Recruitment Privacy Notice

1. Introduction

BDO Ghana values applicants and is committed to respecting your privacy and protecting your personal data. We define personal data broadly as information that directly identifies an individual or that makes an individual identifiable.

2. Purpose

The aim of this Recruitment Privacy Notice (“Privacy Notice”) is to describe how we process and protect your personal data received during your application for employment. The privacy notice applies to the personal data of job applicants, potential candidates for employment, applicants for internship or work experience programmes, and candidate’s individuals who participate in our recruiting programs and events such as job fairs.

By submitting your personal data to us, you acknowledge that:

a.) You have read and understood this Privacy Notice and agree to the use of your personal data as set out herein.

b.) You are not required to provide any requested information to us, however, your failure to do so may result in our inability to continue your candidacy for the position or programme for which you have applied.

c.) All of your representations are true and correct to the best of your knowledge and belief, and you have not knowingly omitted any related information of an adverse nature.

Providing any inaccurate information shall make you ineligible for employment.

This Privacy Notice does not form part of any contract of employment offered to candidates hired by BDO Ghana.

3. Collection of Personal Data

We collect your personal data and sensitive data through the following means.

a) Directly from you when you apply for a position through our online application process or by applying to us directly through email. The personal data collected are your name, address, contact information, work and educational history, educational certificates, any information that may be required due to legal requirements (e.g. residence or work permits) and other categories of data that you voluntarily decide to share with us.

b) Through our interactions with you during the entire recruiting process.

c) Through photographs or videos, including those obtained during our recruitment events or as part of the recruiting process.

d) From third parties, such as professional recruiting agencies, your references, prior employers, individuals who may have recommended your candidacy, employment background check providers.

e) Personal data about you online to the extent that you have chosen to make this information publicly available on professional social media websites such as LinkedIn.We also collect sensitive data through health assessments conducted to assess job suitability, to address workplace safety obligations, and to protect the Firm and its employees, clients, and third parties.

4. Use of Personal Data

We use your personal data for legitimate human resources and business management reasons, including:

a) identifying and evaluating candidates for potential employment, as well as for future roles that may become available.

b) maintaining records in relation to recruiting and hiring.

c) conducting reference and background checks if you receive an offer from us

d) protecting the workplace and communicating with medical professionals in the event of an emergency or public health issues, where the health or safety of you or other individuals may be endangered

e) for analytics purposes, improve our recruitment and hiring process and augment our ability to attract successful candidates.

As an employee, we use your personal data:

a) To enable us carry out our obligations to you under the employment contract such as payment of salary and benefits and, comply with our statutory employment obligations such as paying Income taxes and pensions on your behalf.

b) To send you communication relating your employment or important events.

c) To allow you access the office space using personalised access cards and monitoring movement within the office space via mounted CCTV cameras.

d) To keep our records up to date.

e) To provide you with training and enroll you with training providers where required.

f) For reference purposes in tenders, proposals, marketing materials and other similar submissions that we may make to prospective clients for the purpose of demonstrating the firm’s experience and expertise.

g) For any other justifiable reason that may necessitate the use of personal information during the employment relationship.

5. Legal Basis for Processing your Personal Data

Our processing of your personal data for the purposes mentioned above is based on one or several of the following legal grounds:

a) In part, on our legitimate business interests in evaluating your application to manage our relationship with you, to ensure that we recruit the right employees, and to evaluate and maintain the efficacy of our recruiting process more generally; and in operating our business and protecting the Firm and its employees, clients, and third parties. When we rely on this legal ground, BDO Ghana will only process your personal data after assessing the adequacy, proportionality, and legitimacy of the data processing activity.

b) In part, on our performing contractual and precontractual measures relating to our employment relationship with you.

c) In part, on our complying with labour relations with regard to personal data necessary to satisfy our legal and regulatory obligations, including public health and workplace safety.

d) In part, on your consent, if we offer you the opportunity to participate in our optional recruiting programs or if we collect sensitive personal data for legally permitted purposes other than compliance with our legal obligations regarding public health and workplace safety.

e) It is in our legitimate interests as a business and our interests are not overridden by your interests, fundamental rights or freedoms (for example, grading candidates performance in interviews, carrying out background checks to verify your identity and qualifications / experience).

f.) It is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into an employment contract with you (this applies at the post-offer stage, where we need to collect further information, or process information already collected, in order to enter into and then perform the contract of employment).

