Who we are

Privacy Statement and Data Controller contact details

This Privacy Statement describes our policies and procedures on the collection, use and disclosure of your information when you use our services. It also outlines your Privacy Rights and how the law protects you.

We take privacy and the protection of personal and sensitive information seriously and are committed to protecting your data and complying with the data regulations to their full extent. Our Privacy Statement explains how we use and protect your personal information, to show that we are adhering to the GDPR/UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018

TSS is the data controller for the information being processed, unless otherwise stated. If you wish to contact us this can be done via email or telephone.

A data controller is the business that collects your data AND decides how it is processed. A data processor is the business that may process personal data but only acts on behalf of the data controller. If you have any queries regards the privacy of your data, you can contact us by emailing:

gdpr@ts-streamlined.com.

The UK GDPR requires every organisation that processes personal information to be registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Our registration number is  ZB620404 and you can find us on the Information Commissioner's register and searching for us by using our registration number.

Personal Information we Collect

At TSS, we prioritise safeguarding your personal information. We collect a variety of data necessary to deliver our services and manage our operations. The specific nature of this information depends on the context.

Our data collection includes:

• For potential candidates engaging with our Recruitment Services, we gather: name, address, telephone number, email, employment history, education, professional qualifications, affiliations, skills, nationality, feedback from references, and any additional data you provide. We may use photos publicly available online (e.g., LinkedIn) with your consent. Background verification may be obtained where permissible by law.
• Basic identification information: your name, contact details, and preferred communication method. We might also inquire about your survey responses and assessment feedback.
• Within our Online Systems, we collect user login details such as usernames, passwords, and hints to ensure secure access.
• In compliance with legal regulations, we might collect details about compensation and benefits to offer consultation services to you or our clients regarding rewards and benefits.
• On specific occasions, we may request sensitive Personal Information to ensure compliance with legal mandates, including equal opportunity regulations.

 

Our surveys might include demographic questions, covering gender, ethnicity, age, or country of origin. However, except for these scenarios, we advise against sharing sensitive Personal Information, such as government ID numbers, payment card details, racial or ethnic origin data, political views, religious beliefs, health information, biometrics, genetic data, criminal history, or trade union membership.

If you do not agree with this Policy, we kindly ask that you refrain from providing any Personal Information.

This revised information aims to clearly outline the data collection processes and protection policies at Talent Solutions Streamlined, ensuring transparency and confidentiality for all parties involved.

How we collect Personal Information

At TSS, when you engage with our services, you provide us with Personal Information directly. We may gather Personal Information from various interactions such as:

• Registering for our Online Systems
• Submitting a CV
• Responding to employment opportunities
• Completing online assessments or surveys
• Contacting us via email, electronic forms, telephone, or postal mail

Should you provide Personal Information about others to us or our service providers, you confirm that you have the appropriate authority to do so and to allow us to use the information in line with our Policy.

Additionally, Personal Information about you may be received from our clients, to whom we offer our services.

We might also obtain your Personal Information from third parties, including references or secure screening services.

When someone takes part in an assessment or coaching experience, they might share Personal Information related to you.

As part of our Recruitment Services, we gather Personal Information from various sources such as referrals, networking activities, public databases, joint marketing partners, licensed databases, and social media platforms. Information obtained from these third parties includes details about potential candidates' identity (e.g., name, address, telephone number, email), background and qualifications (employment history, education, professional credentials, professional memberships, skills, etc.), nationality, feedback from former employers and references. Photos shared by you or available publicly online (e.g., LinkedIn) might also be used by us, with your consent. As allowed by relevant laws, background verification information might be obtained.

Our promise to you

We are committed to our responsibility to be fair, lawful, and transparent when it comes to managing your information. We endeavour to make our processing activities easy to read and understand and we welcome your feedback. We promise that:

• We will do everything physically possible to keep your information secure and confidential.
• You are in control of how we communicate with you – and you can change your preferences at any time by contacting us.
• We will train our staff to ensure that they know how to manage your information appropriately and in line with regulations.
• We will not transfer your data to third parties, except for trusted partners who carry our specialist processing e.g., accountant, bank for financial transactions.
• We have done all checks possible to verify that any third parties comply with data protection legislation and will only use them if we are satisfied that they take your privacy seriously.

