European Economic Area – For Candidates and Participants

ghSMART GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION (“GDPR”)

June 15, 2023

G. H. Smart & Company, LLC, and its affiliates and subsidiaries (collectively “ghSMART”), is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This ghSMART GDPR Privacy Policy (“privacy notice”, “privacy statement”, or “notice”) describes how we collect and use personal information about you during and after your relationship with us, in accordance with GDPR. Our mailing addresses are included at the end of this notice.

ghSMART conducts in-depth verbal interviews or discussions as part of our services (including leadership selection, leadership coaching and development, talent and organizational strategy, team effectiveness, board effectiveness, executive learning, and/or any related services or products).

It should be noted that our legal basis for processing is indicated below. It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.

For the purposes of the GDPR, ghSMART is a “data controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. As a data controller we are required under GDPR to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

Your data

In this section we outline the purposes for which we may process your data as permitted by applicable law. For each ‘purpose’ we also list the types of data we may process and our legal basis for the processing it.

I. For the Purpose of Employment Assessment, Leadership Development or Consulting Services

More specifically, we use your personal data described below for the following purposes, which are listed under our applicable legal basis for processing your data for that purpose:

To carry out the instructions of the Client Company to which we have contractual obligations (applying GDPR Art 6.1f – a legitimate interest in performing our obligations to satisfy our clients and fulfil our contractual responsibilities)

  • Acknowledging your application;
  • Determining and providing statements of opinion about your suitability for roles; Checking the validity of your qualifications and previous employment history;
  • Fulfilling the deliverables of our client agreements as part of our consulting services which may include assessments, leadership development, coaching, training and any related services or products.

To comply with record keeping obligations (applying GDPR Art 6.1c – compliance with a legal obligation)

  • To comply with record keeping obligations for external financial statement audits to substantiate our business transactions;
  • To comply with record keeping obligations for tax records to support our tax returns.

To enable effective management and financial reporting (applying GDPR Art 6.1f – a legitimate interest in efficiently managing our business and providing accurate internal reporting of our performance)

  • Managing and reporting on our performance of consulting services which may include assessments, leadership development, coaching, training and any related services or products.

To comply with non-EU laws (applying GDPR Art 6.1f – a legitimate interest in complying with the laws that apply to our activities in all jurisdictions where we do business)

  • To comply with record keeping obligations for external financial statement audits to substantiate our business transactions;
  • To comply with record keeping obligations for tax records to support our tax returns.

Types of personal data that may be processed (please note that we do not process this data in all cases and that with regard to types of data we collect directly from you this list contains examples only):

  • Personal data allowing identification such as name, address, email address, phone number; education; training; professional experience; contact details of employer; employment appraisal/assessment; details of qualifications; job description tasks and responsibilities; linguistic and job related skills and competencies; details of past and current organizational projects and initiatives; assessment of individual strengths and weaknesses; organizational structure; expressions of opinion or future intentions; reason for leaving prior roles; standardized test scores; volunteer or professional organization memberships;
  • Data included in application forms and CV/Resume, covering letters, emails, meeting notes and other correspondence with the candidate or client regarding desire and suitability for role;
  • Interview: candidates will be asked questions aimed at obtaining evidence of how they meet the requirement of the vacancy or role. The same areas of questioning will be covered for each candidate and no questions will discriminate on grounds of race, sex, ethnic origin, religion, disability, age or sexual orientation. Candidate responses will be recorded in writing or may be recorded electronically;
  • Employment verification and/or references from former employers;

Education verification and/or references from former educational institutions.

II. For the Purpose of General Administration

More specifically, we use your personal data described below for the following purposes, which are listed under our applicable legal basis for processing your data for that purpose:

To carry out the instructions of the Client Company to which we have contractual obligations (applying GDPR Art 6.1f – a legitimate interest in performing our obligations to satisfy our clients and fulfil our contractual responsibilities)

  • Administering the contract we have with the Client mentioned above;
  • Meeting arrangement/travel/scheduling;
  • Facilitating other administrative purposes for normal business practices, such as internal reporting, and complying with policies and procedures.

