The Chariot - A Helios HR Newsletter

Welcome to the Chariot!

Dear Colleagues:

Welcome to the first edition of The Helios HR Chariot, your newsletter from the HR company that energizes your workforce! As a trusted advisor, Helios HR provides its clients a competitive advantage: the creation of a culture that attracts, retains and engages an exceptional workforce.

The Chariot will bring to you relevant and timely topics for your consideration. It will also highlight HR best practices and trends that will help ensure you have the tools available to build an organizational culture that will indeed support your employee growth and retention.

We’d appreciate hearing from you. If there is a topic or trend you would like us to address in an upcoming issue, feel free to contact me personally. I can best be reached by email at kalbarado@helioshr.com.

We look forward to staying connected as your trusted advisor.

Warmest Regards,
Kathy Albarado, SPHR

President & CEO

Are you “Googling” your Candidates?

...Taking “Background Investigations” to the Next Level

During this Internet age, an endless supply of information is readily available at our fingertips. This includes public information regarding a potential candidate’s past personal behavior, interests and activities.

A recent survey of HR professionals conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that 50% of respondents have utilized search engines like Google or Yahoo to review candidate backgrounds and one in five has disqualified a candidate because of what they discovered.

Another statistic from the same SHRM survey shows that 15% of respondents have searched Internet sites like Facebook and MySpace for candidate information.

Will this new due diligence prevent a potential bad hire, or will it invite future discrimination claims?

As a recommended best practice, employers should ensure that they have a solid business reason for using specific information in making hiring decisions. Ideally, employers should seek to obtain an applicant release of information before beginning to “Google.”.

One must also be careful that Internet searches do not reveal information that could violate the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The FCRA is designed primarily to protect the privacy of consumer report information and to guarantee that the information supplied by consumer reporting agencies is as accurate as possible. As an employer, you may use consumer reports when you hire new employees and when you evaluate employees for promotion, reassignment, and retention — as long as you comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Sections 604, 606, and 615 of FCRA spell out your responsibilities when using consumer reports for employment purposes.

In order to minimize any perceived discrimination, like other reference checking best practices, ensure you are consistent in your application of policies and procedures. If you decide to use the power of the Internet in conducting your own background investigations, ensure you do so for all positions in a similar job category.

Additionally, we recommend you:

Ensure the person you are researching is indeed the same person you believe you are reading about online. Many individuals have the same name with exactly the same spelling.
Be prepared with how you will use the information and how you will communicate your findings.
Treat your findings with the same degree of confidentiality that you would other related reference data.
Ensure you have established consistent practices for conducting such searches and the use of the information.

Utilizing all resources available in ensuring you select the best possible candidates for hire is a reality in today’s organizations. In order to minimize any perceived discrimination, we suggest you consider the risk associated with your data collection practices.

Credible Coverage

November 15th Deadline Approaching

Does your company offer a prescription drug plan to your employees whether active, disabled, or on COBRA? Is the drug plan offered to those individuals who are retired, or Medicare beneficiaries (i.e. 65 years of age or older) who are covered as spouses or dependents under active employee coverage and retiree coverage?

If the answer is yes, then you are now required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to take action.

The action includes:

Determine if your plan offers “credible” coverage; as defined in Title 42 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 423.56(a), if the actuarial value of the coverage equals or exceeds the actuarial value of standard Medicare prescription drug coverage, as demonstrated through the use of generally accepted actuarial principles and in accordance with the CMS actuarial guidelines;
Communicate the credible or non-credible status of your plan yearly, no later than November 15th;
Report via the online CMS Disclosure form your expected Medicare eligible employees (http://www.cms.hhs.gov/creditablecoverage); and
Pursue a possible 28% tax-free subsidy for any Medicare eligible retiree.

To obtain additional information and take appropriate action, you may want to speak with your broker soon!

Issue 1 | October 2007

In this Issue

Welcome
Are You "Googling" Your Candidates?
Credible Coverage

Also This Month...

Helios HR Releases New Book: "An Essential Guide to HR Administration"

This Guide to HR Administration provides HR generalists and administrators easy-to-read summaries of best practices, compliance requirements, and indispensable tools such as checklists, sample forms and policies.