This Privacy notice applies to currently and formerly employed personnel of Robert Half GmbH and Protiviti Switzerland GmbH (referred to collectively in this Privacy notice as "Employer," "we," "us," "our," or "the Companies"; Robert Half also referred to as "RH"; Protiviti Switzerland GmbH also referred to as "Protiviti"), as well as temporary personnel provided by RH and self-employed consultants to whom RH arranges assignments with third parties. The following terms apply:
"Employee" refers to employees of the Companies, including those permanently employed by RH through an employment contract;"Internal employees" refer to employees of the Companies without temporary personnel;"Temporary personnel" refer to employees of RH who are seconded to other companies;"Self-employed consultants" refer to self-employed individuals (natural and legal persons) to whom RH arranges assignments with third parties.
This Privacy notice describes how and for wh.cat purposes the Companies collect, process, and disclose your personal data, as well as your rights. This Privacy notice is supplemented by additional specific notices, such as the data protection notices on our applicant registration form.
Robert Half GmbH,
Bahnhofplatz 9,
8001 Zurich and
Quai de I´lle 13,
1204 Geneva
(for all Robert Half GmbH employees)
Protiviti Switzerland GmbH
Bahnhofplatz 9, 2nd Floor
8001 Zurich
(for all Protiviti Switzerland GmbH employees)
If you have questions regarding the processing of your personal data or wish to exercise your rights, you may contact us at privacy-emea@roberthalf.net.
We collect your personal data directly from you and from other sources. This includes when you apply for a position through a job board, directly through our website, on social media platforms such as XING, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, or when you provide us with your data during a job fair, promotional event, networking event, or training session.
To offer you our personnel services (temporary employment, recruitment, and/or the provision of self-employed consultants), we ask you to register as a candidate. During our candidate registration process, we collect your personal data directly from you, from your resume, from work and/or educational references, and from online tests that you may complete upon our request.
The categories of personal data we may collect include:
Your identity (full name, previous names, evidence of name changes), gender, date of birth, and marital status.
If necessary, proof of your work permit, which may include a photo, as well as nationality, place of birth, driver's license, etc. (in accordance with legal requirements).
Contact information, including your email address, home address, and phone number.
Bank account information and social security data (to facilitate payments to you and to make social contributions on your behalf if you are our employee).
Payroll information, such as your national tax number, address, years of service, marital status, bank account number, family composition, date of birth, phone number, and email address.
Your criteria, preferences, and expectations for job searching.
Your qualifications, skills, work experience, and education.
Work and/or education certificates.
Information about referees (former employers or educational references) and reference letters.
Current and desired salary or fees for consultants and other services.
Emergency contact information.
Information about health restrictions (if disclosed and relevant).
Other information contained in your resume or information you choose to provide.
Profile data, including your username and password, interests, preferences, feedback, and responses to customer surveys.
Photos and videos taken by you.
Results of various tests (personality and skills tests) if you choose to participate in them.
Data from time and activity tracking (employees) or service activity tracking (self-employed consultants), especially data entered through our time tracking tools.
Marketing and communication data, including your marketing and communication preferences.
If an employee or self-employed consultant does not provide personal data, it may not be possible for the Companies to manage the employment relationship or the provision of self-employed consultants, and the employee may not be able to participate in certain activities or benefits related to their employment.
We use this information for the following purposes:
Making a decision regarding your employment (including participation in personality tests, responding to questionnaires, participating in surveys, and employee surveys on motivation and onboarding) (employees);
Determining the terms under which you will work for us and creating your employment (employees) or consulting contract (independent consultants);
Obtaining personal references and/or references from former employers (employees) or clients (independent consultants) and issuing references;
Managing and maintaining your personnel file in:
• Workday and the HCM portal (internal RH employees);
• In Workday, in a protected folder on the company's internal drive, in the HCM portal, in the "Time and Space" time tracking tool (iCat), and in the paper file (internal Protiviti employees);
• In the digital personnel file on the branch's local drive and in a personnel folder on the payroll department's drive, in Salesforce, and in the paper personnel file, as well as in the HCM portal and time tracking tool (RH agency workers);
Conducting employee meetings and performance evaluations (employees);
Managing your work arrangements (e.g., flexible working hours or remote work) (employees);
Compliance with health and safety obligations (employees);
Setting up the payroll process to transfer your salary and any expense reimbursements to your bank account (employees);
Setting up the billing process to transfer your fees and any expense reimbursements to your bank account (independent consultants);
Processing your salary and issuing a monthly payslip (employees);
Processing your fees or a credit note and issuing a monthly invoice upon receipt of your invoice (independent consultants);
Withholding income tax and social security contributions and reporting to the relevant tax authorities and social security agencies (employees);
Managing and updating your periods of absence, such as vacation days, sick days, parental leave, and other leave periods (employees);
Managing sickness-related absences and assessing your ability to work;
Managing training support/student loans/referral bonuses/time travel card loans (employees);
Making arrangements for the termination of your employment and related administrative tasks (employees);
Transmitting your personal data to our parent company in the United States to set up your employee account (employees);
Granting appropriate access permissions to various internal systems you need to perform your function in or for the company, such as our Customer Relationship Management system - Salesforce (internal RH and Protiviti employees) and our financial system - PeopleSoft - Global Finance System (internal RH employees); to our HCM portal or time tracking tool (agency workers and independent consultants of RH);
Providing company-owned tools and equipment (employees);
Business planning and management, including annual budgeting for individual departments;
Resolution of disputes, grievances, complaints, and claims involving you or other employees/independent consultants (employees and independent consultants);
Monitoring your use of our information systems in accordance with our Business Tools & Communication Policy (employees);
Compliance with all legal, regulatory, and administrative obligations and adherence to social and tax legislation (employees and independent consultants);
Work planning, both administratively and organizationally (agency workers);
Managing services provided to the client and their invoicing (agency workers and independent consultants);
Maintaining and ensuring communication between companies and employees/independent consultants;
Creating and evaluating statistics;
Conducting employee surveys for internal purposes (employees);
Administrative and organizational support for the recruitment and application process (employees and independent consultants);
Recording and processing your working hours/project hours, especially through time tracking tools, to ensure compliance with all legal and contractual requirements, especially the Working Time Act (employees and independent consultants);
Providing workplace adjustments;
Providing social benefits (including parental benefits, statutory sickness benefits, and other benefits) for all other lawful commercial purposes as permitted or required by applicable laws or regulations;
Credit agencies and third parties conducting sanctions and terrorism checks.