To comply with record keeping obligations (applying GDPR Art 6.1c – compliance with a legal obligation)

  • Facilitating other administrative tasks, such as accounting, audit, tax.

To enable effective management and financial reporting (applying GDPR Art 6.1f – a legitimate interest in efficiently managing our business and providing accurate internal reporting of our performance)

  • Administering the contract we have with the Client mentioned above;
  • Business management and planning;
  • Overseeing compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, including monitoring compliance with GDPR;
  • Facilitating other administrative purposes for normal business practices, such as internal reporting, and complying with policies and procedures.

Types of personal data that may be processed (please note that with regard to types of data we collect directly from you this list contains examples only):   

  • Personal data allowing identification (title, surname, first name, date and place of birth); contact information (street address, telephone and email address); nationality (or immigration status); education; training; professional experience (prior jobs, tenure, employer name, location of employment, contact details of employer, employment appraisal/assessment, main tasks and responsibilities, linguistic and job related skills and competencies, current and prior compensation, reason for leaving prior jobs); standardized test scores; volunteer or professional organization memberships; details of qualifications; expressions of opinion or future intentions; assessment of strengths and weaknesses; and other professional or personal information voluntarily provided.

III. For the Purpose of Analysis and Research

More specifically, we use your personal data described below for the following purposes, which are listed under our applicable legal basis for processing your data for that purpose:

To carry out the instructions of the Client Company to which we have contractual obligations (applying GDPR Art 6.1f – a legitimate interest in performing our obligations to satisfy our clients and fulfil our contractual responsibilities)

  • To improve our consulting business practices and products related to the services we provide to the Client Company.

To educate and inform the company, our clients, and society at large about historical trends and experiences of candidates and executives from a career performance perspective (applying GDPR Art 6.1f – a legitimate interest in performing our obligations to satisfy our clients and fulfil our contractual responsibilities.)

To provide training to our consultants and to improve our consulting business practices and products (applying GDPR Art 6.1f – a legitimate interest in improving our performance to be able to grow our reputation and business)

  • To improve our consulting business practices and products related to the services we provide to our clients generally;
  • To provide training to our internal consultant team and evaluate the quality of our services and products.

Providing information about our products, services, and events to prospective clients or candidates for employment (applying GDPR Art 6.1f – a legitimate interest in growing our reputation and demand for our services)

  • Findings that are aggregated and/or deidentified/anonymized may be used in publications, editorial content or communications related to our services and products.

Types of personal data that may be processed (please note that we do not process this data in all cases and that with regard to types of data we collect directly from you this list contains examples only):

  • Date and time of application; personal data allowing identification (title, surname, first name, date and place of birth); contact information (street address, telephone and email address); nationality (or immigration status); education; training; professional experience (prior jobs, tenure, employer name, location of employment, contact details of employer, employment appraisal/assessment, main tasks and responsibilities, linguistic and job related skills and competencies, current and prior compensation, reason for leaving prior jobs); standardized test scores; volunteer or professional organization memberships; details of qualifications; expressions of opinion or future intentions; assessment of strengths and weaknesses; and other professional or personal information voluntarily provided.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Data sharing 

Your data will be accessed by those individuals involved in the ghSMART service process(es) you are participating in, and wherever possible we try and minimise the number of people this involves. Within ghSMART this will include our internal consultants, the administrative staff, and the third parties disclosed in the next section. Please note administrative staff are performing functions such as contract administration, scheduling, document management, billing and expense management.

