Recruit - How do I implement or manage a data retention policy?

Manage your data retention policy (Superusers only)

This functionality allows you to manage when candidate data is automatically deleted from your system in order to comply with your company's data retention policy.

Each candidate folder in your system is classified as one of the following categories:

• Terminal negative (e.g. any reject/fail/declined/withdrawn folders)
• Terminal positive (e.g. any folders associated with a successful hire)

All other folders will be considered active, i.e. candidates are expected to only move through them and not stay in them.

Client super users who wish to enable a data retention policy may do this via the Settings menu (Global system setup). Simply switch the data retention setting radio button to "Hard delete old data" and choose how long you want to keep data for.

Important note: All data retention settings changes are audited and all system super users are emailed when any change is made to data retention settings - safety in numbers!

System super users are also emailed on a daily basis with an update on how many applications have been deleted.

Once a data retention policy is enabled, the following rules apply:

• Candidate data associated with submitted applications in terminal negative folders will be fully deleted after an application has been in a terminal folder for longer than the period specified
• Unsubmitted applications will be fully deleted if they were started longer ago than the data retention period specified
• Candidate documents are also deleted
• Any Person data, e.g. Contact details, will only be deleted once a candidate has no remaining active applications (i.e. all their applications have been in a terminal folder for longer than the data retention period)
• If Talent pool subscriptions expiry is also enabled (recommended), the candidate's entire account and all remaining data will also be deleted once they have had no active subscriptions for longer than the data retention period, provided that they also have no applications remaining in their account at this point
• If Talent pool subscriptions expiry is not enabled, then the candidate's account and talent pool-related data will be kept including:
• Login/Registration information
• Company-wide eligibility (required for login authorisation)
• Job alerts preferences
• Registration of interest/Speculative profile
• Talent bank profile

Turning on a data retention policy for the first time (existing clients)

If you are turning on a data retention policy for the first time and already have significant numbers of people/candidates in your system, we would advise the following:

• Turn on engagement first and set the content of your engagement email as appropriate to inform people that you will be implementing a data retention policy soon. This will give them the opportunity to refresh their subscriptions if they wish to.
• Export any data your require or save copies of relevant reports you require for historical comparisons (as data which is older than the retention period will be deleted and no longer available once data retention is enabled). N.B. We suggest avoid use of any personal information in these reports for obvious reasons.
• Set the data retention period to be as long as possible first and then gradually reduce it by one "notch" at a time over time, until it is set to the period you require, e.g. leave a week between further retention period reductions
• Turn on subscriptions expiry once you've reduced the retention period to the desired level
• Don't forget to update your privacy policy. This may be hosted by you or by us, in which case raise a support request to update the text as required.