Vendor Security Review & Questionnaire Support for Staffing & Recruiting Agencies

Ask for their security certifications and read what they actually cover; confirm hosting locations and subprocessors; scrutinize breach-notification commitments, data-return and deletion terms, and whether candidate data feeds any secondary use; then check the operational fit — role-based access, audit logs, MFA support. For screening providers, add accuracy and dispute processes, since check results carry legal consequences for candidates. We run this as a structured review with a written recommendation.

Generally yes, with homework: Law 25 does not prohibit storing Quebec candidates' information outside the province, but it requires a documented privacy impact assessment before the transfer, concluding the information receives adequate protection considering the destination's legal regime, plus candidate-facing transparency about the communication outside Quebec. Most agencies running Bullhorn or similar US SaaS have never produced that assessment; we build it and keep it current as the stack changes.

Triage before drafting: many questions will not apply to a staffing supplier and can be answered with a scoped explanation; a core set — MFA, backups, training, incident response, vendor management — needs true answers with evidence; a remainder may reveal real gaps, which are better handled with a dated remediation plan than an optimistic tick. We draft the full response with you, build the evidence pack, and leave a reusable library so the next program's questionnaire starts mostly finished.

Usually not. SOC 2 reports are built for technology service organizations; for most small and mid-size agencies the ask is a questionnaire default, and procurement will accept a completed assessment with evidence plus your critical vendors' own reports. The exception is agencies operating as payrolling or employer-of-record platforms at scale, where a report can be commercially justified. Our approach: clarify with procurement what suffices before committing to an audit path you may not need.

It covers them — their infrastructure, their controls, their auditors' opinion. It says nothing about how your agency configures tenant permissions, manages recruiter accounts, trains staff or responds to incidents, which is precisely what client assessments probe. The vendor report is still valuable evidence: attach it for questions about platform security while answering the operational questions with your own practices. Confusing the two is the most common questionnaire mistake we see agencies make.