What To Do When Legal Says No To Recording Interviews
Picture this: you’ve heard about all the benefits of interview intelligence, you’re ready to record interviews to improve the hiring process, and then you go to legal and they shut you down. What’s next? Do you pack in your plans and move on?
In a virtual cocktail-making class we hosted a few weeks ago with around 20 talent leaders, recording interviews was a large topic of debate. This is not an uncommon conversation in enterprises, and we help TA teams with this all the time. So, I thought writing about our experiences would help.
Let’s dig into why legal teams might not want to record interviews and what you can do about it. Here are the top 4 concerns legal teams are raising and how you can help them understand the benefits of interview intelligence:
1.) “We can’t record interviews because they will provide discoverable information.”
This is generally the biggest concern from legal when discussing interview recordings. And, yes, it’s true, interview recordings are considered discoverable information, which means they can be subject to legal discovery in the event of a lawsuit or investigation. This worries legal departments because they fear interviewers are running interviews that will get the company in trouble.
There are a number of points to consider here:
- Having a recording gives your legal team the truth as to what happened in an interview. It normally gives them all the data they need to defend against any action and it can be a deterrent from accusations and claims.
- Having data around your interviews gives the company all the data they need to show why you hired the person you hired. It will provide insights throughout the entire interview and selection process, offering valuable context.
- When coupled with a structured, guided process, recordings will show a fair and consistent interviewing process.
By proactively partnering with legal teams, companies can assess and mitigate risks while reaping the benefits of enhanced interview transparency and improved hiring decisions.
2.) Are candidates able to opt out of recordings?
Not only should candidates be given the option to opt out of interview recordings, but in some countries, candidates will have to opt in to being recorded by law. We suggest offering them two chances to do so during the process to ensure transparency and comfort.
- Sending an email ahead of the interview giving them the opportunity to opt out. We’d recommend explaining why you use recordings. Language around recording interviews to ensure a fair and equitable process for all candidates is very effective here.
- Ask them to opt-in when they join the interview. If you’re doing interviews over video (Teams, Zoom, etc), the standard recording language your company uses will normally suffice. For phone interviews, you need to make the candidate aware and give them the ability to confirm they are good to continue.
Most candidates are open to interview recordings. In fact, data from our platform shows an opt-out rate of just 0.04%—only 1 out of every 2,500 candidates choose not to participate.
3.) Are there any legal implications around collecting personal information via recordings over phone, video, or in person?
There can be legal implications depending on how you use and manage recordings. Ensure that the platform you use has taken proactive steps to manage legal implications, both now and for proposed legislation in the future. For example:
- As mentioned above, candidates need to have the ability to opt in/out, and recordings need to be able to be re-called and deleted on request to adhere to GDPR, CCPA, and other regulations.
- There are requirements and guidelines around the length of time companies should store recorded interviews. Be aware of local regulations.
- There are other considerations at a more local level. For example, biometric fingerprinting is not allowed (BIPA regulations in Illinois) and AI should not be used to rate candidates responses (proposed NY regulations).
4.) How should companies respond to candidates who want their recordings?
Under GDPR, if a recording is requested, companies are required to provide it. I’ll share that in over 1 million interviews completed on our platform, we do not see cases of this, however, you should be prepared to where required. If a candidate were to request a recording, organizations should have a plan as to whether they share it, refuse to share it, or send a redacted version depending on local requirements.
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Recording interviews is only one part of interview intelligence. Often for companies, a huge amount of value comes from the process improvements around managing interview teams: streamlined planning, guiding interviewers, data-driven selection meetings, and more. This can be a great place to start while legal teams do their diligence.
By proactively addressing these questions, hiring teams can ease conversations with legal teams and gain the benefits of recorded interviews: improved decision making, quicker time to hire, mitigation of bias, and more.
If I can be of any help to you as you begin to have conversations about recording interviews at your organization, shoot me a DM here, and we can connect.
Until next month,
Mark Simpson
Founder & CEO
