System
  • Document storage facility suppliers (electronic and hardcopy)
  • Occupational Health and Eye Care Providers
  • Employee Assistance Programme
  • charitable organisations
  • managed learning provider
  • trade unions
  • e-learning providers
  • training and apprenticeship providers
  • universities, colleges and educational establishments.
How long we keep your information

Your personal information will be held in line with our document retention policy.

Your personal data will not be retained for longer than necessary and only for the purposes for which it was collected and for the ongoing monitoring of equality of opportunity.

For job applicants, if your application is unsuccessful, your personal information will be held by HR Professional Services for one year. This is to enable us to contact you in the future in the event that you are a successfully appointable reserve candidate.

You can choose to delete your account with us at any time. For more detailed information, view the HR Recruitment privacy notice.

Version date
April 2021