From candidate to employee: what happens to your data when you hire

HR software can include recruitment, also known as an applicant tracking system (ATS), and the test is whether the candidate record becomes the employee record without anyone retyping it.

That handover of data, from candidate to employee, is what this blog focuses on.

Many buying guides out on the market focus on comparing recruitment features, from job board coverage to sifting tools and interview scheduling.

Undoubtedly useful information, but that content skips a key part that is costing UK HR and payroll teams actual hours.

How do HR and recruitment actually sync their data? If someone has applied, interviewed and accepted the role, what happens to their data and is HR left picking up the pieces and retyping everything?

This blog walks through this data handover, setting out what UK GDPR expects of your candidate data handling and explaining how recruitment works across IRIS HR products.

What ‘recruitment included in HR software’ usually means

Recruitment ‘included’, or ‘sold by one supplier’, is commercial phrasing which tells you almost nothing about how the data is stored and moved.

One supplier with recruitment ‘included’ in their HR software can still hand you two systems that don’t share a connected record.

An alternative definition we advise you to pursue is: one candidate record that becomes one employee record.

What this means in practical terms is the person you hired exists once in your system.

No rekeying or manually moving candidate data.

Once a candidate accepts a job offer, their details automatically feed into HR.

How can you spot whether recruitment and HR are connected? A broken handover typically shows up in three ways:

• Candidate details need to be re-typed into the HR system, usually taking the information from a PDF or a forwarded offer email.
• Right to work evidence is collected twice because nobody is certain which system owns it.
• A candidate’s start date exists in the recruitment system but not in payroll.

The handover points: what data should carry from candidate to employee

Along the recruitment journey, there are a number of steps where candidate data gets created.

Depending on the recruitment software you have in place, that data is either captured and fed into HR, or someone has to manually take note of it and re-key it later.

Here are the handover points where data should carry over to HR when recruitment is connected:

• Application: the candidate’s name, contact details, CV, the role applied for and the source of the application. Application sources are incredibly important, because they show you which recruitment channels are working best.
• Interview and assessment: any interview notes, scores and the reason for each decision, held against the candidate’s record. If a rejected applicant brings a discrimination claim, that record is your defence. From 1 October 2026, most tribunal claims can be brought up to six months after the act.
• Offer: salary, start date, contracted hours, work location, line manager and probation length all need capturing and feeding into the HR system. These fields need agreeing and inputting at the offer stage, rather than HR reconstructing them later.
• Right to work: this check must be completed before an employee starts, and the evidence needs to be kept for the whole of employment, plus two years after it ends. The obligation to hold onto this evidence far outlives the recruitment process, emphasising the need for it to live with the employee record, not in a separate recruitment folder.
• Offer accepted: the moment a candidate accepts their offer and becomes an employee, everything above should create and feed into their employee record.
• Onboarding: once an employee accepts, their onboarding should start, including contract issue, document collection, task assignment and probation dates. The written statement of employment particulars is required on or before their first day and must include probation length and conditions. From 1 January 2027, the unfair dismissal qualifying period drops from two years to six months, making the probation review date essential data you need on record, not in someone’s personal diary.
• Payroll: starter declaration or P45, tax code, pension assessment and holiday entitlement. Additionally, automatic enrolment assessment should happen on the employee’s first day of employment, so date of birth, salary and hours must reach payroll before day one. As holiday accrues from the employee’s first day, their start date is a key bit of data that helps anchor that record. Since 6 April 2026, annual leave and holiday pay records also have to be kept for at least six years.

To test all these points with one simple question, ask a vendor: when a candidate accepts, how much of their information has to be entered again?

UK GDPR: job applicant records and unsuccessful candidates’ data

Even if a candidate is unsuccessful, they’re still classified as a ‘data subject’.

Candidate data in your recruitment system falls under the same UK GDPR scope as employee data.

As such, the same data storage principles apply: keep the data only as long as you can justify keeping it, for the purpose it was collected for.

UK GDPR doesn’t outline a fixed retention period for candidate records.

Instead, the storage limitation principle (Article 5(1)(e)) says you can only hold personal data for as long as you actually need it for your original purpose.

However, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) says you should not keep unsuccessful job applicants’ records longer than the statutory period in which a claim arising from the recruitment process could be brought (like a discrimination claim), unless you have a clear, justified reason.

From 1 October 2026, that period to raise tribunal claims increases to six months, up from three.

A talent pool is a separate purpose and needs its own basis and retention period, explained to the candidate when you collect their data.

When a previously unsuccessful candidate applies again, or is hired later, their record should join up rather than restart.

How recruitment works across the IRIS HR products

IRIS Cascade and Staffology HR both get recruitment from IRIS Recruitment, and the integration works the same way in each case.

Pick the HR system that best fits your business and the complexity of your processes, then add IRIS Recruitment to it.

IRIS Recruitment is the IRIS applicant tracking system.

It’s not a third-party bolt-on or a ‘tick box’ module of either HR system.

It’s a dedicated IRIS product with a connector into both IRIS Cascade and Staffology HR, meaning candidate records and employee records are the same dataset.

IRIS Recruitment covers:

• Vacancy posting, advertising and branded careers pages
• Application management, sifting and selection
• Candidate communication and interview scheduling, through Outlook, Teams or Google Meet
• The offer and hire process, including references
• An onboarding portal with e-signature functionality, on higher plans
• Right to work and background checks, through an Experian integration

The connection into IRIS Cascade and Staffology HR is facilitated through an API integration and is included on every IRIS Recruitment plan.

When someone is marked as hired in IRIS Recruitment, their employee profile is built in IRIS Cascade or Staffology HR, with no manual exports required; what comes across is what you already collected while hiring, so the employee record arrives with the details in it rather than empty.

The entry IRIS Recruitment plan sends a limited set of details, and the larger plans send more, so it’s worth checking that list against what your HR and payroll team actually need.

If you’d rather not run hiring yourself, IRIS Recruitment Services will run it for you, from writing the vacancy through to making the offer.

With IRIS Recruitment Services, there are no placement fees, and you can start with a free recruitment process audit.

What to ask before you buy recruitment software

These six questions are designed to expose how data moves between candidate and employee.

1. When a candidate accepts an offer, how much of their data has to be entered again?
2. Is right-to-work evidence captured and retained against the employee record?
3. Does a candidate’s start date reach payroll without a manual step?
4. Are interview notes, scores and decisions retained against the candidate record?
5. What happens to unsuccessful candidates’ data?
6. Can you report on time to hire and application sources alongside HR data?

HR software buyer’s guides

If you are building a vendor shortlist, our HR buyer’s guides set out the key considerations when picking HR software:

• HR software for UK businesses with 50–200 employees
• HR and HCM software for UK businesses with 200 to 1,000 employees
• Enterprise HR and HCM software for UK organisations with 1,000+ employees

HR software with recruitment

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

What is the best HR software with recruitment or an ATS included for a UK business?

It depends on what you actually want. If you need a standalone applicant tracking system, judge it on sourcing and sifting capabilities. If you want recruitment that feeds your HR record, judge the system on the data handover capabilities. IRIS Recruitment connects to IRIS Cascade and Staffology HR, so a hired candidate becomes an employee record.

Does an ATS need to be built into your HR system?

No, an ATS doesn’t need to be built into your HR system. What matters is the shared record, not the packaging. A connected HR and recruitment system that passes a hired candidate into the HR system achieves the same outcome as a module. Ask how the connection works and which fields it carries.

What happens to candidate data when someone is hired?

It should automatically become the employee record without any manual re-keying. Name, contact details, role, start date, salary, hours, manager and right-to-work evidence are all captured during hiring and should help create the employee record rather than triggering a rebuild in the HR system.

How long can you keep unsuccessful candidates’ data?

UK GDPR has no fixed period. ICO guidance says not to keep unsuccessful applicants’ records beyond the window for a claim arising from the recruitment process, unless there is a clear business reason. From 1 October 2026, the window is six months for most tribunal claims.

Should you outsource recruitment or run it in-house?

The deciding factor is your capacity. Run it in-house when someone actually owns advertising, sifting and candidate communication week-to-week. Outsource when nobody has that time and vacancies sit unattended.