Sensitive personal data includes information about religious, philosophical, political, or trade union beliefs or activities; data about health, intimate life, or membership in a race or ethnic group; genetic data; biometric data that uniquely identifies an individual; data about administrative and criminal proceedings or sanctions; data about social assistance measures.
In some cases, we may process your sensitive personal data because you have chosen to provide them to us and they are relevant to your application. If we require your written consent, we will inform you of the specific information we need from you and why we need it. We take additional security and other measures to protect sensitive personal data and restrict the individuals who have access to this data. This information is only stored for as long as necessary and is subsequently deleted.
We are part of an international group of companies. Your personal data will be securely stored on servers in Europe and the UK and securely transmitted to our parent company, Robert Half Inc., in the USA, and stored there and in the "cloud."
In addition to the recipients explicitly mentioned in this privacy statement, Robert Half may, if permissible, disclose your personal data to the following categories of recipients:
To our customers as part of personnel services (temporary work, personnel placement, and/or the provision of independent consultants).
To companies and individuals we employ to provide business functions and services for us. Examples of service providers include: providing payroll services so we can pay our employees and temporary workers working at the customer's site; background checking and verification services; data storage facilities, also in the USA and the cloud; hosting our web servers; advertising and managing applications through our third-party provider, Broadbean; data analysis and statistics generation; as well as legal, accounting, auditing, and other professional services.
To credit reporting agencies and third parties conducting sanctions and terrorism controls.
To government authorities, including: police and other law enforcement agencies; regulatory and supervisory authorities.
To comply with applicable laws or legal proceedings or when we reasonably believe such action is necessary to: (a) comply with the law that requires such disclosure; (b) protect the rights or property of Robert Half or its affiliates; (c) prevent a crime, protect national security, or detect or prevent fraud; or (d) protect the personal safety of individuals using our website or to protect the public safety of the public Third parties to whom we sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or assets. Alternatively, we may attempt to acquire or merge with other companies. If our business changes, we will inform you.
To IT consultants who perform testing and development work on our IT systems, data processors engaged by us for data processing, and other service providers who may have their headquarters outside the EEA.
If these recipients are data processors, we contractually obligate them to comply with data protection, implement an adequate level of data security, and only process data in accordance with our instructions. We do not allow these recipients to use data for their own purposes. Upon termination of the business relationship with these recipients, we require them to return or delete the transmitted personal data or, alternatively, demand anonymization so that you can no longer be identified.
Some of these recipients are also independent controllers, separate from Robert Half, who are responsible for processing your personal data for their purposes. For example, the local tax authority acts as the controller for tax purposes. We may not be able to impose obligations or restrictions on these controllers concerning the way they process your personal data.
In principle, the processing of your personal data takes place in Switzerland. Due to our global operations, your personal data may also be transferred abroad. Our customers, service providers, and group companies are located in the member states of the EU, EEA, the USA, the APAC region, and India.
When transferring your personal data to a country without a comparable level of data protection, we contractually obligate these recipients to comply with an adequate level of protection using the so-called Standard Contractual Clauses, with corresponding adjustments as provided for in Switzerland.
Your personal data will be treated confidentially and can only be accessed or routinely retrieved by you, your immediate supervisor (and higher-ranking supervisors in your team's reporting line), employees of the HR department and payroll department, as well as, if applicable, other employees responsible for managing your employment relationship or contract (employees and self-employed consultants).
If additional employees need access to your personal data for financial or budgetary, resource planning, forecasting, or other legitimate business purposes, their access is limited to data related to your work (such as your name, position, office location, and direct supervisor).
