Final Rule prohibits sexual orientation, gender identity discrimination

President Obama signed an Executive Order that would prevent federal contractors from discriminating against potential employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, in addition to the characteristics that are already protected by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Earlier this month, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs finally released information outlining how…

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Study: credit score an indicator of personal health, not just financial

A new study entitled “Credit scores, cardiovascular disease risk, and human capital” was released in the December issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, in which researchers studied more than 1000 people for almost 40 years to determine if heart health and personal finances could be correlated. Employers often use credit reports to…

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November 2014: job growth improves substantially

Bureau of Labor Statistics news release, non-farm employment improved by 321,000 new jobs in November, up almost 100,000 from the previous average of 224,000 new jobs per month across all industries. The unemployment rate held steady last month, unchanged at 9.1 million people unemployed, about 5.8 percent. New jobs were available across many fields, as…

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MYB CEO completes Goldman Sachs’ ‘10,000 businesses’ program

Hendersonville, N.C., December 17, 2014 — Mind Your Business CEO Karen Caruso has graduated from the “10,000 Small Businesses” course, an exclusive business-management program hosted by the Goldman Sachs Foundation. She was accepted into the program this fall, and completed the curriculum at Babson College, MA. During her time in the program, Caruso attended 100…

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Newly passed Act includes improvements to WOSB procurement program

how money can be appropriated each year for the U.S. Department of Defense’s activities. The law was originally written in 2000, and is updated each year, but it contained limitations on the way that woman-owned small businesses could participate. The law prevented woman-owned small businesses from proposing contracts that were comprehensively over $5 million (among…

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Will your state enact ban-the-box laws in 2015?

In 2014, several states and metro areas instated laws that prohibit public employers from immediately disqualifying candidates that carry a criminal record. An employee criminal history disclosure is no longer required on initial job applications in Washington D.C., New Jersey, and Delaware, all of which passed ban-the-box laws this year, as did cities in New…

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Tobacco use banned in Colorado health hiring

In 2012, Centura Health system — one of the largest healthcare providers in Colorado — created a policy banning smoking and tobacco products on any of its properties. Now, two years later, Centura Health has announced that it will no longer hire smokers to work at any of its facilities in Colorado and Kansas. “As…

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How to hire reliable seasonal workers

workers are less likely to undergo thorough screening, and are also more likely to steal from their employers. To protect your business this Christmas, make sure you hire quality workers. Contact previous employers. When the applicant fills out his or her job application, request a list of previous jobs as well as the names and…

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Employers and social media: avoid these 4 background-screening blunders

When employers are looking to hire, there are many things they must be aware of: avoiding discrimination, following the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and not breaking ban-the-box laws, to name a few. Throw a few Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn accounts into the mix, and suddenly making hiring decisions becomes a lot more treacherous. Be smart…

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