Data Privacy - Information to Job Applicants

Essity may from time to time keep information about private individuals, and use such information for different purposes. This information is intended for persons applying for a position with any of the companies within the Essity Group. Information about private individuals is referred to as “personal data”.

What kind of personal data is kept and used by Essity?

Personal data may be provided to us by you when applying for a position or notifying a general interest in working for any company within the Essity Group. Information may also be obtained from other sources, such as references provided by you or information obtained from third parties such as head hunting firms. Such personal data may broadly be grouped into the following categories;      

• identification data, such as name, User ID, password (if you apply via our webs site) citizenship, and date of birth; 
• contact details, such as address, e-mail and telephone number;
• recruitment-related information, such as information regarding previous work experience (including references from previous employers), qualifications and work history, educational background, language skills, professional skills and talents, professional memberships, community involvement, geographic mobility interests, and reports from executive search or employment firms (where applicable); 
• interview notes or videos; and
• communication details, such as email content.

Why do we keep and use your personal data?

The main purpose of using your personal data is to manage our process for recruiting staff to various positions within the Essity Group. The data is used in order to communicate with you, to assess your application against the required qualifications, to make selections between applicants and as a basis for our decision making. Your personal data may also be used to meet any employment-related requirements or to coordinate applications internally across relevant Essity-companies.     

What is our justification for keeping and using your personal data?

When applying for a job with any company within the Essity Group, you will also consent to Essity using all information in the application, as well as in supplementing documents and information provided during an interview, for the purposes of a specific or potential recruitment. Essity may also use publicly available personal data, such as information available on social media (for example LinkedIn), based on a legitimate interest of assessing whether you are suitable for the particular position.             

Access to personal data by others than Essity

Essity may transfer your personal data to third parties for the following reasons:

• Within the Essity Group: your personal data may be transferred between companies within the Essity Group if needed in respect of the recruitment process. 
• IT-Vendors: our HR-department may use externally provided IT-systems or services provided by a third party vendors as a support in the recruitment process. Your personal data will then be recorded and used in such external It-systems subject to appropriate technical and operational security measures. 
• Head Hunting firms: Your personal data may be provided to head hunting firms or companies providing similar services as part of Essity´s search process to find candidates satisfying Essity’s requirements for a particular position.
• Assessment firms:  Your personal data may also be provided to companies engaged by Essity to assist in assessing your profile, qualification and personality against our demands for a particular position.
• Background check firms: In some cases, depending on the nature of the particular position, we also may engage external parties to carry out a background check on you.  

Your personal data may be provided to parties located outside the European Economic Area ("EEA"), for example if you apply for a position with a company within the Essity Group that is not located in the EEA. In such cases, we will ensure that your personal data is subject to measures that provide an equivalent level of protection as provided by data privacy laws in the EU (such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation; GDPR).   

When sharing your personal data with an external party as described above, such sharing will be subject to a data processing agreement between us and such company in order to ensure that the data will be subject to the same level of protection as when processed by Essity.  

How long is personal data retained?

Your personal data is stored by Essity or by other parties on our behalf, but only as long as necessary for the performance of our obligations and strictly for the time necessary to achieve the purposes for which the information was obtained. Your personal data will be removed from our records or properly anonymized when it is no longer needed. The main principle is that personal data pertaining to a job application will be deleted as soon as a decision has been made in respect of the job and any applicable period to appeal or otherwise dispute the decision has expired. Longer retention periods may apply to back up copies of personal data that is done for security reasons. However, access to your personal data will then be highly restricted.

What are your rights?

A consent given to us to keep or otherwise use personal data can always be withdrawn. In addition, you will be entitled to the following:

(i) Right of access: You have a right to ask whether or not we have personal data about you and, if that is the case, request information on what personal data we have. We will also have to respond to questions about inter alia why we are using your personal data, details about what data we have and to whom we have provided access to it.  However, this is not an absolute right and the interests of other individuals may restrict your access rights. 

(ii) Right to rectification: We are required to rectify inaccurate personal data, or to complete personal data that is incomplete, on your request.

(iii) Right to erasure (right to be forgotten): We are in some circumstances required to erase personal data on your request. 

(iv) Right to restriction of processing: We are in some circumstances required to restrict our use of personal data on your request. In such cases, we may only use your data for certain limited purposes set out by the law. 

(v) Right to data portability: Under certain circumstances, you may have the right to receive your personal data to which we have access, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and you  may then have a right to transmit your personal data to another entity without hindrance from us.

(vi) Right to object: In some cases, you are entitled to object to our use of your personal data. We may then be required to stop using the personal data. 

Contact Essity:

We would be much obliged to provide further  information or respond to requests to exercise your rights as described above. Such requests may be sent to the HR-contact at the relevant Essity company or by sending an e-mail to: 

dataprivacy@essity.com

You may also lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection authority.