If it feels like the compliance space is ever-changing, it’s because it is! Between new procedures, updated guidance, and shifting enforcement priorities, there is too much for a hiring manager or small business owner to manage – especially with everything you already juggle every day.  You need a HERO to help you Hire, Engage, Retain, and Offboard securely.  Enter us: The Hayes Approach (THA)! 

We flex our “compliance muscles” every day.  Every. Single. Day. We put in the effort and do the research, so you can focus on growing your team and your business. Most recently, we attended Mitratech’s session on remote hiring and I-9 risk — specifically, how to get the DHS alternative procedure right. A few things stood out enough that we wanted to pass along. 

The biggest one: a sharp rise in ICE Notices of Inspection (NOIs). This is an increase of roughly tenfold from 2024 to 2025 which signals that I-9 audits are becoming significantly more common. Importantly, the presenters noted that many of the compliance issues being identified aren’t intentional violations. More often, they’re procedural errors tied to changes made to the remote I-9 verification process in recent years. That said, some errors, even unintentional ones, are now immediately finable, which makes getting the process right more important than ever. 

A lot of that risk centers on the DHS-authorized alternative procedure for remote I-9 verification. This isn’t as simple as completing an I-9 over Zoom or Teams — employers must follow four specific steps every time the process is used, and missing any one of them can create a compliance issue: 

1. Receive copies of the employee’s documents before step two.
2. Conduct a live, interactive video review.
3. Complete the required Section 2 alternative procedure checkbox. 
4. Retain front-and-back copies of the documents presented. 

It’s also essential to remember that active E-Verify enrollment is required to use the alternative procedure, and that it must be applied consistently across each hiring site. Selecting some employees for remote verification while requiring others to complete the process may create anti-discrimination concerns. 

Common Pitfalls to Avoid 

• Using the alternative procedure without active E-Verify enrollment 
• Failing to check the required Section 2 alternative procedure checkbox 
• Receiving document copies after the video review, rather than before 
• Retaining only the front of documents
• Treating a general onboarding call as the document examination 
• Applying the process inconsistently across employees at the same hiring site 

Action Items to Consider 

• Confirm E-Verify enrollment before using remote I-9 verification procedures 
• Review your remote I-9 process to make sure all four required steps are being completed, in order 
• Audit remote I-9s completed since August 2023 to confirm the Section 2 alternative procedure checkbox was properly completed 
• Continue maintaining consistent document retention practices, including retaining front-and-back copies where required 
• Make sure anyone involved in I-9 completion or onboarding has been trained on the alternative procedure requirements and applies them consistently 

The Bottom Line 

So…if that felt like a lot of information to take in, you’re not alone. The alternative procedure can feel like something you’ve got down, until the requirements shift again. The good news is that it doesn’t have to fall entirely on you as a hiring manager or HR professional. THA can step in to help train your team, review your process, or support you through your own audit. And if this recap gave you a clearer sense of what compliant I-9 practices should look like, even better — that’s always the goal: confidence in compliance, from our business to yours.

When a major incident of workplace violence occurs, the incident is heavily covered by the news. Because news outlets typically cover only the most disastrous of events (often involving homicide), employers and HR professionals tend to slip into the fallacy of believing that workplace violence incidents are few and far between. Many think that a violent incident would NEVER occur in their own organization, so no significant action on their part is required to avoid it… Furthermore, employers know their employees and can clearly identify potential threats, right? Wrong.

Workplace violence is defined as the act or threat of violence (ranging from verbal abuse to physical assault) directed toward people at work or on duty and occurs more often than one would think. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), an average of nearly 2 million U.S. workers report having been a victim of violence at work each year.

What Employers Need to Know

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to protect employees against violence at work, but employers are legally obligated to ensure that employees understand how to prepare for and react to violence. According to OSHA’s Enforcement Procedures and Scheduling for Occupational Exposure to Workplace Violence, “employers may be found in violation of the General Duty Clause if they fail to reduce or eliminate serious recognized hazards.” When investigating a workplace violence incident, inspectors analyze evidence to decide whether an employer recognized the existence of a potential workplace violence hazard affecting his or her employees. Employers can be held liable for a variety of common-law principles including premises liability, respondent superior, negligence in hiring or retention, as well as discrimination and harassment claims that may arise. Now that the legal framework is out of the way… what can you as an employer do to make sure that your workforce is prepared for and responds quickly to violence?

