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  • The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is ending its temporary COVID-19 related policy which allowed employers to use expired List B identity documents when it came to I-9 forms. As a result, expired identity documents will no longer be accepted to verify an employee’s eligibility to work beginning May 1, 2022.

    Authorities were unable to renew List B identity documents in a timely manner after COVID-19 became active in 2020, which allowed employees to temporarily present expired identity documents. Any employee who has provided employers with expired documents from May 1, 2020- April 30, 2022, will now be required to update their I-9s by July 31st, 2022.

    According to DHS: 

    • Any employee who previously presented an expired List B document and is currently still an employee, must provide an updated document establishing their identity.
    • No action is required if the employee is no longer employed by the company.

    There is separate COVID-19-related guidance that allows employers to review Form I-9 documents virtually, which is different than this DHS announcement. Reviewing Form I-9 documents virtually is in effect until at least April 30th, 2022. Dawn Lurie, Senior Counsel in the immigration practice group stated, “The announcement signals to us that we are nearing the end of the COVID-19 relaxation of the in-person review policy, which means that companies should start to address the population of folks that were virtually completed.”

    A violation in this regard could cost anywhere from $234 to thousands of dollars. Stacey Larotonda, GMS’ Vice President of Client Services, shares, “While some business owners think they are being cost savvy by keeping their HR functions in-house, they’re actually gambling on how expensive an overlooked error could be. All too often we see business owners being slapped with large fines, simply because they didn’t know better or weren’t keeping up with these legislative changes.”

    Regulatory compliance is complex and ever-changing. For our 2,000+ clients across the country, GMS handles these responsibilities so the business owners don’t have to. Get in touch today.

  • U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently announced an extension of the flexibility in rules related to Form I-9 compliance that was initially granted last year. With the ongoing pandemic, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has extended this policy until April 30th, 2022.

    Under said policy, employers may inspect the I-9 documents of certain remote employees by way of camera or fax. This extension will lend a hand in ensuring the guidance for employees hired on or after April 1, 2021, that work exclusively in remote settings due to COVID-19-related precautions, will remain in place until they undertake non-remote employment on a regular, consistent, or predictable basis, or until the extension is terminated. Upon commencing non-remote employment, the employer must verify the employee’s documents in person, within three business days.

    While some questions were raised in determining what to do if a remote employee leaves the job before the employer has a chance to inspect their I-9 documents in person, ICE provided the following information: “Employers may be unable to timely inspect and verify, in-person, the Form I-9 supporting documents of employee(s) hired since March 20, 2020, . . .in case-by-case situations (such as cases in which affected employees are no longer employed by the employer). In such cases, employers may memorialize the reason(s) for this inability in a memorandum retained with each affected employee’s Form I-9. Any such reason(s) will be evaluated, on a case-by-case basis, by DHS ICE in the event of a Form I-9 audit.” Still, little clarity is provided when a “case by case” policy is referenced. That said, GMS’ Vice President of Client Services Stacey Larotonda recommends employers do what they can in obtaining Form I-9 documentation physically to avoid any complications down the road.

    ICE is anticipated to significantly expand its I-9 inspection efforts when the pandemic nears its end – at which point, the federal government will be looking for errors made under the relaxed rules, as well as other commonly made mistakes – such as not entering the initial date of employment or incorrectly submitting a section. Knowing that the minimum fine per individual for paperwork or technical violations in 2020 was $234, and could run upwards of thousands of dollars, it’s recommended that an employer first self-audits, then partners with a PEO like GMS to assist in the efforts.

    Our HR experts will continue to monitor for updates in this matter. To learn more about GMS and how our services could be your best defense against I-9 errors, contact us today.

  • You need to identify problems before you can fix them. Inefficiencies, non-compliance, and other issues with HR policies can hurt your business, especially when you’re not sure why they exist. Fortunately, you don’t need a private-eye to get to the bottom of this mystery. What your company could use is a good human resource audit.

    Professional Employer Organizations can perform HR audits and provide recommendations on where you can improve. Here are three reasons why it might be time for your business to undergo an HR audit.

    Image of a frustrated owner. Human resource audits can help uncover sources of stress and strengthen your business.

    You’re Worried About Compliance

    Whether you’re not sure if your business is compliant or you know that there are lingering compliance issues, an audit can help. There are dozens of HR components and non-compliance can lead to costly fines. An HR audit will help uncover any compliance issues and help you take steps to fix them.

    There’s Miscommunication Between Departments

    Since there are several HR components, it can be easy to lose track of them and develop deficiencies in certain areas. This can lead to a lack of communication with various business departments. An audit can help get your business and its employees back up to speed on the state of your company’s HR.

    I’m Spending Way Too Much Time

    HR audits help businesses uncover more than just issues within human resources. As a business owner, you may be taking the lead on managing your company’s HR. Unfortunately, you may be spending so much time on it that it’s hurting your ability to focus on other areas of your business. An HR audit can help you discover more efficient and effective ways to manage human resources so that you can work on growing your business instead.

    Schedule a Human Resources Audit

    Business owners may be experts in their fields, but they’re not always able to effectively manage HR for their companies. Group Management Services can perform HR audits to analyze your business for compliance, best practices, strategy, and other specific functions. A dedicated HR specialist will then provide you with a comprehensive report and provide any recommendations on how you can improve internal processes and strengthen your business. Contact GMS today to schedule an HR audit today.

  • Between offering competitive benefits and combating rising premiums, managing your business’ healthcare needs is a complex situation. Group health insurance plays a key part in attracting and retaining top talent. However, selecting and managing the right health plans for your company and employees takes an enormous amount of time and effort. It’s a delicate balancing act that can be difficult for any small business owner.

