We are engaging an independent contractor who we would like to use the company email signature. Would you recommend making it clear in the signature that the individual is a contractor and not an employee and if so, do you have a recommendation for how to do this?
It is not unusual for a contractor to use the company signature. However, there is some risk associated with doing this, as you say, that the contractor could be considered an employee. To mitigate the risk, you may wish have their title in the signature followed by ‘Consultant’ or ‘Contractor’, which should make this sufficiently clear both internally and externally that the contractor is not an employee.