Your Compliance Plan 2021: Form I-9 is Most at Risk

With plenty of laws and rules to follow, HR and Legal teams have a number of critical functions to perform going into its Q1 2021 Compliance Plan:

• Compliance analysis / risk assessment
• Training and education – ensuring all employees are aware of both internal company policies and external federal & state laws
• Implementation & enforcement of policies
• Ongoing auditing, prevention & detection of violations

Keep the lines of communication open throughout the pre-boarding period, continuing to make them feel welcome and engaged, even before their first day.

Simply put, an I-9 must be completed for every new employee, verifying that they are legally eligible to work in the U.S. But that’s where the “simple” part ends. Immigration compliance is a complex affair.

With more than 1200 rules and regulations, combined with increased government scrutiny, a company’s odds of being I-9 audited in the next decade are no less than 95%. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) I-9 audits are up almost 400% in the last two years.

Both employer and employee must fill out the form, and violations can lead to fines for your company starting in the hundreds, up to tens of thousands of dollars for repeat, multiple and serious offences. The total amount in I-9 violation employer fines in 2019? $14 million. 

Why is the I-9 such a landmine for fines? Let us count the ways:

Common Form I-9 missteps

1. Incomplete or incorrect sections: Missed signatures, dates or checkboxes, or false/fraudulent/incorrect information
2. Failure to provide, verify, and store supporting documents
3. Failure to confirm supporting documents are not expired (on an ongoing basis)
4. Missed filing deadlines: The employee section of a Form I-9 must be completed by end of the first day on the job; employer verification and completion within 3 business days
5. Form retention errors: A company must retain I-9 forms for a certain time period following termination, then must dispose of them

Issues such as these can arise for a number of reasons, including untrained staff supervising the forms, failure to perform proper internal audits to catch missteps along the way, and simply trying to track the onerous amount of paperwork involved.

What’s your best I-9 compliance solution?

One important decision can solve all of these problems: Investing in an elite Form I-9 software solution. Industry-leading software (such as Tracker I-9 Compliance) turns the reams of difficult-to-manage paperwork into a clean digital solution, with ongoing electronic management to ensure compliance.

Remember that $14 million in I-9 violation fines handed out last year?  One group of software users never had to pay a dime: Tracker I-9 Compliance is the only end-to-end solution with a perfect 20-year track record of zero client fines.

With easy API integration with any existing HR platform, superior security, and complete audit protection, a solution like this is an investment companies can’t afford not to make.

[bctt tweet=”A company’s odds of being I-9 audited in the next decade are no less than 95%.” via=”yes”]