Top 5 Errors to Avoid with New Employee’s I-9 Forms

Top 5 Errors to Avoid with New Employee’s I-9 Forms

Many errors can occur when onboarding an employee. The onboarding process at a company is important. This is the first time you have a chance to show the new employee what your business is about.

Onboarding processes should be professional, complete, and seamless.

During the onboarding process, employees are required to complete I-9 Forms.

One of the biggest mistakes we see with growing businesses is that they do not realize it is a two-part process.

Not only must the employee complete their side, but the company must verify the documents provided.

You can learn more about that process here.

Training must be provided for all team members involved in the hiring process.

Fines when it comes to I-9s can range from $100’s to $1,000’s of dollars. It is not worth it and it is easy to avoid if you understand the process.

The top I-9 mistakes that we see are:

• Allowing untrained staff to administer I-9s.

• Not supervising new employees filling out Section 1.

• Timing Errors – Not completing the I-9 within the allotted time (within 3 business days of the date of hire of their employee )

• Accepting unacceptable documents.

• As mentioned above, not realizing their part in the process of verification.

Record Retention Errors

There are requirements when retaining Form I-9s.

Federal regulations state you must retain a Form I-9 for each person you hire for three years after the date of hire, or one year after the date employment ends, whichever is later.

Additionally, Form I-9 should be stored separately from Employee files, under lock and key.

As of 8/17/22, ICE has just proposed the next steps for virtual I-9 document review.

We will be sure to provide this information to all of our clientele as soon as it is available.

As of now, it is important that you understand this process and that you have a team to support you in building out your onboarding program, including verification of I-9s.

Give us a call if you want to learn more about how to audit your I-9s and build an amazing onboarding process.