In the state of Kentucky, only employees of nursing homes and assisted living homes (nurses, etc.) are subject to criminal background checks. These employees are typically the ones who provide direct care to residents. Members of the public are hailing this as a sane, common sense law, while others are lauding it as unfair to those who have undergone criminal rehabilitation.

On Thursday, the legislation was introduced to the 2012 General Assembly. The law states, among other things, that criminal background checks must be conducted for all long-term care employees. This law would extend background checks to janitors, and even dining room workers.

The motive for this law stems from a lawsuit filed in 2010. A Fayette Circuit Court found that a nursing home in Lexington unknowingly hired a registered sex offender as a maintenance worker.

The legislation is very exhaustive, and prohibits employment in nursing facilities or assisted living communities based on a variety of factors. The factors that would exclude employment are as follows: conviction of a felony related to theft, abuse or sale of illegal drugs, neglect, abuse, sexual exploitation of an adult, or any sexual crime.

The legislation was explicitly brought about in light of cases in which nursing home employees took advantage of residents. The exploitation was not only financial, but cases also documented workers taking sexual, emotional, and physical advantage of residents.

Lobbyists worked for nearly five years to draft legislation that would require background checks for all employees. The legislation was unanimously praised by these interest groups. One lobbyist stated "It's important because it affects the quality of the people taking care of our elderly population."

Similar legislation has also been brought about (Senate Bill 44) in the 2011 General Assembly, however, it failed. Lobbyists state that this may be because some lawmakers misunderstood the bill. Currently, no nursing home industry representatives have voices any opposition to the bill.

In June, a $3 Million dollar federal grant was given to Kentucky to conduct criminal background checks, using state of the art fingerprint technology instead of name based checks only. This grant for background checks was primaraly used by those in direct care facilities.

Top 5 Tips to Avoid FCRA Non-compliance
The ramifications of not following the “rules” surrounding pre-employment screening may lead to financial catastrophe as described in a complimentary guide provided by Pre-employ.com. You can download it here: http://www.pre-employ.com/5Tips

Free analysis:
Reviewing an organization’s background screening process yearly helps ensure that the procedures used follow the prescribed steps, and will identify areas of concern. Pre-employ.com offers a free analysis of background screening programs here: http://www.pre-employ.com/quote

*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!

After the recession started in 2007, states were massively hit with having to pay unemployment benefits. This created a huge increase in state unemployment taxes, creating a rise of almost 44%. States have gone into debt, borrowing $45 billion in Federal funds, and they could only repay these loans by increasing taxes even more. A major problem for states, some states were forced by federal law to pay benefits that didn't make any sense when local conditions were taken into consideration.

However, the JOBS act is focusing on helping get people back to work and it could make an extremely positive impact on your business. What the JOBS act does is it helps states to keep unemployment taxes down and creates a major a push towards hiring. JOBS stands for Opportunity, Benefits, and Services Act, and with it states would have more flexibility in how they could spend their portion of $31 billion in remaining temporary federal employment funds. This way, they could choose to use those funds for things like preventing unemployment tax hikes and promoting job creation and hiring using reemployment services such as wage subsidies. This means that your business could experience an increase in better qualified employees because you won't have to worry constantly about an increase in unemployment taxes. Instead, you can spend that time focusing on job applicants, interviews, and your business overall.

With the JOBS act you won't experience any negative impact on how you pay your benefits. States will be able to keep on paying up to 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, and the states will have all the money they need to do just that. However, states will be able to decide if paying out fewer weeks of benefits is more sensible. Therefore, you'll still have all the money you need.

Perhaps most importantly, the JOBS act would not add to country's deficit. It can only enhance your business. Since the acts only promotes a reduction in taxes and more hiring, the economy can only take a turn for the better as more jobs are created. Your business can only thrive with the JOBS act.

*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island introduced a measure earlier this month intended to encourage business to hire unemployed workers by providing businesses with tax credits for doing so. The Job Creation Tax Credit Act of 2011 (S. 1271) amends provisions in the 2010 HIRE Act. It gives employers who hire workers who were previously unemployed refundable tax credits based on their wages.

The credits would start at of 15% of 2011 wages and drop to 10% in 2012. If passed, the bill would take effect immediately and last until January 1, 2013. Qualified individuals would be those hired during that period who have not been employed for more than 40 hours during the previous two months. The bill includes a clause ensuring workers hired under the bill cannot be used to replace anyone currently employed unless that employee left work voluntarily or was fired for cause.

