WSP Applicant Privacy Notice

Last update: January, 2024

Introduction

WSP Global Inc. and its subsidiary entities (“WSP”) are committed to protecting your personal data. The following Privacy Notice applies to individuals applying to work with us (including permanent, temporary, work placement and internship roles). It sets out how we collect and use your personal data in the recruitment process and the legal rights you have in relation to your personal data.

WSP is an international professional services and engineering firm headquartered in Canada, with offices in a number of locations across five continents. Further details can be found on our website.  Our global WSP Privacy Notice can be found here: WSP Privacy Notice | WSP, and we recommend that you read it to understand more generally how WSP uses personal data.

The WSP entity that is legally responsible for your personal data will typically be the entity located in the country where you are applying to work. If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Notice, please see the “How can you contact us?” section at the end of this Privacy Notice.

The term “personal data” used in this Privacy Notice is taken from data protection laws and broadly means any information that can identify individuals.

What personal data do we collect?

In connection with your application to work for WSP, we may process the following categories of personal data:

• information contained in your CV/resume, covering letter and academic transcript;
• information provided on your application form, including name, address, telephone number, personal email address, education level, academic institutions, and language skills etc., as well as your salary prior to applying to WSP (which is provided on an optional basis);
• professional certificates or licences you hold and any other professional qualifications/certifications;
• information relating to whether you are entitled to work in the country you have applied to work in, including any visas/work permits you hold;
• your results/responses from personality tests/other online assessments conducted during WSP’s recruitment process;
• your desired salary and employment and relocation preferences; and
• information provided to us during an interview.

Depending on the country you are applying to work in and if we are legally permitted to do so, we may also ask for the personal data listed below to monitor diversity and equal opportunities within WSP's workforce. However, this is done on a voluntary basis, so you do not have to provide us with the following information if you prefer not to:

• date of birth;
• nationality;
• gender;
• sexual orientation;
• religion;
• indigenous identity;
• whether you have refugee status;
• race/ethnicity;
• military/veteran status; and
• disability (including whether any reasonable adjustments are required for interviews/assessments).

In addition to the information you provide to us directly, we may also find information about you from other sources. For example:

• recruitment agencies (your CV/resume and other details may be shared with us by our nominated recruitment agency in the country in which you are applying to work.  For information about how the agency handles your personal data, please ask the agency directly to see its privacy notice);
• your references;
• your named academic institutions and professional bodies (for verifying your academic and professional qualifications/certifications);
• service providers who carry out additional background checks on our behalf where we are legally permitted to do this, such as criminal record checks or credit reference checks; and
• where you have made information about yourself publicly available on career sites, such as LinkedIn.

We will handle any personal data about you that we receive in accordance with this Privacy Notice.

On what legal basis do we use your personal data?

The main legal reasons we collect your personal data are because it is necessary:

• to assess your suitability for the role you are applying for, with the view to entering into an employment contract with you should you be successful in your application;
• to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations (e.g., by keeping records relating to our hiring practices and for other tax, auditing and employment law purposes); or
• for WSP’s legitimate interests as a business (e.g., it is essential to use personal data to recruit for certain roles so we can effectively run our business operations and to manage security of our systems), but only where these interests are not overridden by the need to protect your privacy.

In addition, where we collect personal data from you that is categorised as sensitive under data protection laws, we use it to fulfil our legal obligations as a prospective employer (such as ensuring fair recruitment processes).

Alternatively, if we are legally required to do so in the country you are applying to work in, we ask for your explicit consent before processing any personal data and/or sensitive data required for the recruitment process.

Please note that you may withdraw consent at any time after you have given it. This would not affect the lawfulness of WSP’s prior use of that information. In certain situations, however, withdrawing consent might impact our ability to recruit you, for example if WSP cannot run certain, legally permitted background checks on you.

How do we use your personal data?

We will use your personal data for the following purposes:

• to assess your suitability for employment with us and in any subsequent interviewing/assessment process, and to assist us in our decision as to whether to make you an offer of employment – copies of the information you submit and any further correspondence will be retained in order to progress your application for work and as a record of our employment and fair access processes (see further detail below in “How long do we retain your personal data for?”);
• to manage the security of our premises and systems (including our online application portals);
• to protect WSP’s legal rights and comply with legal and regulatory requirements placed on WSP (including disclosure of information in connection with legal claims and other ethics and compliance investigations);
• to assess your skills and experience for suitable job opportunities, where you have expressed an interest to be notified about this in the future; and  
• to monitor diversity and equal opportunities within WSP where we are legally permitted to do so, by analysing any supplementary information you provide to us voluntarily (see above in “What personal data do we collect?”). We do not use this information in any employment-related decision and it is only used in an aggregated form (i.e., the information will be grouped with similar categories of information from others to provide statistical data only and will not identify any individual personally).

