Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
(Editor’s Note: Today’s article is delivered to you by our friends at Poster Guard® Compliance Protection Service, a division of HRdirect, and the leading labor law poster service that gets your enterprise up thus far with all required federal, state, and native labor law postings, after which keeps it that way — for a complete yr. Benefit from the article!)
All U.S. employers are required to finish Form I-9 each time they hire someone under the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). Principally, Form I-9 verifies two things:
- The brand new hire’s identity. Meaning the person is who they are saying they’re. And,
- The brand new hire is eligible to work in the USA.
You may do not forget that back in 2023, a brand new Form I-9 was released. Well, guess what? The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) released one other new edition this yr. Employers will want to envision the expiration dates on their forms to make sure compliance and put a plan in place to transition to the new edition.
Now a few of you could be the title of today’s article and asking yourself, “What does the Form I-9 should do with E-Confirm?” Well, E-Confirm is an internet-based system that compares the knowledge on an worker’s Form I-9 with records available to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA).
While using E-Confirm is voluntary for many businesses, organizations with government contracts might discover that E-Confirm is a contract requirement. As well as, some states are passing laws requiring organizations to make use of E-Confirm. As an illustration, my state (Florida) passed a law requiring private employers with not less than 25 employees to make use of E-Confirm. This won’t matter in case you don’t have employees in Florida, but in performing some research I discovered that 27 states have some type of E-Confirm requirement.
As well as, there’s a brand new Illinois law that requires employers who use E-Confirm to display a poster indicating such along with their other required posters. So, with the change in Form I-9, coupled with state legislations requiring E-Confirm, this could possibly be an ideal time for organizations to take a look at their processes.
For employers not currently using E-Confirm:
Given the update to Form I-9, this could possibly be time to think about adding it to your process. There are two good business reasons for adding E-Confirm to your existing process: compliance and administration.
Compliance. E-Confirm helps employers reduce the chance of hiring individuals who usually are not authorized to work within the U.S. through the employment eligibility check. It features a photo matching option that permits employers to check the photo provided by the person when certain documents (i.e., from List A comparable to a resident card or passport) are presented for verification. This permits employers to determine a rebuttable presumption that they’ve a system in place to stop hiring individuals who’re unauthorized to work.
Administration. E-Confirm allows employers to utilize Form I-9 software and eliminate manual data entry – saving time, money, and potentially reducing data errors. This also provides organizations with the flexibility to observe document expiration dates to make sure compliance. This electronic system would make it easier to store and maintain documentation. And may the organization ever find themselves in an audit situation, they’d have the option to reply in an effectively and efficiently.
For employers currently using E-Confirm:
In the beginning, be certain that that you just’re in compliance. This includes labor law posting requirements. Organizations that use E-Confirm are required to supply job applicants with access to the most recent E-Confirm and Right to Work posters. Along with applicants and candidates, employees must have the option to see the postings as well. These postings should be displayed in each English and Spanish in a outstanding location that’s clearly visible to prospective employees and all employees, including those hired to work remotely who can have their employment eligibility confirmed with E-Confirm.
If you happen to’re unsure in case your postings are current OR you desire to a better way of managing your postings, our friends at Poster Guard offer two posting services related to E-Confirm and Right to Work.
- The E-Confirm Poster Service provides the posters that each employer participating within the E-Confirm program must display.
- There’s also an add-on E-Confirm Posting Service for online job applicants, since they need to have the option to see these postings.
It’s an electronic service that, for 12 months, is updated in real-time as regulations are modified. And it’s bilingual (English and Spanish). Like all of Poster Guard’s services, it comes with a 100% guarantee that the posters are compliant.
No matter whether you’re currently using E-Confirm, there are occasions when labor law changes should prompt us to take a look at your entire process and never only one step. I feel that is certainly one of those moments.
The change to Form I-9 is a chance to be certain that that the organization is in compliance with each Form I-9 and E-Confirm. Organizations can confirm they’ve probably the most current forms and the required postings. And if there are opportunities to partner with an organization like Poster Guard, this shifts the organization’s compliance strategy from being reactive to proactive.
If the organization hasn’t adopted E-Confirm, now’s the time to have a conversation. Services like E-Confirm are designed to guard employers and employees. Employees know that the organization is following the law by hiring individuals who’re authorized to work. And employers know that they’re hiring someone who is allowed to work.
The post What Organizations Have to Know About E-Confirm appeared first on hr bartender.