Staff Harassment Reporting Tool Privacy Notice
The Staff Harassment Reporting tool has been established to allow staff to report incidents of harassment to the University. Staff may make reports identifying themselves or do so anonymously. The Data Controller for the information collected is the University of Kent, however the system is the responsibility of Talent and Organisation Development (T&OD) within Human Resources (HR), who provide a confidential service and are committed to protecting the privacy of any staff who accesses our services. Please note, other services within HR may have separate Privacy Notices.
What information do we hold?
The Staff Harassment Reporting Tool will hold information on incidents relating to harassment that has been supplied by staff or witnesses of incidents that involved staff. The types of information collected when an individual makes a report are as follows:
The only mandatory fields within the form for all types of reporting i.e. for anonymous or where identity is disclosed are:
- Who are you reporting on behalf of? (Yourself, a friend/colleague or Other)
- What best describes the situation of the report (categories provided)
- Details of the incident
For reports where the person making a report has agreed to share their identity: As above plus, name, email address of staff.
This information is held in an encrypted format, centrally on a secure system. A restricted number of trained staff in HR will have access to this information in order to process your report and offer advice and guidance where it is appropriate to do so.
How do we use the information?
The information supplied will be used to assist the University in the examination of incidents and provide evidence to support interventions across the campuses. If you choose to report anonymously, the information you provide will be used for general statistical purposes only. Where reports are not anonymised, the staff will be contacted by either their nominated Harassment contact or any harassment contact where a specific contact is not specified to offer support and advice. Where a third party is identifiable from the information provided in the report, HR may need to contact the individual to investigate the allegation. Personal data is subject to disclosure if a request is made under the Data Protection Act.
Your data will also be used for collating general statistical information about our service, for the purpose of service improvement.
The University of Kent shall process any information captured during reporting on the basis that such processing is in the legitimate interests of the person making the report and that providing this service and any associated support or advice is in the wider public interest. Any special category data that you choose to disclose when completing the form will be processed with your consent.
With whom do we share information?
Data collected by the Staff Harassment reporting tool will be used to support initiatives across the University. Identifiable reports will only be used by staff within HR and the specified Harassment contact who have had the appropriate training to support staff and examine specific incidents. The right to confidentiality of all those concerned will be respected and any data submitted through this system will not be shared beyond relevant staff, unless you or others are at significant risk or we are required to do so by law.
How is the information stored?
The form is provided by a third party supplier that has been checked for GDPR compliance. Data is downloaded to Kent servers and is encrypted with only certain trained individuals having access.
Where there is Anonymous reporting it is not possible for HR staff or Harassment contacts to identify individuals reporting anonymously.
When is information destroyed?
All records are destroyed six years after the conclusion of the complainant’s tenure of service, unless there is a specific reason for them to be held for longer. Anonymised statistical data, e.g. numbers and trends may be held beyond this limit. Data held on submitted forms are deleted from the supplier’s servers on a monthly basis. Data held on partially completed forms that are saved by the user are held on the supplier’s servers for 90 days before deletion.
For further information on how staff information is used at the University of Kent and details of how to exercise your rights in regards to any data we may hold relating to you, please see the full HR Privacy Notice.
Key contacts
If you have any queries about this form, please contact staffharassment@kent.ac.uk
The Data Controller for this data is the University of Kent, our details are as follows:
University of Kent
The Registry
Canterbury
Kent CT2 7NZ
ICO Registration number: Z6847902
The University of Kent’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) can be contacted by emailing datapro@kent.ac.uk. If you wish to exercise any of your data rights, or have queries around data protection and information governance at the university, you should contact the DPO in the first instance.