From AI to I-9 3 hiring changes to manage in 2024

From AI to I-9: 3 hiring and compliance changes to manage in 2024

January 11, 2024 4:21 PM

Two managers shake the hand of a young Asian woman in a conference room.

As technology transforms the hiring landscape, legislation works to catch up — and employers will have to reckon with the compliance changes that come with the race.

While 2023 marked the start of regulation around AI employment decision-making tools, as well as the expansion of anti-discriminatory policies like clean slate laws, more companies are likely to feel the full effect of new legislation this year. For example, New York City's AI law, which mandates employers audit their automated hiring tools for discriminatory patterns or conclusions, wasn't enforceable until July 2023; 2024 is the first year employers are at risk of being fined for non-compliance.

"We are in a rapidly changing environment, and it raises a lot of concerns," says Angela Preston, associate general counsel for corporate ethics and compliance at Sterling, a company that helps conduct pre-employment background checks. "A lot of the change is happening at the state and local level, so employers really need to pay attention."

Whether it's AI bias audits or employment eligibility verification forms otherwise known as I-9, there are new rules employers will have to follow in the new year. Here are three hiring and compliance changes to look out for.

AI tools in the hiring process

New York City's AI law may have a limited scope, but employers should be prepared to see similar laws in their city or state. In fact, 12 states, including Alabama, California, Texas, Vermont and Washington, have enacted laws that require their state government or related entities to gain institutional knowledge of AI. Meanwhile, the federal government has issued guidance stating that new technologies still need to be consistent with existing Federal Equal Employment Opportunity laws. Preston advises employers to check whether their AI hiring tools come with built-in bias, even if they aren't required to conduct an audit by law.

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"Make sure your tools are properly vetted in order to ensure that the technology does not have an unintended impact of discriminating against protected groups," she says. "A tool that goes through an audit could demonstrate that the tool itself doesn't have a discriminatory impact on applicants."

Clean slate laws

Clean slate laws require records of certain criminal convictions to be sealed, with those records now only accessible to certain federal agencies and law enforcement. This makes it easier for those who have been incarcerated to find a job without fear of their past haunting their background check. New York is the latest and twelfth state to adopt a clean slate law, signing the law just last year alongside Minnesota. States like Utah, South Dakota, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania have adopted similar legislation in the last five years.

Preston warns affected employers that since there is no federal rule, they should review the stipulations of their state's clean slate law to find out what kind of convictions are eligible and how long an individual has to be conviction-free to gain that seal.

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"This is a good opportunity to take a look at your policies and revisit what information you're looking for and asking in terms of criminal history," says Preston. "It's absolutely still incumbent on employers to do their due diligence with candidates, but these new pieces of legislation are aiming to reduce discrimination based on someone's criminal background."

I-9 forms go digital

Employment eligibility verification forms, or I-9s, verify the identity and employment authorization of anyone hired in the U.S. — it's a form all employers must complete each time they gain a new employee. Before COVID, employers were required to physically review an employee's documentation and confirm the information. However, due to the pandemic, employers could do this remotely through a government platform called E-Verify. U.S. But the Department of Homeland Security has offered employers an alternative: For employers already enrolled in E-Verify and who have used it between March 20, 2020, and July 31, 2023, they can continue to perform remote examinations of their employees' I-9 forms.

Preston notes that this marks a big transition, as it comes from the federal level.

"Because of COVID, we got a glimpse of what the world could look like and how it could work and be successful," she says. "A new rule like that is actually a big win for employers."