Privacy Policy
Design Group and its affiliated companies ("Design Group" or
"we" or "us") respect the privacy of individuals in all aspects of
our business operations. We have a firm, longstanding commitment to
protecting all personal information within our knowledge and under
our control, and we have created this Privacy Policy to demonstrate
that commitment.
Your personal information is only collected, used and disclosed
by Design Group in accordance with this Privacy Policy or otherwise
as permitted by law. Whenever and insofar as possible, we have also
attempted to ensure that our clients and other organizations with
which we deal respect privacy rights and protect personal privacy.
However, you need to be aware that this Privacy Policy does not
apply to any organizations other than Design Group, and that we do
not review or control the privacy policies and practices of any
outside organizations.
What are our overall, general purposes for collecting, using and
disclosing your personal information?
In very general terms, we will collect, use and disclose your
personal information in order to attempt to place you on a
temporary or contract assignment or in the employment of one of
Design Group's clients.
For this purpose and as part of this process, we will take a
number of steps, typically including but not necessarily limited
to:
• Obtaining your résumé and
references (and any updates thereof);
• Interviewing you;
• Interviewing your references;
• Verifying information and performing other searches and checks,
done either by Design Group or by an independent agency on behalf
of Design Group;
• Evaluating all information about you to analyse your suitability
to potential positions and placements and to analyse the
suitability of potential positions and placements to you; and
• Disclosing any information about you as provided by you, by your
references and by other sources to any present or future client of
Design Group who, based on your qualifications, work requirements,
desires and other factors and determined solely in the discretion
of Design Group, has or may have a position to which you are or may
be suited.
We may also use your personal information to assist us in improving
our overall service to our candidates like yourself and to our
clients. In this respect, we may use your personal information for
internal training purposes or to compile statistical and other
results related to Design Group' business, and if so we may
circulate those results both internally and externally to our
clients.
Design Group may also use your personal information for other
uses and purposes from time to time, always acting reasonably.
What personal information do we collect?
In order for us to assist you and our clients in the most
effective way and to effectively attempt to secure the best, most
suitable position for you, we require certain information about
you. We will obtain some of this information from you, and will
obtain other information from external sources.
In order to serve you, we require the following information from
you:
• Your contact information [full
name including all past and present aliases, address(es), phone
number(s), fax number(s), email address(es)];
• Your résumé (and any updates thereof);
• Reference contact details [name, business name, business address,
business telephone number and position with the business];
and
• A description of the types of positions that interest you.
We assume that, before providing us with any contact details for
your references, you have obtained their permission to do so. To
ensure that we do not offend your references' privacy rights, we
ask that you only provide the information about them that we list
above as "Reference contact details" and we understand that you
have secured their consent before providing their information to
us. Should you reference require your written consent before
disclosing your personal information to us, we will contact you and
ask you to sign an Authorization form.
In the event you are placed on a temporary or contract
assignment through us, we also need specific information for
payroll and benefits administration purposes:
• Your banking information;
• Your Social Insurance Number;
• Your date of birth;
• Tax deduction information
• Emergency contact information; and
• Information about your beneficiaries, if you are enrolled in our
benefit packages.
In using our services, we may also ask you to provide us with
the following additional information:
• Educational records;
• Reference letters; and
• Results of specialized testing or professional designation
testing.
Notes we take when we interview you will also form part of the
information we have on our file about you.
We, either directly or using external service-providers, may
collect, use and disclose some or all of the following information
for our file about you from sources other than yourself:
• Verification of education and
professional qualification;
• Verification of employment history;
• Criminal record check, if required by the position;
• Drug and alcohol testing, if required by the position;
• Skills testing; and
• Information obtained through reference and background checks.
In some cases Design Group will initiate the collection of this
information; in others, the information will be obtained at the
request of our client. Regardless, we will not collect, use or
disclose any such information unless we feel that it is reasonable
in all the circumstances to do so and that there is some specific
reason related to the prospective position or placement or your
suitability for it that requires us to collect, use and disclose
this information and that we therefore have your reasonable
implicit consent, or unless we are required to do so by law, or
unless we have your express consent. At your sole discretion, you
may withhold your consent; however, doing so might limit the
possible positions or placements for which you are considered.
Why do we collect this personal information, and how do we use
it?
We use the information we collect about you for several
purposes:
• To understand your qualifications,
needs and preferences;
• To find the best, most suitable employment opportunities for
you;
• To fulfil our clients' requests for information about
candidates;
• To provide you with appropriate training or career transition
services;
• To assess and develop our business and operations to better
service job seekers and our clients; and
• To provide payroll and other human resources functions to
you.
