Privacy Policy

Pre-Engagement Privacy Notice

  1. Scope

This Privacy Notice describes how Dunelm collects, uses, stores, transfers and secures personal information relating to individuals who apply for employment with us. Personal information collected, used or disclosed by an applicant as part of the customer relationship with Dunelm is covered by our customer privacy notice, available here.

Dunelm is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This Privacy Notice describes what personal information we collect from or about you and how we use that personal information during the application process and in respect of any future applications. If your application is successful we will provide you with a privacy notice for colleagues, workers and contractors.

It is important that you read this Privacy Notice, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.

Dunelm is a “data controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this Privacy Notice.

  1. Key Terms

 “Dunelm” “we” and “us” means Dunelm (Soft Furnishings) Ltd (a company registered in England and Wales with registration number 2129238) and registered office at Store Support Centre, Watermead Business Park, Syston, Leicestershire LE7 1AD.

“Applicants” and “you” mean prospective employees, workers, consultants, contractors, and agency colleagues.

“Personal information”, or personal data, means information/data about you, and from which you could be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data). There are “special categories” of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection.

  1. Privacy at Dunelm

We collect personal information about you through the application and recruitment process (including application forms, interviews, selection centers and online assessments), either directly from candidates or sometimes from an employment agency or background check provider. We may sometimes collect additional information from third parties including former employers, referees, credit reference agencies or other background check agencies.

Under data protection legislation, the personal information we hold about you must be:

  • used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way;
  • collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes;
  • relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes;
  • accurate and kept up to date;
  • kept only for as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about;
  • kept securely.

There are “special categories” of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information.

  1. What we collect from and about you

We may collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

Contractor information

Type of Information

Example

Information about you

Name, title, home address, gender, national insurance number and diversity and inclusion data.

Personal contact details

Personal mobile/telephone number and personal e-mail address.

Salary and benefit information

Current salary and benefits or salary expectation

Information to identify you:

Passport, birth certificate, identity card and/or driving licence details, proof of current address such as bank statements or council tax bills

Information about your skills and experience

CVs, covering letter, application forms, references, interview notes, education records, employment history including start and end dates, online assessments, records of qualifications, skills, training and other compliance requirements, professional memberships.

Details of the intermediary through which services are supplied, such as a service company.

Criminal Convictions

Details of any unspent criminal convictions.

CCTV Footage

CCTV footage

We may collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information:

  • Information about your race or ethnicity, disability, religious beliefs and sexual orientation.
  • Information about your health, including any medical conditions and whether or not you have a disability for which Dunelm needs to make reasonable adjustments in the recruitment process or if you are successful in your application.

You are under no obligation to provide sensitive personal information during the interview process and your application will not be prejudiced if you decide not to share this information.

We may request details of any unspent criminal convictions where this is relevant to the role applied for.

Dunelm only processes your personal information where we have a lawful basis to do so. The lawful bases we reply on are:

  • Compliance with Legal Obligation – such as our need to verify your right to work in the UK.
  • Legitimate Interest – such as determining your suitability for a role.
  • Consent – such as retaining your information for future recruitment opportunities.
  • Contract – such as to fulfil a contractual arrangement we have made with you.
  • Vital Interest – such as where necessary to protect your life.

Some of the above will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information.

  1. How your information will be used

Dunelm will use your personal information to determine whether to employ you in the role for which you have applied and to contact you in respect of opportunities. We may also use your personal information when considering whether other roles, recruited within 12 months of your application, would be of interest to you. On expiration of this 12 month period you may be offered the opportunity to consent to the ongoing retention of your personal information if you wish Dunelm to continue to consider you for roles.

We may carry out background or right to work checks via a third party provider and conduct equal opportunities and diversity monitoring.

Change of purpose: We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis for doing so. Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Security: We care about protecting your information. That’s why we put in place appropriate measures that are designed to prevent unauthorized access to, and misuse of , your personal data. We will not share any of the information you provide us with any third parties for marketing purposes . The information you provide will be held securely by us and/or our data processors whether the information is in electronic or physical format. We may transfer your personal information outside the UK. If we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information.

How long will we will keep your information: Unsuccessful applicant data is retained for 12 months. After this 12 month period you may be offered the opportunity to consent to a further retention period during which we will continue to consider your personal information in connection with roles that may be of interest to you. Successful applicant personal data will be managed in accordance with our Dunelm Colleague Privacy Policy.

We may anonymise your personal information, which means that it can no longer identify or be associated with you. Once anonymised we may make use of this information without further notice to you. 

Who we share your personal data with

We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers such as recruitment agencies or right to work checks, professional advisors, your referees, online assessment providers, Government or public authorities, and other entities in our group. We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We will share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the recruitment process with you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so. All our third-party service providers and other entities in the group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your information in line with our policies.

  1. Your data protection rights

Under data protection legislation you have a number of rights regarding your personal data.

Access: You have a right to request access to the personal data that we hold about you. This could include information relating to purchases you have made or orders which you have placed with us via our website or in store.

Rectification: If you believe that any of the personal data that we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or misleading, you have a right to request that the information is corrected, provided you can demonstrate that it is incorrect.

Erasure / objection: You have a right to request us to erase any data that we hold about you, or to object to our use and processing of your data. If the only lawful basis on which we can process your personal data is that you have given your consent , we are obliged to comply with your request. In other circumstances we may need to continue to hold and process your data (for example where needed for safety, security or legal purposes, or to protect our legitimate interests). If this is the case, we will notify you of the reason.

Request a portable copy of your personal data: You have the right to request a portable copy of any personal data which you have provided to us. This applies in the following circumstances, where:

  • the lawful basis on which we are processing your data is either that you have given your consent, or that we need to use the data to comply with our contract with you (for example to deliver goods to you); and
  • we are processing your personal data by electronic means.

Right to withdraw consent: If you have provided consent for the processing of your data you have the right (in certain circumstances) to withdraw that consent at any time which will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before your consent was withdrawn.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact [email protected]. If you wish to exercise any of the rights above, you may need to provide proof of your identification and further information to help us to process your request.

If you have questions in relation to your personal data or if you have any concerns as to how we have managed your personal data, please give us the chance to put it right, by contacting our Data Protection Officer at:

 [email protected]

or you can write to us at:

Dunelm (Soft Furnishings) Ltd
Watermead Business Park
Syston
Leicester
LE7 1AD

If you feel we have not resolved your complaint, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. Further information, including contact details, is available at https://ico.org.uk.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We reserve the right to update this Privacy Notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new Privacy Notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.

June 2021