Organisational Development Employee Surveys Privacy Notice

When you resign and retire from your post within the Council or commence employment with the Council we will collect data through the completion of exit or starter survey. The purpose of this data is to understand reasons for resignations and employees perception/rating of the organisation. We will also collect data at times through the completion of an employee engagement survey and a data maturity assessment.

As the 'data controller' for the personal information - or data - we hold about you, South Ayrshire Council decides how your personal information is used/processed, and what it is used for. This statement provides more details about this and provides information on how to get in touch with us if you need to know more.

Your personal data - what is it?

Personal data is information relating to a living person who can be identified from that data. Identification can be based on the information alone, or in conjunction with any other information. The processing of personal data is governed by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and supplemented by the Data Protection Act 2018.

What Personal Data will we collect from you?

The completion of Organisational Development Employee Surveys is voluntary. We will only collect the personal information you choose to provide when completing the survey. The questions asked in surveys are anonymous, unless you choose to provide additional information which may identify you. The personal information we will collect is as follows:

	Essential data collection	Optional data collection	Data collection where you request contact with HR
Employee Engagement Survey	Directorate you work in Age range Workstyle	Gender Data voluntarily provided by you in comments boxes
Exit Survey	Directorate you worked in	Service you worked in Data voluntarily provided by you in free-text boxes	Name Email address Phone number
Starter Survey	Directorate you work in	Service you work in Data voluntarily provided by you in free-text boxes
Data Maturity Assessment	Name Service area you work in Work email address Council IP address

The Data Maturity Assessment captures your name and work email address only for the purposes of ensuring and confirming a representative spread of responses whilst the survey is open.

Based on what you answer within any free-text/comments boxes, potential sensitive personal data may be captured depending on the content you provide. There is no requirement for you to complete any free-text/comments box.

How will we use your information?

Data reports from surveys will be reviewed and considered by Human Resources, Organisational Development, and Transformation Service staff.

We will use the information you provide in employee engagement surveys to enhance our understanding of what is working well and where we may need to develop and improve within the Council.

We will use the information you choose to provide in exit surveys to understand why employees actively leave the organisation, and to consider any improvements to increase staff retention.

We will use the information you provide in starter surveys to assess how well the Council are on-boarding new employees.

We will use the information you provide in the data maturity assessment to determine which data themes will be considered priorities within our data strategy. It will also allow the Council to benchmark against other local authorities who are undergoing the assessment. The Data Maturity Assessment is managed by our survey supplier Data Orchard.

We will use survey information to understand themes and trends in relation to working for South Ayrshire Council. The information will be used in anonymised high-level reporting, such as corporate and directorate workforce plans.

The information you provide will remain confidential, although general anonymised information will be retained and used by the Council for monitoring purposes and to evaluate employment practices and policies. The information obtained will not influence future references, re-employment or your role with South Ayrshire Council.

If you wish to discuss your reasons for leaving in more detail, the exit survey allows you to request that an HR Advisor contacts you further. If you want an HR advisor to make contact, you will need to provide your name and contact email or telephone number. Information you provide through this contact will only be considered and supported by HR.

What is the legal basis for using/sharing your information?

Our legal basis for processing your personal data is that the processing is required for the legitimate interests of the Council, as data controller, i.e. it is in the interests of the Council to gather this data to collect and report this information to improve employee experiences, learn lessons and to develop and improve within the Council.

Special category data

Should you choose to provide more sensitive personal information about yourself known as special category data, for example health information, processing of this data is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest as set out in Article 9(2) (b) of the UK GDPR, i.e. ensuring the health, safety and welfare of employees, and meets a condition in Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Who will we share your information with?

Information will be shared only in an anonymised format.

Where you choose to complete the Data Maturity Assessment Survey, your answers will be analysed by the survey supplier Data Orchard to produce anonymised summary research and statistics, which they will also share as anonymised individual-level datasets with the Scottish Government for further analysis. Information is shared between the Council and Data Orchard via secure servers. No report will be shared or released that has identifiable data, any results will be at corporate summary level only. Data Orchard's privacy statement can be found on their website here https://www.dataorchard.org.uk/privacy-policy.

However, if you decide to provide information in the survey free-text/comments boxes, this may be shared with Service Leads/Service Managers depending upon the content. FOR EXAMPLE: as part of your exit interview you raise serious concerns about a breach in Council policy or procedures that may require a formal investigation.

How long do we keep hold of your information?

We keep your personal data for no longer than reasonably necessary. Your information will be retained in line with our Corporate Records Retention Schedule as follows:

Purpose we collect your personal data	Trigger - event that prompts start of retention period	How long we hold your data
Exit and Starter Survey	Completion of Survey	Current plus 2 years
Employee Engagement Survey	Completion of Survey	Current plus 2 years
Data Maturity Assessment	Completion of Survey	2 years from survey closure

Anonymised statistical survey information may form part of corporate reporting, that will be permanently retained by the Council.

What are your rights?

The lawful basis for processing/using your personal data directly impacts which rights are available to you. You can ask us to:

correct your personal information if it is inaccurate;
complete your personal information if it is incomplete;
restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances; and
erase your personal information in certain circumstances.

You also have the right to object to the processing of your personal information.

What are the consequences of failing to provide personal information?

These surveys are voluntary and there are no consequences of failing to provide personal information.

What about Automated Decision- Making?

The Council does not use profiling or automated decision-making. Some processes are semi-automated (such as data matching for the prevention or detection of fraud), but an actual person will always be involved before any decision is reached affecting any individual.

Do you require this statement in a different format?

Please contact us if you require this information in an alternative format.

How can you get in touch with us?

If you wish to obtain any records held by the Council relating to you, or if you have any general data protection queries, please contact the Council's Data Protection Service at:

Data Protection Officer
South Ayrshire Council
County Buildings
Wellington Square
Ayr
KA7 1DR
Email: DataProtection@south-ayrshire.gov.uk
Telephone: 01292 612 223

Are you dissatisfied with the way your Personal Information has been handled?

If you are unhappy with the way we have dealt with your personal information, you can complain to the Council's Data Protection Officer using the contact details noted above.

If you remain dissatisfied after contacting us, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner (https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/):

Information Commissioner's Office - Scotland
Queen Elizabeth House
Sibbald Walk
Edinburgh
EH8 8FT
Email: Scotland@ico.org.uk
Telephone: 0303 123 1115