Collins McNicholas Privacy Statement
Updated December 2023
Collins McNicholas fully respects your rights to privacy and are committed to strict adherence to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into effect on 25 May 2018 as well as the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Who we are and what we do
We are an Irish Recruitment and HR Services Company established in 1990 with offices in Sligo, Athlone, Galway and Cork. This privacy notice is primarily directed to individuals who wish to avail of our services in seeking employment, whether permanent or temporary or to obtain our advice and assistance on any employment-related issues.
If you wish to contact us on any issue regarding your data protection, the following are the contact options:
Post: Collins Mc Nicholas, Millbrook House, Kennedy Parade, Sligo
Phone: GDPR Representative at Sligo 071 9140259
Email: data@collinsmcnicholas.ie
This Privacy Statement sets out how Collins McNicholas uses and processes any information that you give to us (Candidate Data). We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Statement explains how we collect, transfer, process, use and disclose your data and sets out our security practices.
In addition to Collins McNicholas, this privacy statement also applies to its sister company, Compustaff. Compustaff aligns itself with the data protection principles outlined in this document and is committed to maintaining the same high standards when it comes to processing personal data. Both Collins McNicholas and Compustaff operate under a shared commitment to respecting privacy rights and complying with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018.
What we collect
In order to provide you with our recruitment services, we need to collect certain information relating to you.
We collect personally identifiable information that you provide to us, which is information that identifies you as an individual. We only do this when you have provided us with the information and you have given your consent that we can use it in your interest for the purposes set out in this Privacy Statement. This Personal Information may include your name, address, private and corporate email address, phone number, financial information, date of birth, employment history, skills/qualifications, educational history, licenses held, salary, desired salary, notice period, details of Visa or eligibility to work, photographic images, references verifying your qualifications and experience, and links to your professional profiles available in the public domain such as LinkedIn and Twitter.
How we use your Personal Information and the Legal basis for doing so
Any personal data you volunteer will be used for the purpose for which you supply it and will be treated with the highest standards of security and confidentiality, strictly in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation. Collins McNicholas collects and uses your personal information to deliver the job-seeking or related services you have requested. Your information will only be used for matching your skills with potential job opportunities and will only be disclosed to prospective employers with your express consent.
In providing our services we may use your personal information to:
Provide our service to you. This includes registering your account; communicating and interacting with you, and notifying you of changes to any services
Consider your application for employment
Assess your suitability for current or future vacancies
Notify you of our new employment opportunities and services
Respond to your requests
Seek your views on our services to improve our level of service
Share your information with prospective employers to increase your chances of securing the job you want
Enhance your customer experience
Under the GDPR there are 6 lawful bases for processing personal information:
Consent
Performance of a contract
Compliance with a legal obligation
Vital interests
Public interests
Legitimate interest
The main grounds used by Collins McNicholas to process personal data are as follows:
Consent:
Consent may be collected when a candidate applies to a position advertised on our website or when they submit a CV via our website not associated with a specific open role but for general consideration. Where candidates apply to a Collins McNicholas job on a job board such as Irish Jobs we will provide candidates with a copy of this privacy statement and seek candidates' consent via email. Collins McNicholas also seeks consent from candidates with whom we have engaged on public domains such as LinkedIn and who wish for us to act on their behalf.
Legitimate interest:
We may process data using legitimate interest where the candidate has either voluntarily provided their personal information directly to us or has applied to one of our jobs on a job board such as Irish Jobs. Where we use legitimate interest as a legal ground for processing, we consider that our processing is in line with candidate expectations and that there is a balance between our interests and those of candidates. Candidates may object to any processing undertaken on the grounds of legitimate interest at any time.
Retention Period
Where candidates have forwarded their CVs to Collins McNicholas to assist them in finding employment, Collins McNicholas will begin an initial process which could take up to 12 months. We consider it in our legitimate interest to retain the personal data for such a period as well as in the interest of the candidate who has sought our assistance in meeting their employment ambitions. Where such a candidate has recorded their specific consent with us in accordance with the company’s Privacy Statement, a longer 5-year retention period will apply.
This retention period is based on our experience that, having engaged with us on employment options, individuals are open to considering new opportunities within that timeframe. Each individual has the right to withdraw their consent and have their personal information erased at any time.
The GDPR states that we may process personal data “if necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interest pursued by the controller”, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data”. We may use legitimate interest where we do not have GDPR consent. We have assessed the scenarios where we use legitimate interest as a legal ground for processing and we consider our processing is in line with candidate expectations and that there is a balance between our interests and those of candidates.
Your Rights
Right of access – you have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you in accordance with Section 86 of the Data Protection Act 2018
Right of rectification – you have a right to correct data that we hold about you that is inaccurate or incomplete in accordance with Section 87 and Section 89 of the Data Protection Act 2018
Right to erasure – in certain circumstances, you can ask for the data we hold about you to be erased from our records in accordance with Section 87 and Section 89 of the Data Protection Act 2018
Right to restriction of processing – where certain conditions apply to have a right to restrict the processing in accordance with Section 87 and Section 89 of the Data Protection Act 2018
Right of portability – subject to certain restrictions, you have the right to have the data we hold about you transferred to another organisation where we hold it in electronic form. This right of data portability applies to: (i) personal data that we process automatically (i.e. without any human intervention); (ii) personal data provided by you; and (iii) personal data that we process based on your consent or in order to fulfil a contract
Right to object – you have the right to object to certain types of processing such as direct marketing
All of the above requests can be directed to the Collins Mc Nicholas contact points listed in this Statement. They will be forwarded on should there be a third party involved in the processing of your personal data.
Complaints
In the event that you wish to make a complaint about how your personal data is being processed by us or how your complaint has been handled, you have the right to lodge a complaint directly with the supervisory authority:
Data Protection Commissioner: Office of the Data Protection Commissioner. Canal House, Station Road, Portarlington, Co. Laois, R32 AP23, Ireland. Phone +353 (0761) 104 800 | LoCall 1890 25 22 31 | Fax +353 57 868 4757 | email info@dataprotection.ie
Website usage information
We also automatically collect information about your computer browser type and operating system, websites you visited before and after visiting our websites, standard server log information, and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. We aggregate this information to understand how our visitors use our website and mobile applications so that we can improve them and the services we offer. These analytics do not typically identify individual users. This information includes:
The total number of visits to our website
The number of visitors to each page of our website
The domain names of our visitors’ internet service providers
How we protect your Personal Information
Collins McNicholas will take appropriate legal, organisational, and technical measures to protect your personal information. When Collins McNicholas uses a third-party service provider, that provider will be carefully selected and will be contractually required to use appropriate measures to protect the confidentiality and security of personal information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your Personal Information from unauthorised access, use, or disclosure. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet or a mobile phone network connection is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of the personal information you transmit to our website. Any transmission is at your own risk. While we cannot guarantee that loss, misuse, or alteration to data will not occur during transmission, once we have received your information, we will employ appropriate technical security measures to protect your data.
Collins McNicholas takes its obligations very seriously and adopts the strongest line in relation to the misuse of customer information by any of its staff. Any breach of trust regarding the confidentiality of information is treated as serious misconduct under the Disciplinary Code and can lead to sanctions up to and including dismissal.
Sharing Personal Information with third parties
To provide you with an efficient service, your information may be shared by recruitment consultants working within the Collins McNicholas Group nationwide. We may also disclose your information to contracted companies who act as “data processors” on our behalf. Our data processors include external consultants, welfare-to-work providers, professional advisers such as legal, software, and technical support providers, IT consultants, and marketing technology platforms and suppliers. We only share information with third parties who help us in the delivery of our job placement services to you. These third parties may not use that information for any purpose other than assisting us in providing these services. Any contact information that you provide through our system will not be sold/rented/leased to any third party for selling or marketing to you. We will only provide third-party companies with the personal information they need to deliver the appropriate service.
We require all companies providing such support services to meet the same standards of data protection as our own. They are prohibited from using the information for their own purposes. We do not allow service providers to use your Personal Information for their own activities.
Where Collins McNicholas transfers your data to countries outside of the EEA (European Economic Area), Collins McNicholas ensures that the third parties have an adequate level of data protection and adhere to GDPR.
Information from outside sources
We may also collect legally obtained information from third parties to add to our existing user databases, for example, references. Such Information will only be collected and used by us to fulfil our services to our clients and candidates.
Cookies
Our websites and mobile applications may use a technology called “cookies.” A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard disk by a server. Cookies allow our websites and mobile applications to respond to you as an individual. The website or mobile application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.
You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies or receive a warning before a cookie is stored if you prefer. Please refer to your Internet browser’s instructions or help screen to learn more about these functions and to specify your cookie preferences.
If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of our website.
Links to other websites
Our website may from time to time provide links to or embed third-party websites. This Privacy Statement does not apply to those websites. If you choose to enter such a linked site, you agree that we are not responsible for the availability of such websites and do not review or endorse and shall not be liable, directly or indirectly, for:
How these websites treat your Personal Information
The content of such websites
The use that others make of these websites
Please ensure you check the legal and privacy statements posted on each website or mobile application you access before entering any Personal Information.
Changes
We may occasionally update this Privacy Statement. If the changes we make are material, we also may post a notice regarding the changes on our website. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Statement to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the Personal Information we collect.