Occasionally a candidate may ask for their application data to be deleted before or shortly after your recruitment process has concluded.

Everyone wants to be sympathetic to any candidate request for deletion and to comply with GDPR but on the other hand - one does need to keep the records that would be needed to defend a hiring decision, should a candidate ever claim they were treated unfairly.

TL;DR - candidates can request their data be deleted and All Jobs Pro complies with that request *once the 6 month period has passed* and in the interim their application data is hidden from view in the ATS.

Privacy Policy all candidates have to confirm they read and agree to

When registering and/or applying for jobs on an All Jobs Pro powered careers portal, candidates are asked to read and agree to our privacy policy (click to view this in a new window).

In the When you apply for a job with one of our Customers through our Website > How long will this data be retained? section it says :

“If your job application is not successful your job application information will continue to be available to our Customer for 6 months so that in the event that you were to make a claim regarding your job application then our Customer can make reference to your application in any resultant tribunal.

After 6 months your job application data will be deleted (unless you have requested we continue to process your data in relation to another of the recruitment Services we offer - for example if you want us to continue to notify you about further job vacancies that arise or you have opted in to be included in our Customer's Talent Pool).”

According to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) organisations are permitted to retain data "When keeping your data is necessary for establishing, exercising or defending legal claims". See the "When can the organisation say no?" section here.

This is important so that the organisation is able to:

• Respond to questions or complaints about a hiring decision
• Defend a potential discrimination or unfair treatment claim
• Evidence that decisions were based on role-related criteria
• Demonstrate that recruitment decisions were fair, objective, and non-discriminatory

Because Employment Tribunal claims (and internal grievances) can arise weeks or months after a decision, immediate deletion could place employers at an unreasonable legal risk.

Why All Jobs Pro uses a 6 month retention period

In accordance with our privacy policy that candidates are asked to read and agree to when they register / apply for a job on our platform, All Jobs Pro retains job application data for six months following a job application.

After this period, data is automatically deleted or anonymised unless there is a lawful reason to retain it for longer (for example if you notify us of an unresolved complaint or claim) or if the candidate has opted in to one of our ongoing services (such as Job Alerts or Talent Pool).

All Jobs Pro's email templates make responding to requests for deletion easy.

All Jobs Pro's candidate communications module has a message template for this eventuality - access it in the Other email options section


Select the Candidate asked for their data to be deleted option


This sends a message to the candidate with a link so they can easily access the My Data page.

What All Jobs Pro does when a candidate follows the delete procedure before the 6 months retention period has expired?

The candidate's application information in the ATS is immediately hidden from view and put into "do not contact" mode, their data is not deleted initially so that in the event a need for you to defend a legal claim were to arise, it would then be available to you (by contacting All Jobs Pro). Once the six month period has passed their data is of course deleted per their request.

Key takeaways for employers

• You are not breaching GDPR by retaining recruitment data for a reasonable, stated period
• Immediate deletion is not required where legitimate interests apply
• Clear record keeping of objective decision-making are recommended
• Candidates gave their consent for their data to be stored for six months at the point they applied for the job
• Candidates can control their data via the My Details > My Data menu (inside your All Jobs Pro powered careers portal where they applied for the job)

All Jobs Pro is designed to support fair data processing, to inform candidates fairly and protect our clients from legal unnecessary risk. If you have any feedback on our approach please do let us know - we're always listening.