    Fortunately, you don’t need to go through this balancing act alone. A Professional Employer Organization (PEO) can not only help you offer quality, cost-effective healthcare benefits, but also give you the support necessary to develop benefits strategies and navigate any future changes. Let’s break down seven major reasons why a good PEO is a great choice for your small business’ health insurance.

    Cost savings from a PEO processing a claim for a small business’ health insurance plan. 

    Greater Buying Power

    It’s not easy dealing with health insurance companies directly. Policy administration and billing is not only difficult, but also expensive. For small and mid-sized businesses with fewer employees, you could end up being charged higher premiums because you simply don’t have the buying power of a bigger organization.

    That’s where PEOs can help. A PEO represents multiple organizations and all the employees hired by those groups. As such, PEOs can leverage their collective buying power to act as one large company. This arrangement means that small to mid-size companies working with a PEO can get the competitive benefits and smaller premiums of a big business, all thanks to a convenient partnership.

    Of course, your partnership with a PEO should be about more than just added buying power. You should also consider how the PEOs pool the participants and how it affects your premiums. For example, GMS represents tens of thousands of employees, but it does not pool all those employees together. Instead, GMS built our own plan designs.

    What does this arrangement mean for employers? Essentially, your company is rated for your own group based on your own demographic and your health instead of being grouped in with every other company. This process means that your premiums are dictated by your group’s rating, so you don’t need to settle for a lesser plan to see both short and long-term cost savings. With the right PEO, you can focus on cutting costs, not coverage.

    Ancillary Advantages

    Group health insurance isn’t the only benefit that PEOs can help deliver at competitive pricing. Greater buying power also allows PEOs to offer ancillary options on a mass level. This arrangement is especially advantageous for certain groups where certain ancillary benefits would be cost-prohibitive or even unattainable. 

    For example, imagine you ran a small roofing company. A lot of times, your SIC code serves as the basis for your rate. Because of this, you may not be able to get disability coverage at a reasonable cost through traditional means. However, a PEO’s group buying power can give at-risk employers or small groups cost-effective access to multiple lines of coverage, healthcare, and ancillary benefits.

    Benefits and Payroll Under the Same Roof

    Organizationally, it’s a huge benefit to have healthcare and payroll administration talking to one another through the administrative systems. Non-PEOs typically have a payroll processor or some other system and need someone to manually enter healthcare rates for a new employee or during renewal. When it’s all under one roof, you have one group handling everything instead of needing two different entities to hopefully stay in sync.

    With a PEO, your payroll and healthcare administration have the means to work with one another through the systems and streamline this process. Automatic payroll deductions are set up when your benefits kick in for new hires or at open enrollment. The two systems will also be able to automate paycheck deductions and identify which items should be pre-tax and which shouldn’t.

    By having both payroll and healthcare administration working together, you do more than just streamline the process. This scenario lessens the amount of manual entry required, which frees you or a key employee up for other tasks. Automating the process can also help eliminate potential data error – humans make mistakes, after all. In addition, having payroll and benefits administrators work together allows a PEO to directly resolve any issues for you instead of having you involved in every step of the process.

    Online Enrollment

    Another advantage of having payroll and benefits together is that it allows for online enrollment. The automated system of a PEO can help guide employees during the renewal process and educate them about the products they can elect. Since healthcare and payroll administration is tied together, the online enrollment process allows employees to see exactly how their choices impact them in terms of coverage and pricing. 

    From there, employees can confirm their selections right then and there without ever needing any paper documents. This situation simplifies the process for not only the employees, but also you and any office administrators who would have to deal with the headaches associated with enrollment documents. With a PEO, that’s all generated for the employee to handle and deal with, saving you time and plenty of frustration.

    Audit and Process Claims for You

    Depending on the PEO you choose, these organizations can offer another key benefit: auditing and processing claims for you. While some vendors utilize the fully-insured market and Affordable Care Act plans, this scenario can leave your company at the mercy of the providers. Instead, it’s better to partner with all major insurance providers and provide a better experience for small businesses.

    How can a PEO do this? At GMS, we built our own plan with internal administration to give us more control over that plan and the costs. This arrangement gives us the ability to audit and process all our own claims. In this process, your PEO can make sure that the usual customary rate was charged or fight on your behalf to get a discount or reduction on that claim. 

    The ability to audit claims also opens up opportunities to find other ways to save. Part of the audit is used to analyze how the individuals in your group use your plan. The results of this analysis can indicate certain trends that add avoidable costs – for example, using telemedicine services for free doctor’s calls to avoid copays. Not only will this analysis educate your group on the best, most cost-effective way to utilize the plan, it will also help you save in the long run.

    Free Administration

    If you were to turn to an accountant or lawyer with compliance, legal, or administration questions, that extra time will typically cost you. That’s a very unfortunate arrangement for a business owner. Rules and regulations change every day, so it’s only natural to have some inquiries about how they can impact your business. You also can’t be expected to know everything about healthcare and payroll administration – that’s why people train specifically for those fields. 

    With most PEOs, the time spent answering those questions is covered as part of your main fees. Not only that, but you’ll also have a team of experts on hand to answer whatever questions pop up about healthcare, payroll, or other administrative needs. You get the answers you need, without the fear of having those questions affect your bottom line.

    Ability to Lighten Other Administrative Burdens

    When you run a business, there are a multitude of administrative burdens that rest on your shoulders. A PEO is a tremendous solution for companies that don’t have the time or expertise to effectively manage more than group health insurance.

    While you can turn to a PEO for just health insurance and payroll, an organization like GMS can help you easily take additional administrative burdens off your shoulders when you’re ready. This gives you the ability to have one team expertly run risk management, employee recruiting, and other key HR functions as your company grows.

    Ready to simplify your business’ administrative needs? Contact GMS today to talk to our experts about small business health insurance today.