Privacy policy for recruitment

At Hill+Knowlton Strategies, we are committed to ensuring that your personal information is protected and never misused.

Our privacy policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, the controls you have over your personal information and the procedures that we have in place to protect your privacy. It applies to personal information we collect through our H+K careers website and any associated applications for employment which come through the H+K careers website.

By sharing your personal information with us, and by continuing to use our careers website, you confirm that you have read and understood the terms of this privacy policy. We take responsibility for the personal information we collect about you, and we aim to be transparent about how we handle it, and give you control over it.

In this privacy policy, when we refer to “H+K”, “H+K Strategies”, “us”, “we” or “our”, we mean Hill and Knowlton Strategies or Hill+Knowlton Strategies which provides you with the H+K careers website.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns about any aspect of this policy or how H+K Strategies handles your information please email our Privacy Team at Privacy@hkstrategies.com.

What personal information do we collect?

Our main reasons for collecting your personal information are to provide you with information or services that you have requested including supporting your applications to H+K Strategies and to provide and improve the service, products and experiences that you and the users of the H+K careers website, applicants and employees expect from us.

We collect personal information from you in several different ways; you may share information with us, or we may collect it using other means. In this section, we explain the different ways we collect personal information from you and some ways in which that information will be used. For more details on how we use your personal information, please see the section titled “How do we use your personal information?”.

Information you share with us

We collect personal information that you share with us when you register, contact us or interact with us through our website, email, phone or otherwise. You can decide not to provide certain information or ask that any information you have previously shared is removed. If you do so, you may not be able to take full advantage of a career at Hill+Knowlton Strategies and progress an application.

For example, you may provide information to us when you contact us about an opportunity to work at H+K, upload a CV, Resume or other careers information.

To apply for a role listed on our website we require users to register and to provide us with basic contact information. Through these interactions you may share with us: your name, address, e-mail address, postal address, contact number, career history (usually in the form of a CV) as well as any other personally identifiable information you include in your interactions with H+K. We may also ask for additional information to assist us with our recruitment process and in the event you are offered a job.

Cookies

We may use cookies and similar technologies to collect non-personally identifiable information from you and to customize your use of the careers website. A cookie is a small data file that certain web sites write to your hard drive when you visit them. We may also use web bugs, clear gifs and similar technologies that collect data similar to that collected by a cookie.  A cookie file can contain various types of information, including a user ID that the site uses to track the pages you have visited.

Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies; however, you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or indicate when a cookie is being sent or you can flush your browser of cookies from time to time. (Note: you may need to consult the help area of your browser application for instructions.) If you choose to disable cookies or refuse to accept a cookie, you may not be able to utilize all features of the careers website.

Should you visit any of our affiliate company websites, cookies may be used as described in the relevant privacy policy, so it is a good idea to check the privacy policies which govern those websites.

How do we use your personal information?

The main purpose for processing your personal data is to register your application for a job in our company and, if this application leads to start our selection procedure, make a profile of you, meaning that we will process all the necessary data that is required for us to assess your job application in view of a potential recruitment. This evaluation can also imply an evaluation by a third party.

In case of positive evaluation and decision to hire, we will also use your personal data to prepare an employment contract.

Furthermore, we use your personal information to provide you with information or services that you have requested including supporting your applications to H+K and to provide and improve the service, products and experiences that you and the users of the H+K careers website, applicants and employees expect from us.

The processing of your data is therefore necessary in order to take steps prior to entering into an employment contract and is in our legitimate interests, i.e. the interest to assess and evaluate you before deciding on making an offer of employment, which is also in your interests or at least these do not outweigh our interests.

We may share your personal information with companies in the H+K network, and given the global nature of our company, your personal information may be transferred from one jurisdiction to another. When we make such transfers, we do so in accordance with data protection legislation, for example by using Standard Contractual Clauses where information is transferred from H+K in the European Economic Area to H+K in the United States of America.