Sen. Whitehouse has stated that the bill is intended to reduce the cost and risk of hiring new workers during an economically uncertain time and that 'by providing refundable tax credits for new hires, this bill will help businesses hire the workers they need to expand." The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Finance.

*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!

In the state of Kentucky, only employees of nursing homes and assisted living homes (nurses, etc.) are subject to criminal background checks. These employees are typically the ones who provide direct care to residents. Members of the public are hailing this as a sane, common sense law, while others are lauding it as unfair to those who have undergone criminal rehabilitation.

On Thursday, the legislation was introduced to the 2012 General Assembly. The law states, among other things, that criminal background checks must be conducted for all long-term care employees. This law would extend background checks to janitors, and even dining room workers.

The motive for this law stems from a lawsuit filed in 2010. A Fayette Circuit Court found that a nursing home in Lexington unknowingly hired a registered sex offender as a maintenance worker.

The legislation is very exhaustive, and prohibits employment in nursing facilities or assisted living communities based on a variety of factors. The factors that would exclude employment are as follows: conviction of a felony related to theft, abuse or sale of illegal drugs, neglect, abuse, sexual exploitation of an adult, or any sexual crime.

The legislation was explicitly brought about in light of cases in which nursing home employees took advantage of residents. The exploitation was not only financial, but cases also documented workers taking sexual, emotional, and physical advantage of residents.

Lobbyists worked for nearly five years to draft legislation that would require background checks for all employees. The legislation was unanimously praised by these interest groups. One lobbyist stated "It's important because it affects the quality of the people taking care of our elderly population."

Similar legislation has also been brought about (Senate Bill 44) in the 2011 General Assembly, however, it failed. Lobbyists state that this may be because some lawmakers misunderstood the bill. Currently, no nursing home industry representatives have voices any opposition to the bill.

In June, a $3 Million dollar federal grant was given to Kentucky to conduct criminal background checks, using state of the art fingerprint technology instead of name based checks only. This grant for background checks was primaraly used by those in direct care facilities.

Top 5 Tips to Avoid FCRA Non-compliance
The ramifications of not following the “rules” surrounding pre-employment screening may lead to financial catastrophe as described in a complimentary guide provided by Pre-employ.com.  You can download it here: http://www.pre-employ.com/5Tips

Free analysis:
Reviewing an organization’s background screening process yearly helps ensure that the procedures used follow the prescribed steps, and will identify areas of concern. Pre-employ.com offers a free analysis of background screening programs here: http://www.pre-employ.com/quote

*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!

Employers perform background checks on their prospective new hires, but there are rules and regulations that were meant to prevent employers from asking job applicants for information that would identify their ages. The dilemma is that employers need to ask for a date of birth in order to check their applicants’ background, and this has been disallowed by federal law as well as state law.

The Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 sought to prevent older people from refraining from applying for jobs by not allowing employers to ask their applicants for their date of birth during the application process; after the person has been hired employers may request this information. The individual states also have enacted their own civil rights legislation that would make it illegal to ask for an applicant’s date of birth. For example, California specifically spells out which questions about age that cannot be asked when employers are considering hiring an applicant.

A very important issue is the criminal background check. Employers need to be able to perform background checks on applicants and they cannot do them without a date of birth. The reason is because the courts’ most important information for identifying people is the date of birth rather than the social security number or other information.

Employers will be permitted to ask for a date of birth under strict circumstances. All applicants must be given a reason for the request for their date of birth and there must be a permissible reason for doing so. If it is warranted, the EEOC will make sure that the employer followed all the rules when asking for an applicant’s date of birth.

To comply with the laws, employers have begun to perform measures that delay the hiring process. Some employers have waited until they offer applicants the job before requesting their dates of birth, and other employers have asked the applicants to be the ones to give the screening company their dates of birth. Both of these procedures can keep employers from doing background checks in a timely manner.

An alternative is to have the prospective employee fill out the screening company’s form at the same time that they fill out the employment application. To ensure that the person doing the hiring will not see the screening form, another employee can be charged with the task of keeping both forms separate from each other.

Pre-employ.com is a company that offers all types of pre-employment services including an extensive background check. They understand that employers need these services performed quickly, and they are more than capable of accommodating this need.

*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!