UK GDPR and your data

Your role and ours

You decide what personal data to keep about your staff and why, and you need a lawful basis for each purpose (for example, the employment contract and your legal obligations for payroll, right-to-work and tax records). We process it only on your instructions, under our Data Processing Agreement, which forms part of our Terms. Our Sub-processors page lists who helps us provide the Service.

Being open with your staff

You must tell staff, new starters and job applicants how you use their data. Publish your privacy notice in EmployeeCore under Policies and mark it as your staff privacy notice: it is then linked from the new-starter form, document upload links and the employee portal, and staff can confirm they have read it.

Rights requests

• Access: export everything held about a person, including documents and the activity log, from their profile in one file.
• Correction: staff can update their own contact and emergency details in the portal; HR can correct anything else.
• Erasure: delete a person's file and documents, or remove demo data, from the Service.

Keeping data only as long as needed

Set your retention period in Settings → Security. Settings → Data lists leavers whose records are older than that period so you can review and delete them. Remember some records must be kept for set periods, such as payroll records (at least 3 years after the end of the tax year) and right-to-work check copies (2 years after employment ends).

Special category and criminal offence data

Sickness and family leave records are health data, and immigration records can reveal racial or ethnic origin. Background check records should show only the check's status and reference: don't record details of convictions in the Service. For this data you need a condition under Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018, and usually an appropriate policy document.

Security and accountability

Require two-step sign-in for everyone, give each person the least access they need (HR manager, read-only auditor or employee), and remove access when people leave. Every change, document view, export and sign-in is recorded in the activity log, which nobody can edit.

Data protection impact assessments

Because HR and payroll records include special category data, we recommend you carry out a data protection impact assessment before you start. Our Security page, Data Processing Agreement and Sub-processors page give the information you need about the Service, and we can answer security questionnaires: email privacy@employeecore.co.uk.

Where the data is held

The Service is currently hosted in the United States by Namecheap, Inc., under UK transfer safeguards described in our Data Processing Agreement.