Working for us as a Contractor/Freelancer or Permanent Employee 

If you work for us, we will only collect the information that is necessary and that we are legally required to process, to pay you and which are necessary to maintain a working relationship. These details will be required and our legal basis for processing is CONTRACT.

Where you provide additional information, you do this voluntarily and/or in order to receive company benefits and our legal basis for processing these details are CONSENT. Where we rely on CONSENT for processing, you can always exercise your right to withdraw CONSENT, although you will need to bear in mind that this may affect your ability to use some of these benefits. 

We will retain your data in line with statutory requirements, after which it will be safely and securely destructed, in line with the storage limitation principle. 

It is your responsibility to inform us of any changes to your personal that so that we can keep it accurate in line with data protection principles.

Where we process special category data, we will only do this if we have a legal obligation to do so or you have given us explicit consent. In either case, we will only to so if we have identified an additional condition for processing as specified in article 9 of the UK GDPR.  

For employment purposes your personal details will be processed on the legal basis of CONTRACT and special category data under the additional condition for processing of EMPLOYMENT.

Contracting us

If you do take one of our consultancy services offerings, we will be entering into a contractual relationship with you. We will collect your organisations details, your contact details, and any details of contacts you provide us with to enable us to fulfil our contractual obligations towards you. In addition, we will process commercial, confidential, and sensitive information that you provide us with for the purposes specified in the contract and data processing agreement. We also will process financial details for the purpose of invoicing and financial transactions. When our contract ends, we will follow all instructions as per our contract with you in relation to all personal and other data that we have processed on your behalf. The legal basis we use is CONTRACT.

Enquiring for our services

If you enquire about our services, we will collect the personal details that you provide us with. This information will be collected either via email or telephone depending on your preferred contact method. As you provide this information voluntarily, we rely on your CONSENT for the purposes that you have specified in your enquiry. In some cases, we may contact you in relation to other services and will rely on LEGITIMATE INTEREST to process your data. This will only be in cases where we can identify a LEGITIMATE INTEREST and only if you have not asked us not to contact you for other purposes. You can request for your information to be deleted at any time; however, we might not be able to provide you with a reply to your enquiry if you request deletion prior to us responding. We will remind you annually of your rights to update your preferences. Where you ask for your information to be deleted, we will do this safely and securely so that it cannot be retrieved.

Job Enquiry

If you have applied for a job with us, we will hold your information in line with statutory or recommended retention periods. We will contact you with any relevant job roles that may be available and if not, ask you if you would like us to keep your details on file, in which case we will keep and send you updates to remind you of opportunities and that you can change your preferences at any time. For job enquiries we will use CONSENT as a legal basis for processing.

Third Party Data Processors and International Transfers

We do not normally transfer data outside the European Economic Area (EEA). However, where there is a specific service need for data to be transferred to the EEA through a third party, we will ensure that we and they put appropriate safeguards in place. 

We use the following Microsoft products: Teams, SharePoint and Outlook which are supported by backup servers in the UK. Microsoft have confirmed that other tools such as Microsoft Forms are backed up on servers outside of the UK but within the EEA. We will only use Microsoft Forms if requested or approved by our clients. We have a Data Protection Impact Assessment in place for the use of Microsoft 365 and appropriate standard operating procedures for our staff to ensure safe usage.

Information Security

We will not share your information with any third parties for the purposes of direct marketing.

We use third parties to support the provision of our services and therefore under GDPR/ UK GDPR they are considered data processors. These third parties include accountancy services, banking services and freelancers.

Apart from the aforementioned, we use the following cloud-based applications for hosting, storing, and processing your data, depending on the service or contract we have with you For more information about how this third parties keep your information safe and secure please follow this links:

(The below links will take you to the provider websites and relevant privacy policies/notices)

​

• Microsoft 365
• Webador
• Google

 

We and our cloud providers will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

Any Personal Information that you provide through third parties will be subject to the third party’s privacy policy, rather than this Policy. TSS. does not control, and is not responsible for, the third party’s use of information collected through those pages. Please note that this Policy does not address the collection and use of information through the third party’s page or the privacy or information practices of the third party.

TSS Ltd. uses the Personal Information it collects in several ways. The summary below provides additional details about the ways we use the Personal Information we collect.

