After nearly three years, the COVID national health emergency has officially been suspended. No, we haven’t heard the last of COVID—it feels a surge can always be just around the corner—but things will begin going back to normal.
Well, not everything. A lot has changed since March, 2020 as the pandemic accelerated many social and cultural trends that were already playing out. Examples include the proliferation of contactless payment, which is accepted at nearly every retail establishment these days, outdoor dining’s proliferation, and all those pandemic plants and pets people adopted.
And then there was the remote work revolution. At first by necessity, remote work became an overnight reality, with people figuring out how to login and Zoom the day away on the fly. As certain sectors took off (tech, e-commerce) hiring became an entirely remote enterprise.
Sure, there is a back-to-office push underway in many industries, and some never went truly remote in the first place. But the fact remains that a broad range of companies made the decision to begin hiring outside their operational centers and have found the incentives to continue doing so.
Hiring remote workers allows businesses to save on their overhead expenses by reducing or eliminating office space, it allows them to draw from a national and even international talent pool, and it draws in top-tier workers who have no intention of ever setting foot in an office again.
As with contactless payment and other pandemic-inspired shifts, it’s hard to imagine an in-office world where we go back to the way it was.
Back to Before: DHS Renews In-Person Requirement for I-9 Verification
There was, of course, one pandemic-era change that is most decidedly not permanent—one that has huge implications for companies that expanded their remote roster.
Starting in March 2020, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) temporarily suspended the in-person requirement for I-9 Verifications. This meant that companies could hire remote workers and complete Section 2 of their I-9 over a video conferencing platform like Zoom. In a time of mandated social distancing, the policy suspension made sense, and remained in place for over three years.
Now that the national health emergency has been lifted, however, DHS is likewise lifting this suspension: the temporary flexibility on the in-person I-9 requirements will end on July 31 of this year.
For companies accustomed to onboarding remote employees remotely, this policy shift complicates things.
TrendSource Remote I-9 Verifications Meet In-Person Requirements for Remote Workers
Fortunately, there is already a solution in place. TrendSource Remote I-9 Verifications + E-Verify.
TrendSource’s Remote I-9 Verifications pair new remote hires with a Field Agent in their area—together they complete Section 2 in-person, and the completed I-9 is uploaded through the TrendSource portal to a client’s dashboard.
Want to learn a bit more about how Remote I-9 Verifications work? Check out this step-by-step guide, and also one from a New Hire’s POV.
With an intuitive online ordering platform and Field Agents distributed across the nation, TrendSource can help companies expand and maintain their remote employee roster while remaining in compliance with the renewed in-person requirements.
While some things aren’t going back, employment eligibility verification certainly is. TrendSource Remote I-9 Verifications help companies keep the good remote times rolling.
