Thursday, June 21, 2007

Immigration: The Challenge for Employers!

With all the flap about immigration, our government will eventually enforce the laws for employers who hire undocumented workers.  Employers that I have worked for have required documented proof in the form of a “valid” state ID and Social Security card.  The trouble is that these documents are easily counterfeited and available to those who want them.  If a job applicant presents these documents you cannot deny work.

Knowing this, how do you protect your company?  One way is to verify Social Security numbers with the Social Security Administration.  It can be done on-line for a few employees, or you can upload your entire payroll to the Social Security Administration. Social Security will then notify you of all those employees with phony SS numbers.  Wouldn’t it be nice if your H/R package would electronically do that for all new hires?  You bet it would!

Maintaining employee identification documents in the form of copies of the SS card, state ID, photos, etc., is time consuming, and documents could be misplaced, misfiled, or lost.  We desperately need an automated system that would have the ability to digitally record and assign these electronic documents to the employee’s H/R file in an easy to use, intuitive manner!

We need on-line verification and digital documents now, in time to meet regulatory standards.  Eventually, government will mandate we do it, and you can be sure they will want every piece of information gathered for the past 10 years!