How we Use the Personal Information we collect

At TSS, we utilise your Personal Information for various purposes associated with our Services. Here's how we do it:

• Creating Profiles and Identifying Opportunities: In the context of our Recruitment Services, the Personal Information collected is used to craft a profile about you. This profile aids in identifying professional opportunities that might align with your interests. Periodically, we may contact you regarding these opportunities or request information about potential candidates for our services.
• Objecting to Profile Creation: Should you wish to object to the creation of your profile, you can do so through the ‘Choices and Access’ section below. However, opting out will result in your profile being removed from our database, impacting future consideration for opportunities.
• Confirming References and Checks: For Recruitment Services, your Personal Information is utilised for confirming references and conducting appropriate educational and background checks.
• Aggregate Diversity Information: We aggregate and disclose diversity and statistical information regarding candidates and placement activities with your consent or because it serves our legitimate business interests.
• Responding to Inquiries and Verifying Information: Your Personal Information is used to respond to your inquiries, verify your information, and maintain a record of our correspondence to manage our relationship with you.
• Sending Important Information and Verifying Data: Periodically, we may send you important updates regarding the Online Systems, changes in policies, and administrative information. We might also contact you to verify the accuracy and currency of the collected Personal Information to comply with legal obligations.
• Business Operations and Analytics: Your Personal Information is utilised for various business operations such as audits, internal communications, effectiveness evaluation of promotional activities, and infrastructure maintenance and security. Analytics and thought leadership materials are conducted based on larger aggregated data, ensuring your personal identification is not disclosed.
• Research, Development, and Compliance: We may retain and use your Personal Information for research, publication, development, and to ensure our Services conform to legal requirements. This data might also be used to combine information collected from different Services.
• Information and Marketing Materials: TSS might send informational material, including articles, proposals, and engagement letters based on your consent. Marketing materials are sent only upon receiving consent from you, especially if you are not engaged in a consulting relationship or using the Products at your employer's request.

Who has access to your Personal Information

At TSS, we handle your Personal Information to facilitate the provision of our Services. This involves sharing your information under various circumstances:

• Service Provision and Clients' Access: As part of delivering our Services, we may disclose your Personal Information to clients who have engaged us for these services.
• Recruitment and Consulting Services: In the context of our Recruitment and Consulting Services, we may share Personal Information, including assessment results, with potential employers or clients seeking employment solutions.
• Client Assessments and Consent: When undertaking assessments or surveys at a client's request, we ensure that assessment results are not shared with other clients without appropriate consent.
• UK Operations and Collaborations: While currently operating solely in the UK, we may share Personal Information among our UK-based affiliates and subsidiaries, adhering to legal permissions to streamline service delivery.
• Alliances and Third-Party Collaborations: Collaborations with strategic partners, independent consultants, and third-party service providers occasionally involve the disclosure of Personal Information, aligned with the objectives of TSS.
• Business Scenarios and Legal Compliance: In specific business scenarios, such as sales, mergers, or asset transfers, disclosure or transfer of your Personal Information might occur. Additionally, disclosures may be necessary to comply with legal obligations or protect rights and safety.

It's important to note that while we strive to handle your Personal Information responsibly, the actions or omissions of third parties, such as clients, in using the provided information are beyond our direct oversight.

Other Information we collect

At TSS, we gather non-specific identifying information ("Other Information"), including:

• Data collected through cookies, pixel tags, and similar technologies
• Usage information from applications
• Demographic details and other information provided by you
• Aggregated information

Given that Other Information doesn't specifically identify you, we use it for various purposes. If we merge Other Information with Personal Information that directly identifies you (like combining your name with your location), we treat the combined data as Personal Information during their combination.

As required by UK law, if Other Information needs to be treated as Personal Information, we use and disclose it for the purposes outlined in our Policy for the use and disclosure of your Personal Information.

Both ourselves and our third-party service providers employ various methods to gather Other Information.

We use "cookies" and similar technologies to understand visitor behaviour on the Site, like the type of content viewed and the duration of visits to different sections. These technologies improve your experience on the Site. Please refer to TSS’ cookies section in our Privacy Policy for more details on how we use cookies.

You have the option to adjust your browser settings to automatically decline or prompt you before accepting specific cookies from a website. Disabling these technologies may impact your Site experience, potentially causing some features to not work as intended. For guidance on managing cookies, click here.

Choice and Access

To access your data or learn more about privacy requests, please click here to to download our Privacy request form.

The provision of your Personal Information to TSS is voluntary. However, not providing specific Personal Information might limit your ability to engage in our Services.

