Online Staffing Assessment Platform – VidCruiter v2.0

Human Resources Branch
Employment Programs Directorate

On this page

• Overview & Privacy Impact Assessment Initiation (PIA)
• Summary of the project, initiative or change
• Risk identification and categorization

Overview & Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) Initiation 

Government institution

Canada Revenue Agency

Government official responsible for the PIA

Deirdra Finn
Director General
Employment Programs Directorate
Human Resources Branch

Head of the government institution or Delegate for section 10 of the Privacy Act

Lia Jackson
Director
Access to Information and Privacy Directorate

Name of program or activity of the government institution

Human Resources Management

Standard or institution specific class of record:

Recruitment and Staffing
Record Number: PRN 920

Standard or institution specific personal information bank:

Staffing
Bank Number: PSE 902

Legal authority for program or activity

Personal information is collected under section 54 of the Canada Revenue Agency Act.

Summary of the project, initiative or change

Overview of the Program or Activity

A staffing process is a series of activities and decisions taken by a manager or delegated to a staffing board (group of individuals identified by a manager to perform staffing activities for the manager) to appoint a candidate or to keep a candidate in, a position. A staffing process normally involves four stages: planning, screening for prerequisites, assessment, and appointment. Staffing requirements are the attributes of a position (or multiple positions) that are used to identify candidates for appointment and are linked to business requirements. Managers must respect the minimum staffing requirements for the position being staffed, which include education, language, performance level, and security status. Managers can identify other staffing requirements and decide whether they are essential (must be assessed) or an asset (may be assessed). Examples of other staffing requirements include: experience, knowledge, and qualifications.

The assessment stage of a staffing process allows managers to evaluate candidates against the staffing requirements. To assess candidates against the requirements, managers use assessment tools, such as the Canada Revenue Agency standardized assessment tools or locally developed tools (created by a manager). A manager decides how a test will be administered, such as in-person (interview, written exam on paper or on a computer), online (written exam, reference check) or by phone (interview, reference check).

VidCruiter is a Canadian company that offers a number of virtual assessment products. The Canada Revenue Agency first engaged VidCruiter in 2018 for a one-year contract to pilot the use of pre-recorded video interviewing for staffing purposes.

With the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2020, many organizations across the world shifted to an all-remote or hybrid work model. This has only further validated the need for virtual tools that can provide increased flexibility and improved efficiency for staffing assessments. VidCruiter was originally identified as one of the 54 ideas to explore as part of the Staffing Redesign Project in 2019. However, the pandemic and the advent of other tools like MS Teams required the Human Resources Branch to take a pause. Consultations with the Information Technology Branch and within the Human Resources Branch revealed that existing systems like the staffing system and MS Teams do not currently offer, and will not offer in the foreseeable future, the same technological solutions as VidCruiter.

What’s New

A contract was awarded to VidCruiter on March 13, 2023, which expires September 12, 2024.

For the length of the contract with VidCruiter, a select number of Human Resources employees / staffing boards / hiring managers will be permitted to use one or more of the following VidCruiter products:

• Pre-recorded video interviewing (asynchronous): Hiring manager / Human Resources can input interview questions and a scoring grid. The system sends a candidate a link, and the candidate can record themselves responding to questions (within a predetermined window of time). Manager / Human Resources, at their convenience, can review the responses and assess the candidate in the system. This activity was assessed in v 1.0 of this privacy impact assessment, as a result of the first pilot.
• Live recorded video interviewing: Hiring manager / Human Resources can input questions and scoring grid. The system will send the questions to the candidate ahead of the interview in order to prepare their responses (for a predetermined window of time). Following this preparation time, the live interview begins and is recorded. Manager / Human Resources has the option to watch the recording following the interview in order to assess/score the candidate.
• Skills testing: Hiring manager / Human Resources can input an assessment (for example, written questions, multiple choice, essay) and scoring grid. The system sends the candidate a link where they can complete the assessment online (within a predetermined window of time). Manager / Human Resources, at their convenience, can review the test and assess the candidate in the system. For a multiple-choice test, the system can mark the responses when the scoring has been programmed. Video proctoring is also available, which combines skills testing with video recording.
• Interview scheduling: Hiring manager / Human Resources can input their calendar availability to do assessment(s). The system identifies when all the required assessors are available and sends the candidate a link to schedule their assessment time (for example, exam, interview) during an available time slot.
• Reference checking: Hiring manager / Human Resources can input the assessment (reference check questions) in the system, and a link will be sent to the reference provider by VidCruiter. This product facilitates the reference-checking process by collecting the reference information digitally from the candidate and automatically sending the predetermined questions/information to the reference provider to complete online through VidCruiter. Hiring manager / Human Resources can review and assess the responses at their convenience in the system.

Scope of the Privacy Impact Assessment

This privacy impact assessment identifies and assesses privacy risks to personal information relating to using VidCruiter in a staffing process. All standard staffing activities that fall outside of VidCruiter are out of scope of this privacy impact assessment.

