I-9 Audits on Restaurants

It’s no secret that the hospitality industry experiences high turnover. Restaurants don’t often keep waiters or waitresses on staff for long periods of time (in comparison to other industries), because fact of the matter is that for many employees it’s just a part time job, a transitional period of their life, or a way to temporarily make a little extra money on the weekends.

It is for this reason among a few others that the hospitality industry has become an easy target for I-9 audits. With employees coming and going all of the time, keeping up with the paperwork can be a fulltime job in itself. Every restaurant owner knows that the I9 form needs to be completed (ensuring that their new employee is eligible to work in the US), but they may not be completing this form in a timely manner, or they may be waiting a few weeks to see if a particular employee will stick around.

This is a BIG mistake! Avoiding a minor administrative headache today or placing this task on the backburner can result in a big compliance violation in the event that you’re audited by the government. If your business is randomly selected for an audit, you could have as little as three days’ notice before documents have to be surrendered. If your restaurant is in violation, hefty (and sometimes debilitating) fines will follow.

So, what can you do? The first option is to always ensure your restaurant is operating in compliance. Although, for busy business owners, sometimes mistakes are entirely innocent and unavoidable; we make them by accident or we’re just not educated enough within one particular area of employee management.

The alternative chosen by many restaurant owners is to work with a PEO. If you visit the “HR Solutions for the Restaurant Industry” section of our blog you’ll see that PEOs come with many benefits beyond their help and expertise surrounding compliance and new hire paperwork. They’re able to bundle nearly all HR and compliance responsibilities under one cost effective umbrella to ensure that your business is run as effectively and efficiently as possible.

To learn more about PEOs operating within the restaurant industry, click here. If you have any specific questions, feel free to contact us at Employer Solutions Plus: 727-698-6207.