If you would like to:

• Learn about how we handle your Personal Information
• Withdraw your consent for us to use your Personal Information
• Object to the use of your Personal Information for our business interests
• Request an electronic copy of your Personal Information for transmission to another company (where applicable by law)
• Review, correct, update, suppress, or restrict the use of your Personal Information

Please get in touch with us at gdpr@ts-streamlined.com. To facilitate any alterations or restrictions to your Personal Information, kindly include relevant User IDs, email addresses, and names of any TSS or related sites, products, or services you've accessed in your communication.

While we aim for accuracy in maintaining your Personal Information, if any inaccuracies are found, we'll promptly rectify them.

To request the deletion of your Personal Information from our databases:

Contact us at gdpr@ts-streamlined.com,  providing pertinent User IDs, email addresses, and names of any TSS or related sites, products, or services you've used.

We'll make reasonable efforts to delete your Personal Information upon your request. However, please note that due to backup systems, residual copies may be retained as required under our Policy.

To opt-out of marketing communications:

Email us at  gdpr@ts-streamlined.com to remove your contact details from our marketing databases. Include "Remove User" in the subject line and provide your full name, User ID, and telephone number in the email body.

We'll address your request in accordance with applicable laws. However, we may decline requests if they pose privacy risks to others or jeopardize our intellectual property.

Please note that specific requests pertaining to Services performed at a client's behest may need to be directed to that client.

For security reasons, we may only act on requests associated with the email address used for your request. We might verify your identity before processing your request promptly and reasonably.

Certain Personal Information, such as email addresses, may be retained to honor opt-out requests. This information won't be used for commercial purposes but may be kept in our records, including access logs and databases. Nevertheless, we reserve the right to contact former users as necessary.

 Retention period of PI

1. Candidate Data:
   • Unsuccessful Candidates: It's common to retain data for a period of 6 to 12 months following the end of the recruitment process. This allows for any potential claims (e.g., discrimination) to be addressed.
   • Successful Candidates: Data for hired candidates often becomes part of their employment record. Such data might be retained for the duration of their employment plus a certain number of years afterwards (often 6 years) to cover any potential legal claims.
2. Right to Work Checks:
   • Information obtained for verifying the right to work in the UK should be kept for the duration of the individual's employment and a further 2 years afterwards.
3. Tax and Payroll Records:
   • For candidates placed into roles, especially temporary roles where the recruitment agency manages their payroll, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) requires such records to be kept for at least 3 years from the end of the tax year they relate to.
4. Criminal Record Checks:
   • If a recruitment agency performs DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks or other criminal record checks, the results should not be kept any longer than is necessary, usually up to 6 months. However, a record of the check being carried out can be retained without retaining the data on the check itself.
5. General Communications:
   • Emails and other correspondence with candidates, clients, and other parties might be kept for a period deemed necessary by the agency but usually not more than 6 years to align with the limitation period for many types of legal claims in the UK

Cookies

Our online service uses functional, analytical, and tracking cookies. Cookies are small files in which we store information so that you don't have to re-enter it every time you access our service. Please note that our use of cookies also means we are aware of every time you visit our website.

We have agreements in place with other companies who place cookies. As Webador cannot control what those companies do with these cookies, we recommend reading their privacy statements.

You can disable cookie placement in your browser settings. However, this means you will no longer be able to log into our system. You can also delete all cookies placed by us or our partners via your browser settings. After logging in, our system will function correctly again.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to track how visitors use our online service. We have entered into a processing agreement with Google that contains strict stipulations as to which data they can store. We allow Google to use the information obtained from Analytics for other Google services. This data is automatically deleted after 26 months.

Changes to this privacy statement

In the event of any changes to our online service or to any relevant legislation, we must also adjust our privacy statement. We recommend making a note of the date at the top of the page and checking back regularly for updates. We will always endeavor to announce any important changes separately.

Your rights

If you have any questions, or you'd like more information regarding which data we store, please feel free to contact us using the contact information below.

You have the right to:

• an explanation of which personal data we have and what we do with it
• access the exact personal data we've stored
• correct errors
• remove outdated personal data
• right to be forgotten ‐ Send us a message via the contact form, and we'll delete all your personal data.
• withdraw permission
• object to a specific use

Make a complaint

You also have the right to complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we use or have used your data.

The ICO's address:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

​Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

Website: https://ico.org.uk