Ruby Receptionist and Chat Service Saves over 100 hours Using Remote I-9

Amanda (Self-Proclaimed HR Tech Nerd) Saves 104 Hours a Year on I-9 Management Using WorkBright

Key Results

Time Saved Managing Documents: Gained 2+ hours per week previously spent manually managing Form I-9 and E-Verify processes
Less Compliance Stress: Increased peace of mind and compliance with I-9 field-checking an automated audit trail
Freedom to Hire Anywhere: Improved hiring options, now able to verify & hire the best people for the job no matter where they live

WorkBright actually makes I-9’s sexy and cool, that’s mind blowing
Amanda Sontag | HR Business Partner @ Ruby

Industry

Administrative & Support Services

Hire Type

Remote Hiring, 4+ Hub Locations, Hiring Continuously, 750+ Employees

Solutions

New-Hire Onboarding, Remote I-9, Employee Records, E-Verify, Employee Self-Service

About The Company

ruby.com

Headquarters: Portland Oregon, United States

The Challenge

Ruby’s old onboarding process was painful. Amanda used to dread the repetitive and manual process of bringing on a new cohort of ten to fifteen new people per week.

Employees would come into the office in-person and Amanda would collect their IDs, carefully keeping them in order and scanning them one-by-one. The scan would output one big document, so each would need to be separated and matched manually to the correct I-9. Then Amanda would agonizingly compare each document with the information on the corresponding I-9. If errors were found, Amanda needed to have the employee make corrections and properly document the changes. That tedium sucked up at least two hours of Amanda’s time per week, with the mental burden making it feel even longer.

I hated it! I was doing this whole process for 10-15 people per week. It’s two hours of my day per week and now…they fill out the I-9 and I hit accept and I’m done!

Beyond the painful in-person hiring, an even bigger problem arrived with the onset of the pandemic. Ruby took advantage of the government’s relaxed viewing guidelines to expand their talent search across the country. After a surge in business led them to onboard 400 new employees remotely, Amanda realized they were digging themselves a deep hole. She realized that when this virtual review window ended, they would be required to physically inspect hundreds of documents around the country. That was going to be impossible, so Amanda started searching for a solution that combined the convenience of remote with the permanence of physical inspection.

One day this flexibility is going to change and we’re going to have to verify four hundred I-9s.

The Solution

As the benefits of expanding their hiring radius became apparent, they set out to find a solution that would enable them to transition to a fully remote organization. They needed a technology solution that would enable them to hire a high volume of remote employees quickly without relying on the remote inspection flexibility or a network of notaries.

They needed a new system that was:

Simple to use: They required an intuitive platform to ensure easy adoption by new employees. It also needed to be light on administrative work for the HR team.

It has to be easy, if it’s too hard people aren’t going to do it.

Complaint for remote inspection: They needed a solution for their new hire employment verifications that did not rely on in-person inspection or an expensive and logistically complicated notary network solution but was 100% DHS/ICE compliant.

Capable of high volume hiring: The system needed to be able to handle hundreds of new hires spread across the country with built-in safeguards to make sure the Form I-9’s were filled in correctly and completed on time.

The Results

WorkBright helped Ruby’s team stay on top of a fast growing workforce…

Hours of time saved: By implementing WorkBright, Ruby was able to manage to their remote hiring cadence with ease, onboarding employees efficiently and not relying on the remote inspection relaxation. HR BP Amanda Sontang remembers chaotic days managing paper I-9s for the weekly cohort of 10-15 new employees. With WorkBright, the previously stressful system of collecting form I-9 and running E-Verify became something she looked forward to.

I used to spend hours a week scanning and managing documents for the onboarding of a new cohort. Now, they fill out the I-9, I review to make sure they put things in there correctly, I hit accept and I’m done. It’s beautiful and I love it.

Easy Adoption: One of the key factors that helped Amanda decide on WorkBright was the simplicity and ease of use. She loves how easy it is to find information or manage the I-9 process in the WorkBright app. She is also impressed with the instructive experience that guides her new employees effortlessly through the tricky I-9 form, including the selection of a third-party to complete Section Two.

I love the technology and how easy it is. It was really important to consider the simplicity for my HR team and the end-users. If it’s too hard, people aren’t going to do it.

Freedom to hire anywhere: Ruby was also able to expand its candidate search to find the best talent across the country. As one of the key recruiters, Amanda loves the expansion of the candidate search beyond the limited scope of their two physical offices.

I’m no longer restricted to just finding people near Kansas City or Portland. Now we can focus on finding the best people for the job no matter where they’re located.

Worry free compliance: Though they’ve never been audited, Amanda worried about the compliance of her Form I-9s that were collecting dust in a company filing cabinet. With WorkBright, she has new peace of mind knowing that her I-9s are checked for errors and the system was built to maximize compliance and audit-friendliness.

As HR people, we’re responsible for the I-9. Now that we use WorkBright, I don’t have to worry about every single field. I know that you’ve designed a product that ensures everything is compliant. Now if we were audited, we can provide all our documents with a full audit trail with the press of a button.