Confidentiality

Why confidentiality skills are a must

Confidentiality in the workplace is all about keeping stuff private (e.g. company data, competitive metrics and salary info.) 

This could be: 

• HR pros who handle sensitive data, from candidates’ resumes to salary info.
• Finance employees who manage benefits packages.
• Legal teams who create classified docs full of private company info.
• IT pros who process digital files and deal with data privacy.
• Managers who have the downlow on strategic decisions and employee info.

Confidentiality Interview Questions

• How would you store historical employee records? (e.g. contracts, benefits packages etc)
• When chatting to external people, how do you know what you can and can’t divulge?
• What do you say to someone who wants to know their teammate's salary?
• How do you store and share confidential docs? What are the best tech tools to use?
• What do you do if a potential client wants to know company details? (e.g. for new products and features.)
• If you’re asked to divulge sensitive info in a meeting, how do you respond?
• What would you do if you received a sensitive email addressed to someone else? 

Top tips: 

• Keep your questions open by using hypothetical scenarios likely to occur on the job.
• Include short tests to see how your candidates respond. For example, you could ask office assistants to tell you how they’d organize a desk to see how they store classified docs, or ask IT admin candidates to recommend cyber security apps.

Candidates to look for

• Pro candidates: You’re looking for someone who will steer clear of gossip and show tons of respect.
• High ethical standards: Your ideal candidate has good judgement when it comes to assessing classified info and sensitive data access.
• Discreet candidates: Discretion is a must to avoid uncomfortable situations and legal risks.

Candidates to avoid

• They just don’t get it: Candidates who don’t understand what confidential info even is, ain’t gonna cut it. 
• Secretive over discreet: They need to get the difference between being confidential and not disclosing any info at all. 
• Candidates who don’t care: Security is make or break for business, so you need candidates who understand the importance of secure storage and transference of confidential data. 
• Unprofessional or impolite: Being able to politely decline access to unauthorized personnel is key.