Utilizing the I-9: Now Accepting E-Signatures

As spring is the time when life begins anew, it is an excellent opportunity to “spring into action” to put a fresh face on payroll documentation starting with the I-9 ahead of June 30’s National ESIGN Day. Traditionally, maybe not the most exciting topic, payroll documentation and new hire paperwork, the Shared Services Center is excited to integrate the Earth-friendly application, the DocuSign Agreement Cloud and eSignature, to our on-boarding processes.

One small step for the SSC, but a greater leap forward for the planet, in partnership with Human Resources, and in compliance with 2000’s federal ESIGN Act, we are beginning to turn to electronic signatures and documents to secure our audit trails. While on its face, it may not be the first document we think of when refreshing a process, the I-9 Employment Eligibility Form will be the first piece of this puzzle. Ideal because it changes annually, the I-9 is a sensitive document because it includes identifying information including social security numbers, but also passport numbers, license numbers, and the sort of thinks we tend not to publish on our social media profiles, for example, and hence, requires special attention.

The key piece for hiring managers is that the I-9 needs to be completed within three days of the start of employment meaning the first day the employee actually works, the first day that we will pay them for their new jobs. Taking the document electronic does hasten the speed in which it is processed, however, it will require the collection of email addresses up front in the hiring process, an action that is likely already happening in a less pronounced way.

DocuSign was an ideal solution for UMBC because it has proven to be so secure and user-friendly in its intuitiveness and straightforward graphic use interface. The web-based application easily routes documents to the appropriate parties for signature and allows for review and approval through a user-defined predetermined route that also allows for carbon copies to be delivered. It is key to remember to alert recipients that documents will arrive via an email that will link into a DocuSign secure account, matching your UMBC username, where users can record their own signatures manually or with the use of a font.

The SSC is proud to incorporate DocuSign into our processes this spring. Never hesitate to reach out to our team with any questions or concerns, especially as we get used to the new tool in our belts that helps with our onboarding processes. We look forward to successful implementation so that we can take more steps towards more data in the clouds, more trees in the forest, and less paper across our desks.

For common questions regarding the usage of DocuSign, check out their FAQ at https://support.docusign.com/en/

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