Risk identification and categorization

A) Type of program or activity

Administration of Programs / Activity and Services  

Level of risk to privacy: 2

Details:

The personal information collected will be used by staffing board members / Human Resources employees involved in a staffing process to assess whether or not a candidate meets a staffing requirement.

B) Type of personal information involved and context

Social insurance number, medical, financial or other sensitive personal information and/or the context surrounding the personal information is sensitive. Personal information of minors or incompetent individuals or involving a representative acting on behalf of the individual.

Level of risk to privacy: 3

Details:

It is possible that candidates in a staffing process could use real-life examples or scenarios in an interview response, which may include personal information or sensitive details about themselves or others. However, there will be no request for a social insurance number, medical or financial information from the candidate.

Before proceeding with a video interview, candidates must accept the privacy notice which includes the following:

“I agree to being recorded during this interview. I understand that I should avoid sharing sensitive personal information and using the personal identifiers of other individuals. I should remove material from view that is personal or confidential in nature.”

In 2023, VidCruiter implemented the option for a candidate to blur their background during recording, which removes the sharing of visual information from the environment.

C) Program or activity partners and private sector involvement

Private sector organizations or international organizations or foreign governments

Level of risk to privacy: 4

Details:

The online staffing assessment platform is provided by VidCruiter, a Canadian corporation. VidCruiter hosts the online portal that will be used for virtual assessments. The company offers the ability for the Canada Revenue Agency to create a personalized and branded landing page for candidates and gives the staffing board the ability to completely customize each aspect of the assessment experience, including the questions that will be asked, the amount of preparation time the candidate will have, and the length of time the candidate has to respond. The candidates who reach the assessment stage will be sent a personalized link to the VidCruiter website where they will be given an opportunity to complete their assessment online. Candidate responses are saved by VidCruiter and the data is stored in the cloud, with servers located in Canada. The cloud is approved by the federal government. The staffing board is then able to sign in to the VidCruiter website to view the assessments and assign scores based on their predetermined scoring grid. VidCruiter’s support staff, who are bilingual and have reliability security status, are available to support the candidates and staffing board with any technical issues.

D) Duration of the program or activity

Short–term program

Level of risk to privacy: 2

Details:

A select number of staffing processes will be held during the length of the contract with VidCruiter. The current contract expires on September 12, 2024.

E) Program population

The program affects certain individuals for external administrative purposes.

Level of risk to privacy: 3

Details:

A select number of staffing processes will use VidCruiter. As candidates, the processes may include: internal employees, employees from government departments, and individuals from the general public.

Any personal information collected will be used for the administrative purposes of staffing (that is, determining whether or not a candidate meets a staffing requirement identified as necessary).

F) Technology & privacy

1. Does the new or modified program or activity involve the implementation of a new electronic system, software or application program including collaborative software (or groupware) that is implemented to support the program or activity in terms of the creation, collection or handling of personal information?
   Risk to privacy: Yes
2. Does the new or modified program or activity require any modifications to IT legacy systems and/or services?
   Risk to privacy: No
3. Does the new or modified program or activity involve the implementation of one or more of the following technologies?

Enhanced identification methods - this includes biometric technology (i.e. facial recognition, gait analysis, iris scan, fingerprint analysis, voice print, radio frequency identification (RFID), etc.) as well as easy pass technology, new identification cards including magnetic stripe cards, "smart cards" (i.e. identification cards that are embedded with either an antenna or a contact pad that is connected to a microprocessor and a memory chip or only a memory chip with non-programmable logic).

Risk to privacy: No

Use of Surveillance - this includes surveillance technologies such as audio/video recording devices, thermal imaging, recognition devices, RFID, surreptitious surveillance/interception, computer aided monitoring including audit trails, satellite surveillance etc.

Risk to privacy: Yes

Use of automated personal information analysis, personal information matching and knowledge discovery techniques - for the purposes of the Directive on PIA, government institutions are to identify those activities that involve the use of automated technology to analyze, create, compare, identify or extract personal information elements. Such activities would include personal information matching, record linkage, personal information mining, personal information comparison, knowledge discovery, information filtering or analysis. Such activities involve some form of artificial intelligence and/or machine learning to uncover knowledge (intelligence), trends/patterns or to predict behavior.

Risk to privacy: Yes

G) Personal information transmission

The personal information is transferred to a portable device or is printed.  

Level of risk to privacy: 3

Details:

Candidates use the Internet to access the VidCruiter platform. Assessment information is hosted by VidCruiter on a cloud network located in Canada. Staffing board members access the assessments relevant to their staffing process through an online portal.

In a situation where a candidate asks for a copy of their assessment information (for example, an interview video, or scores), the staffing board is able to provide the individual their assessment information.

H) Potential risk that in the event of a privacy breach, there will be an impact on the individual or employee

Details:

If personal information is compromised, it has the potential to affect a candidate in the following areas:

• Context
• Financial loss
• Health and/or reputation