On occasion we forward résumés like yours to our clients in
anticipation of a position potentially coming available, even
though such a position is prospective only and is not yet
advertised or posted. In this way we attempt to promote suitable
candidates to our clients before those clients search elsewhere to
fill such positions.
We also use your contact information, including your email
address, to forward general, unsolicited information from us to you
about job opportunities, industry and employment trends and about
ourselves. However, we do not sell or otherwise provide your
personal information to any other organization for this or any
similar purpose.
In order to search for the placement or position best-suited to
your skills, wants and needs, we share our complete file about you
with all of our branches and affiliates throughout Canada unless
you instruct otherwise.
When and to whom do we disclose personal information?
Your personal information is never traded, sold or leased by us
to any external organization. Your information is only disclosed
for Design Group' legitimate business purposes or as necessary to
meet legal and regulatory requirements, for instance to comply with
a court order.
We share all personal information we have about you with all of
our Canadian branches and affiliates. As well, in the normal course
of business, we disclose your personal information to our clients
when we feel that there is a potential for a job placement with
that client, either when there is a specific job opening to which
you are well-suited or when we reasonably believe that such a
position may be available or may be coming available. As a
job-seeker, you rely on us to share your information in this way so
as to provide the best placement services possible both to you and
to our clients who may wish to hire you.
We may also share some information we have collected about you
with organizations that perform testing or background checks,
including criminal, educational and driving records. These
organizations may be the agencies themselves that provide the check
results or may be intermediary agencies to whom we out-source this
work. Some of these checks are expressly required by our clients
who are considering you for a placement; others are initiated by
Design Group as part of our due diligence prior to recommending you
for a placement.
Design Group will also disclose your personal information
otherwise as required by law.
Have you consented to our collection, use and disclosure of your
personal information?
Having agreed to use our services and providing us with your
personal information, your consent to the collection, use and
disclosure of your personal information as specified in this Policy
is implied.
We also imply your consent to use and disclose your personal
information for purposes that are reasonable and are obvious and/or
necessary in using our services.
Although we imply your consent in any event, we may seek your
express consent to contact your references, to collect, use and
disclose information we obtain from your references and for your
references to disclose that information to us. In granting your
consent for these purposes you also release, remise and forever
discharge, to the fullest extent possible at law without
limitation, and agree to fully indemnify your references and Design
Group from and for any and all legal, financial and other
liability, loss or damage whatsoever flowing from that information
or its collection, use or disclosure.
What can you do if you wish to withdraw your consent?
A revocation of consent must always be in writing.
You may withdraw any express consent you previously gave as
indicated on your executed Candidate Consent Form at any time upon
giving proper written notice to Design Group as indicated below. We
may then require you to complete and execute a new Candidate
Consent Form.
If you wish to withhold or subsequently withdraw your consent in
regards to any of the matters to which we imply your consent under
the terms of this Privacy Policy, it is incumbent upon you to
inform us of that in writing in sufficient detail and with
sufficient clarity for us to identify precisely the point to which
you do not consent. We will then evaluate and advise you whether we
are able to provide or to continue to provide our services to you
as a candidate.
You need to be aware that withholding or withdrawing your
consent might impact negatively on Design Group' ability to serve
you and to secure employment or a placement for you.
What about personal information we collected prior to the coming
into force of applicable privacy legislation?
If we collected your personal information and inputted it into
our internal candidate database before applicable legislation
protecting your privacy and personal information came into force,
that information will remain there in its most recent form until it
is purged or destroyed in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If,
in the interim, we feel that you are a potential match for a
placement or prospective placement with a Design Group' client or
clients, we will use your information only to identify such a
possible match and to contact you to determine whether or not you
are interested in having us pursue your possible placement. At that
time, we will seek your consent to collect new and updated personal
information and to use and disclose all of your personal
information we have, in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
How long do we retain your information, and then what do we do
with it?
Unless you direct otherwise, we retain your personal
information, including but not limited to your personal employee
information, in our records notwithstanding that you may be
considered for but not placed in a particular position. Unless you
indicate otherwise when executing your Candidate Consent Form, we
imply your consent for Design Group to collect, use and disclose
your personal information, including but not limited to your
personal employee information, on an on-going basis in order for
you to be considered for numerous potential placements both with
Design Group and with our clients.
We retain your personal information for 10 years from the date
that you submit to us your information including your résumé in the
course of using our placement services, or for 10 years from the
last date that you consent to the collection, use or disclosure of
your information by us, or for 10 years from the date that we place
you with one of our clients on a permanent basis, or 10 years from
the date you were last employed by us on assignment, whichever is
latest. Upon the expiry of this 10-year period, all of your
personal information is fully purged from our systems
electronically and any hard-copies are shredded and safely
discarded. If you wish for us to cease to collect, use and disclose
your information and to purge and discard all of it in less than 10
years, it is incumbent upon you to instruct us in writing to do so,
in which case we will be pleased to comply with your request as
soon as is practicable, subject to any legal and tax
requirements.
