Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Critical Hire is a service provided by Optitude Business Solutions Ltd, registered in England and Wales under company number 12557209. Our registered office is at 124–128 City Road, London, England, EC1V 2NX. VAT number: 353967755.

Optitude 360 and Optitude OCC are trading names of Optitude Business Solutions Ltd.

For data protection queries, contact us at: simon.childs@optitude360.com or call 020 7183 7192.

2. What personal data we collect

We may collect the following personal data when you enquire about or engage the Critical Hire service:

• Your name, job title, and organisation
• Contact details (email address, phone number)
• Information about the role you are hiring for
• Information about candidates under consideration
• Business context relevant to the hiring decision
• Any documents you share with us as part of the review

If you use our optional psychological testing service through specialist partner Talent Praxis Group, additional personal data (psychological test results) will be collected. Talent Praxis Group acts as a separate data controller for the testing data they generate.

3. How we use your personal data

We use personal data to:

• Respond to your enquiry and assess whether Critical Hire is suitable for your situation
• Scope, plan, and deliver the Critical Hire review
• Communicate with you about the review process
• Produce the Critical Hire Decision Brief
• Fulfil our contractual obligations to you
• Comply with legal obligations

We do not use your personal data for marketing purposes.

4. Legal basis for processing

We process personal data under the following legal bases (UK GDPR):

• Contractual necessity (Article 6(1)(b)) — to deliver the Critical Hire service you have engaged us to provide
• Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) — to respond to enquiries and manage our business relationships
• Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)) — where we are required to retain data for legal or regulatory reasons

Where we process special category data (e.g. psychological test results via Talent Praxis Group), we do so only with your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a)) and Article 9(2)(g) for substantial public interest.

5. Who we share data with

We do not sell or rent your personal data. We may share data with:

• Talent Praxis Group — only if you engage optional psychological testing. They act as a separate data controller for testing data
• Professional advisers — such as our accountant or lawyer, where necessary for legal compliance
• Legal authorities — if required by law or regulation

6. International transfers

Your data is stored and processed within the United Kingdom. We do not transfer personal data outside the UK. If this changes, we will update this policy and ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.

7. How long we keep your data

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary:

• Enquiries that do not proceed — deleted within 12 months
• Completed engagements — retained for 6 years from the end of the engagement, in line with the Limitation Act 1980 and professional best practice
• Psychological testing data — retained by Talent Praxis Group in accordance with their own data retention policy and professional requirements

8. Your rights under UK GDPR

You have the right to:

• Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate data
• Erasure — request deletion of your data, subject to legal retention requirements
• Restriction — ask us to limit how we process your data
• Data portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format
• Object — object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Withdraw consent — where processing is based on consent, withdraw it at any time

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at simon.childs@optitude360.com.

If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

9. Cookies and website tracking

This website does not currently set any cookies or use any tracking technologies (analytics, pixels, or similar).

If we introduce cookies in future (for example, by adding a calendar booking tool or website analytics), we will update this policy and provide a cookie consent mechanism before any cookies are set.

10. Data security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, loss, or destruction. This includes secure storage of documents, encrypted communications where appropriate, and access limited to authorised personnel only.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The current version will always be available on this page with the date of the last update. We encourage you to review it periodically.

12. Contact

For any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle personal data: