University-wide Pre-employment National Background Checks (PNBC) Begins July 12, 2006 for All New Hires

In 2006, the Kentucky legislature passed House Bill 3, requiring state postsecondary institutions to conduct pre-employment national background checks (PNBC) on all prospective regular full-time, regular part-time, temporary and student employees hired, beginning July 12, 2006. Additionally, all applicants for employment will be required to complete an employment application requesting self-disclosure of felony convictions.

Human Resources is in the process of coordinating this effort at the University of Kentucky. In doing so, we are building upon existing background check procedures already in place for UK Hospital and HR Temporary Employment (since March 2006). The use of the University of Kentucky's Online Employment System will be instrumental in streamlining this process, containing costs and ensuring compliance.

Turnaround time for PNBC will typically take 2-3 days, and new hires may not begin work until results have been obtained. Some short-term hires (e.g. weekend camps) will have to be hired contingent upon “clean” PNBC results relative to a specific position. Most new hires will have to wait to start employment for results of PNBC.

This initiative is supported by the UK General Counsel and the Office of Institutional Equity. UK Internal Audit also recently recommended all temporary hires occur through HR Temporary Employment in order to ensure consistency of overall compliance and orientation procedures.