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Expect practical insights, bold ideas, and real-world stories from across the employment and identity landscape. Not just from ZipID, but from people like you. Because when we swarm together, we build smarter.
What is an HRIS? (And Why It Matters for Growing Businesses)
Mary Southworth, CEO of shiftly.com explains HRIS 101 to the rest of us.
If you're running a small to mid-sized business, you’ve probably heard the term HRIS, maybe during a software demo, maybe while troubleshooting payroll issues.
Here’s what it actually means: HRIS = Human Resources Information System. It’s a tech platform that stores and manages employee data. Think of it as the central hub for your HR operations, from hiring and offboarding to payroll and benefits.
What Can an HRIS Do? An HRIS (Human Resources Information System) helps streamline and centralize your people operations by handling:
- Employee records management
- Time off and leave tracking
- Payroll processing and tax filings
- Time and attendance tracking
- Health insurance and benefits administration
- 401(k)
- Onboarding and applicant tracking (ATS)
- Compliance support and documentation
- PTO and sick leave policy enforcement
- Manage regulatory requirement and mandatory training tracking
- Custom HR analytics, reporting and audit readiness
Can One System Do All of This, or Do I Need Multiple? Yes, some systems can handle it all, and that’s typically what a PEO offers. For many businesses, that all-in-one model may be the best fit. Learn more about how PEOs work here. But depending on your business needs, it might make more sense to use separate systems for payroll, benefits, recruiting, and more. This can give you more flexibility, especially if you've already invested in tools your team knows and likes.
The catch? If you're using multiple platforms, they either need to sync seamlessly or you need clear, reliable processes to keep everything aligned. Either way, you’ll need streamlined checks and balances in place, or you risk costly mistakes, compliance issues, and a lot of manual cleanup.
Why Integration and Processes Matter? When your systems don’t communicate - or your processes aren’t solid - important updates can slip through the cracks, and the consequences can be serious:
- Benefits deductions may not pull correctly from payroll
- 401(k) contributions can fall out of sync or be missed
- Terminations might not update across systems, leaving employees active on benefits or retirement plans when they shouldn’t be
- Address or tax info might get updated in one place but not another, leading to filing errors or compliance risks
Another issue is compliance, from taxes to insurance to the Form I-9, you need to make sure your systems are compliant without bogging your day to day tasks down. It’s more than just a headache. These disconnects can lead to tax mistakes, compliance violations, and frustrated employees.
Where Do I-9s Fit Into This? Form I-9s seem simple, but mistakes can lead to major fines in an ICE audit. They need to be accurate, securely stored, and updated on time. Some HRIS platforms include I-9 tracking, but not all are audit-ready. If your current system doesn’t flag issues or track completions reliably, a standalone I-9 tool may be worth the investment.
Written by: Mary Southworth
The Shiftly
Making HR & Payroll so seamless, you won’t need us anymore.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ZipID ICE-compliant I-9 software?
Yes. ZipID satisfies all five federal electronic I-9 system requirements under 8 CFR § 274a.2 — including compliant audit trails, electronic signature protocols, and secure storage standards. It is specifically designed to meet the March 2026 ICE reclassification that elevated common errors to substantive violations.
As of January 2025, I-9 paperwork violations carry fines of $288 to $2,861 per form under 8 CFR § 274a.10(b)(2). Knowingly hiring unauthorized workers carries fines up to $28,619 per worker for repeat offenses. ICE audit rates in 2025 ran at least ten times higher than the prior year.
ZipID is pursuing certified E-Verify third-party agent status by August 2026. Currently, after the employer signs the I-9, ZipID redirects to E-Verify and automatically populates the resulting case data into the Additional Information field — preserving the complete record for audit purposes.
What is NIST and why does it matter for I-9 verification?
NIST — the National Institute of Standards and Technology — is the federal agency that sets accuracy benchmarks for biometric identity technologies. For I-9 compliance, NIST validation matters because it provides an independent government-verified measure of whether a facial recognition system is reliable enough to trust. ZipID uses NIST-tested algorithms rated at 99.998% accuracy.
ZipID's 1:1 facial recognition is rated at 99.998% accuracy using NIST-validated algorithms — fewer than 2 mismatches per 100,000 verifications. Liveness detection is built in to confirm the selfie is from a real, present person rather than a photo or deepfake.
OCR — Optical Character Recognition — reads and extracts text from government-issued IDs. ZipID uses AI-powered OCR to instantly capture a new hire's ID data and automatically populate the required Form I-9 fields, eliminating manual entry and typos. The AI layer also cross-checks extracted data for logical consistency and flags tampered, synthetic, or spoofed documents.
ZipID uses NIST-validated biometric facial recognition to match a live selfie to the photo on the new hire's government-issued ID. AI-powered OCR extracts and autofills document data. Fraud detection runs in the background checking for tampered, synthetic, or spoofed documents.
Facial authentication is entirely the employer's choice. It confirms that the new hire is who they say they are and that the ID they present matches their live self — especially valuable for remote hires, high-security roles, or industries with elevated identity fraud risk.
How long does it take to complete an I-9 with ZipID?
ZipID completes the entire Form I-9 process — including identity verification, document capture, and E-Verify redirect — in under 8 minutes, for both remote and in-person new hires.
ZipID is an I-9 compliance and identity verification platform that combines facial recognition, OCR document capture, and fraud detection to verify new hire identities and complete Form I-9 in under 8 minutes — with a legally compliant audit trail built in. It is the only I-9 platform built by the person who helped write the federal identity doctrine behind the law.
Who built ZipID?
ZipID was founded by Janice Kephart, former counsel to the 9/11 Commission and a national security identity expert with 25 years of federal and private sector experience, including designing border biometric workflows at MorphoTrak, now Idemia. Kephart authored the federal identity doctrine and biometric entry-exit recommendations underlying today's I-9 compliance framework, and has testified before Congress 19 times.