What are our practices related to privacy and security on our
web sites?
Design Group hosts a number of sites on the World Wide Web ("our
Sites").
We collect user-specific information regarding what web pages
visitors access or visit as well as information volunteered by the
visitor (such as survey information or site registrations). The
information we collect on our Sites is used to improve the content
of our Sites or used for internal review and is then discarded. We
do not share information collected on our Sites with any other
organizations for commercial purposes.
Our Sites may use cookies to keep track of activity on them as
well as to deliver content specific to your file or interests, to
save your password and to save other personal information so that
you do not have to re-enter it each time you visit our Sites. You
may disable these cookies, but doing so may limit your ability to
access or use our Sites. By accessing and using our Sites without
disabling the cookies you are consenting to our collection and use
of your information in this way.
Our Sites may contain hyperlinks to outside web sites controlled
by other parties. We are not responsible for and do not endorse the
contents or use of those other sites. Specifically, you need to be
aware that we do not review or control the privacy policies
relating to those other sites and that we are not responsible for
the protection of information or the privacy of any individual
accessing those other sites.
We always use industry-standard encryption technologies when
receiving and transferring consumer data exchanged with our
Sites.
How do we keep your personal information secure?
We have staff policies and operation procedures in place to
ensure that your personal information, in both paper and electronic
format, is kept safe and secure. We always use industry-standard
encryption technologies when receiving and transferring electronic
information. Also, staff training on the importance of privacy and
security is undertaken regularly, which enhances the protection of
all personal information held by Design Group.
As well, we require that each external organization with which
we deal has in place policies and procedures to protect and
safeguard any personal information that it may obtain from us in
accordance with this Privacy Policy. You need to be aware that
Design Group does not conduct a thorough, comprehensive or
exhaustive review of the privacy policies of outside organizations
and does not oversee their implementation or ensure that they are
followed in every case. Design Group does, however, make every
effort reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that acceptable
standards are maintained by these other organizations, and we are
pleased to make best efforts to address any questions or concerns
that you might have in this regard.
What if you respond to any Design Group surveys?
Periodically, Design Group may approach you to voluntarily
complete a survey. You will not be required to do so, and if you
choose to respond you may do so anonymously if you wish. Responses
to the survey may take the form of multiple choice or written
responses or a combination of the two, and the results will be used
internally for us to monitor our operations, assess our successes
and failures, revise our procedures to make them more effective,
and so forth.
By responding to one of our voluntary surveys, you are
consenting to the collection, use and disclosure of the information
included in or forming your answers, including any of your personal
information divulged there for the purposes of the survey.
How can you access your personal information and verify its
accuracy?
Design Group relies on information provided by you and by third
parties such as anyone providing references, confirming educational
background or conducting checks. You may at any time submit a
written request for access to your personal information in our
possession and under our control. Upon payment of an administration
fee, we will provide you with a copy of the personal information we
have about you on our file to the extent provided by law.
Design Group strives to maintain accurate records or your
personal information, but cannot do so without your help. As part
of this on-going effort, we ask that you provide us with your most
current information and update us as that information changes.
Write to the address below and advise us if any personal
information you have provided to us in the past is incomplete,
inaccurate, or no longer relevant, and we will be pleased to make
the appropriate modifications.
Where can you get more information?
Design Group takes full responsibility for the management and
confidentiality of the personal information it collects. If you
have any questions, comments or concerns about this Privacy Policy
or anything related to it, or if you feel that is Design Group not
abiding by this Privacy Policy, or to give any notices pursuant to
this Privacy Policy, please contact:
Privacy Officer
Design Group Staffing Inc.
10012 Jasper Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5J 1R2
Phone: (780) 428-1505
Fax: (780) 428-7095
To make a complaint or initiate an inquiry, or to obtain more
information about privacy laws in general, you may also
contact:
Office of the Information and
Privacy Commissioner of Alberta
410, 9925 - 109 Street
Edmonton, AB T5K 2J8
Phone: (780) 422-6860
Toll-free in Alberta:(888)878-4044
Fax: (780) 422-5682
Office of the Information and
Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia
4-1675 Douglas Street
Victoria, B.C. V8V 1X4
Phone: (250) 387-5629
Toll-free in B.C.: (800) 663-7867
Fax: (250) 387-1696
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
112 Kent Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 1H3
Phone: (613) 995-8210
Toll-free: (800) 282-1376
Fax: (613) 947-6850
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