Answer an employee's data request

Employees can ask you, from Employee AZ, for a copy of their personal data, a correction or an erasure. As their employer you answer each request within one month. In Management AZ you see every request with the date its answer is due, and you record your answer, which the employee then reads in Employee AZ. The same page names the contacts your employees see.

Before you start

• Employees send their requests from Settings › Your data in Employee AZ. What they see is described in Ask for a copy or a correction of your data.
• A request is one of three kinds: A copy of their data, A correction or An erasure. For a correction or an erasure the employee must say what is wrong or what should be erased.
• The answer is due one month after the day the request was sent: the same day of the next month, or that month's last day when it is shorter. A request sent on 31 January is due on the last day of February.
• The employee sees the state of their request and your note. Once you mark it done or decline it, they also see the name on your account as the person who answered.

Open the data requests

1. In the menu, under Governance, select Data requests.

Requests not yet answered, including those being handled, are also counted on the Data requests card under Approvals, in Overview; see Work through the Approvals inbox.

The summary at the top counts three things: Waiting, the requests not yet answered, whether or not you have started on them; Past the one-month deadline, which you should answer first; and Answered in the last year. Beside it, Past the deadline, Due within a week and Not started appear with their counts when they apply.

Read the requests

Requests from employees lists every request still waiting for an answer or being handled, the earliest due date first. Each row shows:

• Employee: who sent it;
• What they asked: the kind of request and, under it, what the employee wrote;
• Sent and Answer due. The due date is marked Due within a week in the last seven days and Past the deadline once it has passed;
• Status: Waiting for an answer or Being handled, with the note you left;
• Your answer: the form you answer with.

Use the All, Waiting for an answer and Being handled chips to list requests in one state; a chip appears only while a request is in that state. To list one kind of request, select Filter, choose the kind under What they asked and select Apply. Or type in the Search requests box to find an employee.

Answer a request

1. In the request's row, choose an Answer:

   • Being handled: you are working on it. Offered only while the request has not been started.
   • Done: you have sent the copy, made the correction or erased the data.
   • Decline: you are not taking the request forward.

2. In Note to the employee, write what you sent, corrected or erased, or why you decline. The note is required to decline and optional otherwise. It takes up to 2,000 characters.

3. Select Send answer.

The page confirms the answer:

• The request is marked as being handled. The employee sees this in Employee AZ.
• The request is marked as done. The employee sees your note in Employee AZ.
• The request was declined. The employee sees your reason in Employee AZ.

A request marked Being handled stays in the list until you mark it Done or decline it. Those two answers are final: the request moves to Answered in the last year and cannot be answered again.

• Some records must be kept by law. When you decline an erasure for that reason, say so in the note.
• Employee AZ tells employees that their medical and psychological files are kept by the occupational health clinic and the psychologist, not by you, and that HR will tell them how to get a copy. When an employee asks for those files, say in your note how to request them from the clinic or the psychologist.

Requests you have answered

Answered in the last year lists the requests marked Done or Declined in the last twelve months, the most recent first, with your note under Answer, and the date and the name of who answered under Answered. The table appears once there is at least one.

Name the contacts your employees see

Under Contacts your employees see, at the foot of the page, you name three contacts: HR and records, Health and safety at work and Data protection. Employees see them in Employee AZ on their Profile, under Who to ask, and the data protection contact under Your data.

1. For each contact, fill in Name, Role, Email and Phone. Each field takes up to 200 characters, and the email must be a valid address.

2. Select Save contacts. The page confirms Saved. Employees see these contacts in Employee AZ.

Leave a contact empty and Employee AZ says nobody is named, or uses your organisation record for HR and data protection. If an email address is not valid, nothing is saved: the page names the field and keeps what you typed so you can correct it.

If something goes wrong

• No request is waiting for an answer. Every request has been answered.
• The requests could not be loaded right now. Please try again in a few minutes. The list could not be read, and a banner at the top says what could not be read. An empty list then does not mean there is nothing to answer.
• Say why the request is declined: the employee must be told. Nothing was changed. Write the reason in Note to the employee and send the answer again.
• This request was already answered. Nothing was changed. A colleague marked the request done or declined it after you opened the page.
• This request is already marked as being handled. Nothing was changed. You chose Being handled, but a colleague had already marked the request so. You can still mark it Done or decline it.
• The answer could not be saved. Please try again. Try again in a moment. Your note is not kept, so copy a long note before you send the answer again.
• The request could not be checked right now. Nothing was changed. The request could not be read just then. Try again in a moment; here too your note is not kept.
• The saved contacts could not be loaded right now. Saving now replaces them. Your saved contacts are not shown. If you save now, what you enter replaces them.
• The contacts could not be saved. Nothing was changed; please try again. Select Save contacts again.

To send a stored document to a provider or an authority, see Share a document with a provider or an authority.