In order to manage our recruitment activity, the National Literacy Trust collects and processes the personal data of job applicants, volunteers and freelance consultants. We are committed to being transparent about our processing and use of your personal data, and details of how this relates to recruitment are below.
The information we collect
In order for you to apply for a position with the charity, we need to collect 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 salary
- whether you have a disability that requires to us make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process
- whether you have any unspent criminal convictions
- information about your entitlement to work in the UK
This will be collected via application forms or CVs, your passport or other identity documents and interview notes or other forms of assessment. If you do not provide this information, we may not be able to process your application properly, or at all.
We may also collect personal data about you from third parties, including references from former employers or criminal records checks for roles where this is necessary. We will only request information from third parties once an offer has been made to you and will inform you that we are doing so.
How we use your information
We need to hold and process your personal data in order to manage your application, assess your suitability, hold interviews, make an offer and keep records of this process.
Any data provided as part of a recruitment exercise will only be used for this purpose.
As part of our equal opportunities monitoring, we collect information about gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, ethnicity and religion or belief. This is done completely anonymously, and separately from your application, so that it cannot be connected to any identifiable individuals.
How we share and protect your data
Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise, with the HR team, the hiring manager and members of the shortlisting and interview panel.
It will not be shared with third parties unless your application is successful, when we share information with your referees to obtain references. We will not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area unless we need to in order to follow up references.
Data will be stored securely on our IT network (including our email system) and we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that it can only be accessed by those required to do so as part of our recruitment activity.
Retention period
Your data will only be held for as long as is necessary as part of our recruitment process, and then it will be securely deleted. For most job vacancies, this means retaining your application until a year after the recruitment exercise is completed.
If an application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your personnel file and retained during your employment under the terms of your contract.
Changes to our privacy policy
We keep our privacy policy under regular review as data protection regulations are updated, and we will place any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated on 18 May 2022.
How to contact us
If you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you, please email contact@literacytrust.org.uk, call us on 020 7587 1842 or write to us at National Literacy Trust, 68 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1RL.
You also have the right to complain directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you are unhappy with how your data has been processed. See www.ico.org.uk.