6. Disclosures of Personal Data

Within BDO Ghana, your personal data can be accessed by the hiring manager and any other employee responsible for managing or making decisions in relation with your potential employment. Individuals performing administrative and IT functions in the firm may also have access to your personal data on a need-to-know basis to perform their jobs.

We may use third party suppliers to help us provide recruitment services. These third parties may have access to, or merely host, your personal data, support and maintain the framework of our recruitment system, but will always do so under our instruction and are subject to a contractual relationship.

We may be required to disclose your personal data to third parties:

a) including tax authorities, auditors, consultants and other professional advisors;

b) in response to orders or requests from court, regulators, government agencies, parties to a legal proceeding or public authorities; or

c) to comply with regulatory requirements or as part of a dialogue with a regulator.

We expect third parties to process any data disclosed to them in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including with respect to data confidentiality and security. We also share your personal data with other third-party service providers who may be engaged to assist us in identifying and recruiting talent, administering and evaluating pre-employment screening and testing, and improving our recruiting practices.

Except to the extent necessary to accomplish the BDO Ghana uses and purposes described in this Privacy Notice, we will not disclose your personal data to third parties without the consent of the applicant.

We maintain processes designed to help ensure that any processing of personal data by third-party service providers is consistent with this Privacy Notice and protects the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of your personal data in compliance with data protection regulations.

7. Data Retention

If you accept an offer of employment with us, any relevant personal data collected during your pre-employment period will become part of your personnel records and will be retained in accordance with BDO Ghana’s retention policy and any other privacy notices applicable to BDO Ghana employees in force.

Where we do not employ you, your personal data will be retained for a period of not more than six months after the end of the recruitment exercise.

8. Security

BDO Ghana takes your privacy seriously and implements recognised technical and organisational standards and controls to protect your personal data during the recruitment process.

Access to your personal information is limited to authorised personnel who require it to perform recruitment-related functions. These individuals are subject to confidential obligations.

We assess the risks associated with processing activities and implement safeguards such as secure storage, access controls, and data minimization to reduce the risk of unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, or destruction of your data.

While we apply industry-standard protections, no system is completely secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee absolute security of your personal information.

Our data protection practices are designed to comply with applicable data privacy laws, including the Ghana Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843).

9. Your Rights

We take reasonable steps to keep your personal data accurate, complete, and up-to-date for the purposes for which it is collected and to be used. You therefore have the rights to:

a) request information about the personal data we hold about you, and how it is used.

b) request a copy of the personal data that we hold about you.

c) request a portable copy of your personal data, or to have a copy transferred to a third-party controllerd) request that we correct or amend your personal data if it is not correct or complete, and accurate for the purposes for which it is being used.

e) request deletion of your personal data.

f) request that we cease processing your personal data.

g) withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal data where the basis of our processing is your consent. This right may not apply if there are other legal justifications to continue processing or we need to retain certain personal data where required or permitted under applicable law.

h) not be discriminated against for exercising your individual rights regarding your personaldata.

i) seek additional legal remedies regarding our response to your request to exercise your individual data-protection rights, by lodging a complaint with the data protection commission.

If you would like to exercise your data protection rights regarding your personal data, kindly send an email your request to dpo@bdo.com.gh. Upon receipt of your request to exercise your data protection rights, we will acknowledge receipt within 24 hours and provide you with information about the next steps in the process and timelines. To help protect your privacy and security, we may take reasonable steps to verify your identity before acting on certain data protection rights. If you are using an authorised agent to exercise your data protection rights and that agent does not provide a power of attorney with the initial request, we may request further evidence of the agent’s right to act on your behalf, including valid written authorization or contacting you to verify the request.

10. Social Media Tools

Our application process allows you to provide us with relevant personal data from information you have on third-party websites such as LinkedIn and gmail. If you choose to incorporate your personal data from third-party websites, it will be used in accordance with this Privacy Notice.

12. Cookies and other Tracking Technologies

BDO Ghana may use first- and third-party cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies to manage our websites and recruitment services, remember your preferences, identify your interests, and gather usage analytics. We may also track whether you open or click links in our recruitment-related communications.

We use security tools to detect and prevent automated access (e.g., bots), but not for other tracking purposes.

Some recruitment activities may be hosted by third-party platforms, which may place cookiesor tracking tools on your device in line with applicable laws and this Privacy Notice. You can manage cookie preferences through your browser settings or, where available, a cookie banner.

13. Contacts

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or would like to communicate with our Data Privacy Supervisor, please send an email to dpo@bdo.com.gh. BDO Ghana reserves the right to modify this Privacy Notice as and when required. We urge allapplicants to check and read this page regularly to keep up-to-date.