Access to the data is granted only to individuals who have been appropriately authorized. Authorization is only granted in the presence of a genuine business need and only to the extent necessary to fulfill the respective task.
We utilize modern, secure storage facilities and technical protection methods to safeguard your personal data from unauthorized or unlawful processing or transmission, accidental loss, accidental destruction, or other damage. When we engage third parties to provide services, and it is necessary for those third parties to access your personal data for reasons of their legitimate interests, we ensure that they only have access to your data to the extent necessary to provide the contracted services. We further ensure that any service provider engaged by us is contractually obligated to comply with applicable data protection laws, treat your personal data confidentially, and provide adequate measures to protect your personal data.
RH utilizes artificial intelligence ("AI") to search through personal data and match resumes with positions as part of the recruitment process for both independent consultants (non-RH employees) and temporary employees (RH employees). To achieve this, RH utilizes a service provided by Textkernel BV, Nieuwendammerkade 26a5, NL-1022 AB Amsterdam ("TK"), a company based in the Netherlands/EU.
This AI assists our recruiters in conducting more efficient searches and matching suggested candidates with our clients' open positions. The advantage of the AI search function is that it helps our recruiters search through more resumes and match personal data with client job listings faster, while disregarding irrelevant data. Our recruiters are presented with a list of suggested candidates who may be suitable for a client's open position. However, this does not result in automated decision-making. Our recruiters make decisions based on their expertise, knowledge of the job market, insights into the client's business and role requirements, interviews with candidates, and other relevant criteria to shortlist candidates for a specific client position.
If at all, it is the clients (through their HR representatives) who decide which candidates to select for an interview. Our clients' HR representatives (and not our AI tool) make the final decision on which candidate to choose for the position if a suitable candidate is available, and they subsequently handle the candidate's hiring.
You can object to the processing by TK AI at any time by contacting privacy-emea@roberthalf.net. In this case, we will no longer use TK AI with respect to your resume. This has no consequences or impact, especially on your application or the search for suitable positions for you, as we always rely on our personal knowledge of you, the client and their business, the position and role requirements, and the market when making any decisions. If you object to the processing of your personal data by our AI tool, our recruiters will continue to offer job placement services, but will employ alternative methods to search for job opportunities on your behalf. The personal data of applicants who are no longer available for employment, are no longer actively seeking a job, have recently taken up permanent employment, or have objected to the processing of their personal data by AI will be deleted by our AI service provider. Additional information about our AI tool can be found here.
We retain your personal data for the duration of your employment or the duration of your assignment with third parties as an independent consultant due to a placement made by us and in accordance with our legal obligations.
If no legal retention period is specified, we establish an appropriate retention period for personal data, taking into account all relevant criteria. Under certain circumstances, we anonymize your personal data so that you can no longer be identified. We do this for research or statistical purposes. In this case, we may use these anonymized data without limitation without informing you.
If you no longer wish to use our personnel services, you can request the deletion of your personal data from our applicant database. Subject to the services we provide, we may continue to retain some of your personal data for legal, compliance, accounting, and tax purposes, as well as for other legitimate business purposes.
In the event of an unsuccessful internal application with us, we will retain your personal data in our HR database for a period of 6 months to demonstrate that we have conducted the hiring process fairly and transparently and have not discriminated against any candidate for improper reasons. After this retention period expires, your personal data will be automatically deleted. If we believe you may be suitable for future job openings, we may ask you if we should keep the data from your resume. We will only do this with your consent.
Under the Swiss Data Protection Act (DSG), you have the following rights:
Right to Information, Disclosure, and Transfer: You have the right to request information at any time regarding whether personal data about you is being processed by us. Additionally, you can request the disclosure of your personal data in a standard electronic format if the data is processed automatically and is related to your consent or directly linked to the conclusion or execution of a contract with you. In such cases, you also have the option to request the transfer of your data to another responsible party, if this does not entail disproportionate effort. Those services are free of charge.
Right to Rectification: You have the right to have incorrect personal data corrected unless a legal provision prohibits us from making the change.
Right to Erasure/deletion/removal: You have the right to request the deletion of your personal data by us at any time. You are aware that, in certain situations, legal restrictions may prohibit the deletion of your personal data. If this applies, we will inform you of this in our response to your deletion request.
Right to Object to Data Processing: You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data by us at any time. Please be aware that in the event of an objection, we may no longer be able to offer certain services for which the processing of your personal data is necessary.
Right to Withdraw Your Consent: In cases where we process your personal data based on your provided consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time with future effect. The lawfulness of processing before your withdrawal will not be affected.
To exercise your rights, it is imperative that we can clearly identify you. Typically, we achieve this by using the email address you provided during data collection. However, in certain cases, we may require additional information or documents from you, such as a copy of your identity card.
Please also note that when you assert your rights, we may, if applicable, invoke legal restrictions, for example, if we have an overriding interest in retaining your personal data or if we need the data to assert and/or defend against legal claims.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy for Employees and Independent Consultants or our use of your personal data, please contact our Human Resources department, your designated point of contact, or send us an email at: privacy-emea@roberthalf.net.
