Update Employment Application Language Related to Criminal Record History to Comply With Indiana HEA 1482 - Eff. 7-1-13

Existing ExactHire ATS clients that employ individuals in the state of Indiana should take measures to comply with Indiana’s House Enrolled Act No. 1482, effective July 1, 2013.

For more information about this law, please visit our blog: HEA 1482 Requires Indiana Employers to Update Employment Application Language Related to Criminal Record History

If your employment application includes question(s) related to an applicant's criminal record history, then please consult with your employment attorney about whether the wording of your question is compliant with state and federal laws. Should you need to change your application language to come into compliance, here are two options and considerations:

OPTION #1: We can update the text for the EXISTING field on your application. With this approach, please note that any previous applicants' answers to this question will appear with the new language when viewing the applicant's record. Therefore, it is critical for you to note the date on which we make this change for you in consideration of viewing previous applicants at a later date.

NOTE: With this approach, we also recommend that you have us update the Instructions for this section of the application to note the effective date of the language change and to encourage previous applicants that have answered the question to note the fact that the text has been updated anytime they update a previous application to apply for future positions. That way, they are alerted to change their previous answer if it is no longer correct given the new wording.

Here's a template for the instructions in your application's "Additional Questions" section (feel free to edit it and return your comments in your response to Client Success if you'd like):

Please answer the following questions. IMPORTANT NOTE FOR PREVIOUS APPLICANTS THAT ARE UPDATING AN EXISTING RECORD TO APPLY FOR NEW POSITIONS: Please note that on [insert date of language change here], we revised the wording of the "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" question to instead state:

[HERE'S WHERE WE WOULD INSERT YOUR NEW TEXT FOR THE QUESTION]?

This was done in accordance with Indiana law HEA 1482, effective July 1, 2013. We bring this to your attention so that you may update your previous answer accordingly should the new wording prompt you to do so.

OPTION #2: Or, we can turn off the existing question field and instead add a NEW question field to the application. With this approach, once the previous question is turned off, previous applicants' answers to that question are no longer visible on the applicant record. By adding a new question, all applicants (both previous and new) will automatically have to answer the question moving forward the first time it is presented to them when applying. No update to the section instructions would be necessary with this approach.