We may use email or telephone to contact you to discuss your application and in certain countries, if you are successful in your application, we will contact your referees to obtain references about you.

Please note that if your application is successful and you are offered a permanent or temporary position with WSP, you may be required to undergo certain background checks before we formalise your employment with us. Depending on the role you are applying for and the laws of the country you are applying to work in, this may include verifying your academic/professional qualifications, employment history, credit history, criminal records and medical history. However, we will only ask you to undergo relevant and legally permitted background screening checks at the final stage of the recruitment process and at such time, you will:

• receive further information about how your personal data will be used in the background screening process, as well as your rights in respect of your personal data; and
• be asked to provide your explicit consent to WSP conducting such background checks.

Who do we share your personal data with?

We may share your personal data as necessary with recruitment agencies and other service providers acting on our behalf, who will only use the information to provide that service. For example, we may use third party organisations to:

• conduct background screening checks on WSP’s behalf; or
• assist us with personality testing/other online assessments that may be required during the recruitment process for certain roles.

We will ensure that any third party service provider that we use contractually commits to an appropriate level of security and confidentiality to protect your personal data. We may also share your personal data with a purchaser or potential purchaser of our business but only where it is necessary to do so and under appropriate confidentiality obligations.

We may also need to share your personal data with other entities within the WSP group, for example where your role involves working with individuals in our other offices. In some circumstances, we may have to share your personal data externally for legal or regulatory purposes, such as where a court or the police, or other law enforcement agency or regulatory body has asked us for it.

Is your personal data transferred overseas?

When you apply to work at WSP, your personal data will be handled:

• by the relevant WSP entity in the country where you are based and where you are applying to work; or
• in a country where WSP has centralised its processes for managing applications.

Due to the global nature of WSP’s business operations, it may be necessary to send your personal data to another country, either to another WSP entity or to an external service provider. A list of countries in which we operate can be found on our website. Some of these countries may have a different standard of data protection than the country where you are based. However, we have put in place contractual or other appropriate protections to ensure that your personal data is safeguarded to the same standards globally.

How do we keep your personal data secure?

We are committed to ensuring that any personal data that we hold about you is kept securely in accordance with our policies and procedures. These include appropriate organisational and technological security measures, such as access controls, regular penetration testing of our systems and careful selection of staff and third party service providers.

How long do we retain your personal data for?

Where you apply for a job role with WSP, we will retain your personal data in line with applicable legal and regulatory requirements (this will be a minimum of 12 months from the end of the application process. However, for certain job applications, you may have the option of allowing us to keep your data for a longer period of 24 months, so that we can notify you in case suitable roles become available in the future. In such cases, your personal data will be deleted in accordance with the option you select on our recruitment portal, unless we need to continue to hold some details about you for legal and regulatory purposes.

What rights do you have regarding your personal data?

Depending on the country where you are based and/or where you are applying to work, you may have the right to ask WSP to:

1. provide a copy of your personal data;
2. correct any inaccuracies in your personal data by amending your online application so far as you are able to do so, or by informing us to make the necessary changes;
3. modify or withdraw your consent for the collection, use and disclosure of your personal data, where WSP has obtained your consent for this (please note the impact this may have on your application with us, as explained in “On what legal basis do we use your personal data?”);
4. delete your personal data from our systems, unless there is a lawful justification for WSP to retain it (as explained in “How long do we retain your personal data for?”);
5. pause use of your personal data until:
• WSP verifies any inaccuracies in your personal data that you notify us of; or
• we assess that WSP’s legitimate interests in processing your personal data outweigh your interests in the data not being processed;
6. transfer your personal data to you or another organisation in a commonly used electronic format (known as the right to data portability); and
7. not to be subject to automated processing (although please note that WSP does not currently undertake automated processing without any human intervention – for example, as part of the recruitment process, the scoring of certain online tasks is automated. However, this score is only used in the context of the wider employment process; no decisions are made solely on the basis of the score itself).

In addition, you can also object to our use of your personal data in some circumstances, e.g., where we use it for our legitimate interests. However, this right may be limited where we have compelling legitimate grounds to continue processing your personal data which override your privacy rights.

Please contact us (see below for our contact details) if you wish to enquire about any of these rights.  Also note, in some countries, you can change/revise your profile/personal data through our online recruitment portals.

How can you contact us?

We hope this Privacy Notice has been helpful in setting out the way we handle your personal data and your rights to control it. 

Should you have any questions, concerns or complaints relating to the information that we hold about you, please contact us by emailing privacy@wsp.com.

Complaints

You have a right to make a complaint to the relevant data protection authority (“DPA”) at any time.  We would, however, appreciate the chance to understand your concerns in the first instance before you contact a DPA.

For more information, please see section 12 of our global WSP Privacy Notice WSP Privacy Notice | WSP.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice was last updated on the date shown at the top of this page. We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time by updating this page.