External Consultant conducting interviews

[vickyp]

#89816

Forum: Community

We are a small company currently hiring for a senior-level role in which we do not have any internal experts. We have hired an external consultant to provide their subject matter expertise to help develop our job descriptions and educate the talent acquisition on the technical aspects of the industry and role.  We are wondering if there are any concerns with including the external consultant in the interview process, as they could provide industry and technical expertise during the interview process. We would provide them with interview training to help avoid discriminatory practices and create a structured interview process for consistency. Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[vickyp]

#90253

The only legal issue you may need to consider is your disclosure to the candidates that the consultant in question is a paid consultant performing a job for the company and not a representative of the company; such a disclosure and/or sign off would insulate you from any liability in the very unlikely event that there was any blowback from the interviews. I will say that bringing in paid knowledge experts to help you recruit, identify, and hire the right employee is a practice more companies should follow when there is an internal gap.

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