Privacy policy statement

Privacy Statement covering job application procedures, talent community, career events and job mailings

Version: 28.02.2023

In the following, we would like to inform you of how we process personal data during the job application procedure.

1. Who are we?
This privacy statement concerns KPMG Holding AG and its subsidiaries in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, consisting of: KPMG AG, KPMG (Liechtenstein) AG, Ostschweizerische Treuhand-Gesellschaft AG, Fides Revision AG and KPMG Tax & Legal Services AG (jointly: “KPMG”, “we” or “us”).
Should you have specific questions concerning your job application as an employee or a contractor, please contact our HR team: ch-fmkpmgjob@kpmg.com.
If you have questions or comments about this privacy statement or how we handle your personal data, please direct your correspondence to:

KPMG AG
Data Privacy Officer
Badenerstrasse 172
P.O. Box
8036 Zurich
Switzerland
DPO@kpmg.ch

2. Personal data we collect and purposes of processing of personal data
(1) Application as an employee: If you apply for a job with us, we will ask you to provide us with personal data. The personal data we request may vary as appropriate to the position you are applying for and will generally include: applicant master data (such as title, name, date of birth, address), application data (such as CV, references, appraisals) contact data (e.g., telephone numbers, email address). Apart from this mandatory information, you may also wish to provide us with additional information.
(2) Application as a contractor: You have the option of entering your name in our contractor database through our web-based tool. In order to guarantee the best possible resource scheduling, we ask for mandatory information, such as your name, contact data, nationality and work permit as well as your availability during specific periods of time. Beyond that, you may wish to inform us of other aspects. We reserve the right to contact you at regular intervals to ask you to update your availability.
We process the personal data you provide us with through our web-based recruitment tool for the purpose of initiating, establishing, or carrying out an employment-based (1) or project-based (2) relationship (in each case including conducting the application process and, if applicable, initiating a contract/establishing an employment relationship). We may also send you email notifications and other announcements, requesting additional information, or otherwise contacting you about your application. Legal basis for (1) and (2): processing is necessary in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract.
Beyond this, KPMG may also use your personal data from the application process for an employment relationship for other potential positions at KPMG, i.e., not only in connection with the position for which you are applying if you consent to this in your application profile via the data release field.
(3) Talent community, career events and job mailings: If you register for a career event or sign up to receive job mailings from us, we might ask you for personal data such as your name, email address and phone number as well as, depending on the event, your CV to be able to communicate with you, to update you on relevant job offers or related news and upcoming career events and/or to plan the career event. The legal basis for sending you job mailings is consent and the legal basis for contacting you and processing your data in relation to a career event is the performance of a contract and our legitimate interest.
(4) Furthermore, KPMG will anonymize or delete personal data. Anonymized data may be used for statistical purposes.

3. General Information on the KPMG recruitment process and web-based recruitment tool for applicants
Applicants can apply for a position by clicking on the desired job posting and selecting the “Apply now” button at the bottom of the job posting. This will direct you to our web-based recruitment tool. You can now choose to upload your CV or apply with your LinkedIn profile. You may be required to answer additional questions related to the job posting and we will send you an automatic confirmation by email once the process is completed. Applying via our web-based recruitment tool creates a user account for you. You can modify your information and documents, and apply for other job offerings at KPMG at any time. Furthermore, you may also modify your preferences regarding the release of your data. Please note that if you choose the option to have your data anonymized and you applied for more than one position, your user account together with all applications and associated personal data will only be anonymized once all applications are closed. The retention period as set out in section 5 applies.

4. Do we involve third parties and who receives your data?
Our application process uses a web-based recruitment tool provided by a third party. KPMG uses this tool to carry out the recruitment process and to manage personal data provided by applicants.
The third-party recruitment tool is hosted in Switzerland and in Germany and uses cloud technology. The third-party provider may be supported by selected sub-contractors located within the EU, the USA and India, which may at times have access to specific personal data. The third party is required to safeguard personal data in accordance with applicable data protection legislation. Such safeguards with respect to a transfer of personal data may include transfer to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection; applying standard contractual clauses, binding corporate rules or other standard contractual obligations which provide for appropriate protection of personal data.
KPMG may utilize other third-party providers including cloud providers acting as data processors on behalf of KPMG. An appropriate level of protection for personal data is ensured in accordance with applicable data protection legislation.
To support our local recruitment team, KPMG may make your personal data available to other KPMG firms abroad (e.g. in Poland) to carry out and support the application and/or recruitment process. Other KPMG firms are bound to confidentiality and data protection requirements that are equivalent to ours.
All service providers who support our application, talent community, career event and job mailing processes (external service providers and other KPMG firms) are obliged to protect personal data according to agreed-upon contractual obligations and the applicable data protection law.

5. How long will we retain your personal data?
(1) Application procedure
We will retain your personal data for as long as it is needed for the purpose for which it was collected or for as long as we are required to do so by applicable laws, regulations, or contractual agreements. We may anonymize or delete personal data we no longer need.
The time period for which we keep your data varies based on the choices you make when asked for your data release preferences.
If we cannot offer you the position you have applied for after the application process has been completed, we will retain your personal data for up to 3 months and anonymize it 3 months after you have received our notice that we cannot offer you a position, without further notice. This is the case if you selected: Data release: “I prefer that my data be anonymized when the current application process is over”. Please note that this is subject to the caveat as set out under section 2, where you have applied for more than one position.If you have selected the option that allows us to save your data even after the specific job has been filled, for the purpose of staying in touch and receiving other interesting job offers, your data will be kept for 36 months. This is the case if you selected: Data release: “I accept that my data will be saved even after this specific job is filled and that I will be notified of other interesting job offers and career events”. Your data will be anonymized 36 months after we last interacted with you. Furthermore, you may have agreed (e.g., via email) that we keep your data for 36 months because you have been selected for a pooling.
If you register in our databases as a contractor in the hope of a potential contract position, we will retain your personal data for at least the time of your availability. You have the same data release options as explained above.
(2) Talent community, career events and job mailings
If you register for job mailings to become part of our talent community or if you register to participate in a career event, we will keep your data for 36 months unless you inform us otherwise. You can either unsubscribe from the mailing list or let us know if you want us to anonymize your data.

6. How can I change my data or change my data release preferences in the web-based recruitment tool for applicants?
If you do not agree to remain in our applicant pool or with the retention of your data after you have not been selected for a position, or if you are no longer interested in being employed by our firm or receiving updates about job offerings, you have the option of accessing your user account in our web-based recruitment tool and changing your data or changing your initial selection of the data release option. You may also contact us at DPO@kpmg.ch. When you change your data release preference to: “I prefer that my data be anonymized when the current application process is over”, your data will be anonymized after 3 months, as described above. However, please note that the 3-month period starts from the date you changed your preference.

7. Is it necessary to provide your personal data using our web-based recruitment tool?
In order to ensure a smooth recruitment process, you will have to provide KPMG with certain personal data. If you do not wish to make your information available as requested, the tool cannot process your application to become an employee or a contractor.

8. Further aspects / your rights
In addition, KPMG’s general data protection notice may be accessed here. Our general privacy statement also provides specific information on your rights that you may exercise.

9. Changes to this privacy notice
This privacy statement was last modified in February 2023. We may update this privacy statement at any time by publishing an updated version. The updated privacy statement will apply from that revision date. Therefore, we encourage you to review this privacy statement periodically to be informed about how we are protecting your information.