It is important to recognize that all companies are different, so each employer will require a unique plan to fit their organization’s specific circumstances. However, implementing the following strategies can drastically help to deter violent incidences from occurring:

• Encourage employees to report any type of threatening or abnormal behavior. If they are questioning whether a behavior should be reported, it is always best to err on the side of over-reporting.
• Implement a zero-tolerance policy toward workplace violence. Any behavior that makes an employee feel uncomfortable is cause for concern.
• Be familiar with the warning signs. Certain behaviors such as aggression, hostility, hypersensitivity, and prolonged anger are red flags that a dangerous incident could be pending.
• Training should be offered to all employees and conducted at least annually. Training topics are to include an overview of the company’s individual violence prevention plan as well as identify risk factors and ways to diffuse tense situations. In the words of SC Law Enforcement Division (SLED), “If you have not trained your employees to do something, you have trained them to do nothing – and you are liable.”

We have just scratched the surface on workplace violence in hopes that your organization will reflect on its own ability to respond in the face of a violent incident. Do you have a prevention plan in place? Do your employees know what their role is in preventing workplace violence?

The Hayes Approach offers assistance with understanding the specific liabilities that pertain to employers as well as professional insight on handling sticky circumstances including terminations and cases that involve mental illness. Give us a call at (864) 509-7496 to learn more about how we can help!

Prepared by Audrey Kapp, HR Administrator at The Hayes Approach

Resources

CDC – Occupational Violence – NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic. (2019, October 3). Retrieved December 10, 2019, from https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/violence/default.html.

Enforcement Procedures and Scheduling for Occupational Exposure to Workplace Violence. (2017, January 10). Retrieved December 5, 2019, from https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/enforcement/directives/CPL_02-01-058.pdf.

Understanding Workplace Violence Prevention and Response. (2019). Retrieved December 12, 2019, from https://sso.shrm.org/IDBUS/SHRM/PORTAL-EE/JOSSO/SSO/REDIR?josso_cmd=login&josso_partnerapp_id=portal-sp.

Workplace Violence. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/workplaceviolence/.

Six months later, I am proud to say that South Carolina is leading the charge in developing better data.

South Carolina’s Act 67 (Statewide Education and Workforce Development Act), effective July 2023, created the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development. One of their primary duties is to create a Unified State Plan (USP) for education and workforce development. Underlying that objective are several data-oriented duties, one of which is coming into play as I write this.

Businesses in the Palmetto State need to be aware as this will impact them at some level.

Firms who file quarterly Unemployment Compensation wage reports to SC Department of Employment and Workforce (SCDEW) will be required beginning with first quarter 2024 reports (due by April 30, 2024) to provide Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes and number of hours worked for each employee.

In prior years, SCDEW had collected only NAICS or industry codes. This provided aggregate-level data on how particular industries were faring in terms of employment and overall wages. It did NOT provide data linked to occupations. This data – appropriately cleaned, deidentified, aggregated and reported to the public – can be invaluable for students and job seekers as they explore their next opportunity well as for business and political leaders as they evaluate the effectiveness of the education and workforce development systems.

South Carolina is only the fifth state in the country to require SOC reporting. The others are Alaska, Louisiana, Washington, and West Virginia (Jan 2024). The foresight of our leadership should be lauded.

How should employers prepare? I recently spoke to Leslie Hayes with The Hayes Approach. Leslie shared the following guidance:

Work with your payroll provider to create a field to allow you to enter the SOC code along with job title at the time of new hire or status change. Add the SOC field to your new hire and status change checklists to ensure that the field is not overlooked and review all SOC codes annually (or on the same frequency that you review job descriptions and pay levels) to ensure that they accurately reflect changes in the position that occur over time.

Work with your payroll and/or IT provider to create a custom report that will report hours worked by SOC code without requiring you to calculate that information manually. It may take a little set up time and, perhaps, a financial investment to get the report created, but you will save money, aggravation, and errors in the long term.

The Hayes Approach works with nearly 50 small businesses who use 12 payroll systems between them, and, while it is easier with some systems than others, they are collaborating with each payroll system provider to track this information.

Businesses may find selecting SOC codes a bit challenging, a bit like comparing job titles for compensation surveys. It’s never totally a straightforward matter, especially if employees are performing duties that cross several SOC codes.

To ensure that employers are prepared to meet the spring deadline, Employers Network recently provided a complimentary interactive training session. Members of the SC DEW team guided participants through the process of locating SOC codes for employees and how to include them in your reports. To view a recording of this webinar click here. The passcode is SCDEW-SOC2024.

South Carolina should be proud of this step in creating better data systems. While there will be some initial work on the part of employers, their payroll firms or HR partners, the payoff will be significant for future South Carolinians. As we say about the Chamber’s Accelerate initiative, we are planting seeds for trees under whose shade we may not sit. We know however that there will be shade for future generations.