Third parties and sources of data

We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers and other entities. The following categories of third-parties may have access to your personal data:

  • The applicable Client Company where we have a contract for services;
  • Report production technicians for document editing and document related services;
  • Service providers required for processing standard business functions for cloud data storage, anti-virus scanning, email, invoice processing, accounting systems, document management, contact/meeting management, and other information technology services;
  • Service providers utilized for research and analysis;
  • Government officials/law enforcement agencies if required by law or regulations.

All our third-party service providers and other entities in the ghSMART group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes, in accordance with our instructions and under the terms of a data processing agreement.

Note that we may obtain personal data from third parties to whom you first supplied your data, such as the Client Company or a recruitment agency. They will also operate as a data controller or processor for the purposes of the GDPR and as such have their own responsibilities for the security of your data. Specific categories of data are personal data allowing identification (title, surname, first name, date and place of birth); contact information (street address, telephone and email address); nationality (or immigration status); education; training; professional experience (prior jobs, tenure, employer name, location of employment, contact details of employer, employment appraisal/assessment, main tasks and responsibilities, linguistic and job related skills and competencies, current and prior compensation, reason for leaving prior jobs); standardized test scores; volunteer or professional organization memberships; details of qualifications; expressions of opinion or future intentions; assessment of strengths and weaknesses; and other professional or personal information voluntarily provided.

Transferring information outside of the EU 

We may transfer the personal information we collect about you to countries outside the European Economic Area, namely, the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom where ghSMART has administrative services, client consultants and client leadership. There is not an adequacy decision by the European Commission in respect of the United States, which means they are not deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for your personal information. However, to ensure that your personal information does receive an adequate level of protection we have put in place relevant appropriate measures to ensure that your personal information is treated by those outside of the European Economic Area in a way that is consistent with and which respects the laws on data protection (applying GDPR Art. 46.2 for standard contractual clauses). You can contact us if you require further information about these protective measures or would like to obtain a copy of them.

The period for which data is stored 

The information we collect during the ghSMART service process will form part of our records and as such will be retained as required by legal, accounting, reporting standards as reflected in the ghSMART corporate records retention policy applicable to our business. ghSMART may also be required to retain this information based on statute of limitations for specific countries, as well as government record retention requirements for tax purposes. ghSMART reviews the data to determine that the policy for data storage is in line with our stated purposes for which we may process your data. In some circumstances, we may anonymize your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may continue to use such information without further notice to you.

Data security

When we process your personal data, we will always apply the core principles of the GDPR to ensure it is:

  1. Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way;
  2. Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes;
  3. Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes;
  4. Accurate and kept up to date;
  5. Retained only as long as necessary for the purposes we disclose;
  6. Securely maintained.

ghSMART maintains industry standard physical, technical and administrative safeguards designed to protect personal data from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, and destruction.  We update and assess our security controls on a regular basis.  We train our personnel about the importance of confidentiality, security and consumer privacy and limit our personnel’s access to personal data to those who need such in order to perform their job.   Our personnel are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data breach and will notify affected data subjects and any applicable regulator of a breach, where we are legally required to do so or we otherwise deem appropriate.

Your rights

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

  • Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This also enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it;
  • Request correction (also known as rectification) of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected;
  • Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below);
  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it;
  • Request the transfer (also known as portability) of your personal information to another party.

Your right to object

  • Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal information, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact dataprotection@ghsmart.com in writing.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you consider that the processing of your personal data infringes applicable law.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

Changes to this privacy notice

Any changes we make to our privacy notice in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy notice.

Contact details 

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact: dataprotection@ghsmart.com.

Mail address:

G. H. Smart & Company, LLC
203 North LaSalle Street
Suite 2100
Chicago, IL 60601
The United States of America

ghSMART UK Limited
Suite 2, First Floor
Templeback
10 Temple Back
Bristol, BS1 6FL
United Kingdom

G. H. Smart GmbH
Grosse Gallusstr. 16-18
60311 Frankfurt
Germany

G. H. Smart & Company Canada, ULC
885 West Georgia Street
Suite 1480
Vancouver
British Columbia
V6C 3E8
Canada