We share your personal information with certain third parties who provide services on our behalf. They only have access to the personal information they need to perform those services. They are required to keep your personal information confidential and may not use it other than as we ask them to and always in accordance with this privacy policy.

Information you share with us

We use the personal information you share with us in the following ways:

  • To assess your job application, and to keep you updated throughout the application process;
  • To respond to your inquiries and requests;
  • To communicate with you;
  • To provide you with updates about your H+K application;
  • To provide services and support for any application you make;
  • To facilitate any application you make to H+K;
  • To provide updates to you about any changes to Hill+Knowlton Strategies’ policies, terms and conditions and any other matters which we may need to tell you; and
  • If you have asked us to keep you informed of other opportunities at H+K, we may periodically contact you to tell you about these for up to 5 years.

Contacting You in the Future

If you have asked us to, we will keep you informed of other opportunities at H+K for up to 5 years. We do this in various ways, including e-mail, post, SMS, via social media platforms and by phone, but only if you are happy for us to do so.

If you would like more information on how we share your personal information, please email our Privacy Team at Privacy@hkstrategies.com.

Links to third party websites

We may provide links to other websites which are not operated and controlled by Hill+Knowlton Strategies.

We have no control over and are not responsible for the content of those sites or how the third parties responsible for them collect and use your personal information. We do not endorse or make any representations about third party websites.

Third party websites may have their own privacy policies explaining how they use and share your personal information. You should carefully review those privacy policies before you use these websites to make sure that you are happy with how your personal information is being collected and shared.

How long do we keep your personal information?

We only keep your personal information for as long as we need to, to be able to use it for the reasons given in this privacy policy, and for as long as we are required to keep it by law. Following an application, we keep your information should any other opportunities become available; however, we will only keep your information for a limited period and your details will be purged after 5 years of inactivity on your account.

Informing us of Changes

If any of the information that you have provided to Hill+Knowlton Strategies changes, for example if you change your e-mail address, name or postal address, you can update, amend or remove information by logging into your account, or ask us by submitting a request through our careers contact form found here.

Your rights

You are entitled to ask:

  1. For a copy of the personal information we hold about you, and details about how we are processing your personal information;
  2. To have any inaccuracies in your personal information corrected;
  3. If we are processing your personal information by automated means and on the basis of your consent or a contract (see “How do we use it?”, above), for us to provide your personal information, which you have provided to us, to you in a structured, commonly-used and machine-readable format. You can also ask us to provide your personal information directly to a third party in this format, and, if technically feasible, we will do so; and
  4. To have your personal information erased, or for our use of it to be restricted (for example, if your preferences change, or if you do not want us to send you the information you have requested).
  5. to object to our processing of your personal data for which we use legitimate interest as a legal basis, in which case we will cease the processing unless we have compelling legitimate grounds for the processing. You will for instance be able to object to the processing of your personal data in the event of an unsuccessful application. In that event, we will delete your personal date immediately and cease any further processing.

Please contact us using the details set out below if you would like to exercise any of these rights.

You also have the right to make a complaint to the supervisory authority if you’re not happy with how we’ve handled your personal information.

If the law in your country allows us to impose a fee for giving you access, we will communicate this to you in response to your request.

If you would like to access, update or amend your personal information or, if you would like us to remove personal information that we hold about you, or limit its use, or if you would want to object to our processing of your personal data, please email us at Privacy@hkstrategies.com.

How do we protect your personal information?

We use appropriate technical and organizational measures, including encryption, to protect your personal information and privacy, and review those regularly. We protect your personal information using a combination of physical and IT security controls, including access controls that restrict and manage the way in which your personal information and data is processed, managed and handled. Whilst we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information, we commit to taking all reasonable steps to do so.

Changes to this privacy policy

We will review and update this privacy policy from time to time and will note the date it was last updated below.

Contact us

If you have any questions, comments or concerns, or would like to make a complaint about how we use the personal information we hold about you, please email our Privacy Team.

You can contact our Privacy Team at any time at Privacy@hkstrategies.com. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

Updated May 2018