I-9 Audit= Is your company ready for it

Today recruitment process is growing at an ever increasing pace rapidly fuelled by Globalization. This in turn has turned the whole world into a massive talent pool. Location is not a problem anymore and people are found working around the clock in various geographies.

LinkedIn has become a useful recruitment tool for recruiting the right candidate as it helps in presenting our profile to the right audience. It even helps us grow our professional network and in easy information exchange in groups. It acts as an online database in knowing the profile of the companies and people associated with it beforehand.

After successful recruitment processes and induction of an employee is done, due care should be taken up in filling up of the I-9 form. The I 9 form verifies the identity and employment approval status of the employee, which is becoming an integral part of the federal immigration regulatory process.

The I-9 form process has become a crucial component in today’s organizations, and recruiters are helping their organizations in the audit process, which is periodically conducted by the Immigration and customs department, which compels them to surrender their I-9 forms to the government.

Human Resource department in Organizations, who want to keep themselves free from unwanted I-9 audit troubles, can use the following suggestions.

1. Making sure that new employee irrespective of their work authorization status completes Section 1 of the I-9 form fully and leaves no details unfurnished. If found incomplete later, The employee has to pay the fine
2. Make sure that the employee joining has either an employee authorization document (List A) or an Identification document (List B) or an employee authorization document (List C) in the section 2 of the form.
3. Keep the I-9 forms separate from employee record files, as they can be demanded any time for Inspection.
4. Create a reminder for employees working temporarily to update their I-forms periodically.
5. Do not violate the antidiscrimination provisions of the law by treating employees who may look or sound foreign to you.
6. Businesses/Hr departments should hand out “Handbooks” to employees which outlines the various rules and regulations pertaining to that state relating to employment related immigration laws.
7. Hire a legal representative, who has prior experience in I-9 laws and procedures and can help organizations in reviewing all the I-forms periodically.
8. Last, but not the least the recruitment process doesn’t end, when the new employee signs a contract, It extends to the retention phase of the employee. Properly Filled I-9 forms form a successful retention strategy in many organizations.