Last Updated on March 2, 2023
One problem HR departments have in global workforce management is keeping track of the legal status of each of their company’s foreign national employees. Employers need to be aware of upcoming visa applications, renewals, extensions and expiration dates, and at the same time understand where each case is in the legal process. Otherwise, they put themselves at risk for being noncompliant and potentially losing their employee(s) if they fall out of status.
HR teams should also be aware of any material changes to a sponsored employee’s job before they take place – whether it’s a change in salary, job responsibilities or work location. That way, your organization can file the necessary paperwork and amendments to stay compliant.
The right technology can offer a company real-time access to the visa status of its own workforce. With a centralized visa organizer and company dashboard tracking daily and long-term to-dos, employers can track the status not only of visas and green card petitions, but they can also have complete visibility into the foreign national workforce as a whole. And, a global workforce management platform that notifies employers of necessary visa renewal dates and essential submission dates can help employers stay on top of deadlines.
Agility is faster
When a regulation change impacts certain visas, regions or foreign national employees from specific countries, employers need to know about the change and understand how it impacts their company right away.
Regulatory changes have been too frequent lately for companies to delay or ignore the steps necessary to quickly adapt to such changes. Global workforce management technology like company-level reporting, heat maps and country-of-origin reports enable employers to quickly pull accurate employee and immigration-focused data. With these tools, it’s possible to see who is affected by the shifting tides of immigration and make plans for next steps.
Prioritizing is possible
Rather than facing every immigration task with reactive urgency, HR departments need a way to organize action items and set priorities. Technology makes this possible by helping employers maximize their time.
For example, HR professionals spend a tremendous amount of energy determining which immigration tasks they need to tackle first. While tracking expiration dates alone can be relatively simple, technology helps synchronize company priorities, employee travel schedules and attorney and manager availability, as well as identify which cases are ready to move one step closer to the ultimate legal goal.
Tackling high-priority items first and seeing other lower-priority tasks all in one place allows you to make the best use of your time spent on global workforce management.
Record keeping is key
While companies value employee retention, they often overlook the need to maintain accurate and up-to-date immigration records for each foreign national. And depending on their unique situation, some employees can generate lengthy and complex employee immigration records. These records include information such as years-worth of visa renewals, expiration tracking, sensitive employee and company documentation, attorney communication and travel history.
Managing and maintaining immigration records with technology helps maintain immigration compliance and centralizes documents within a single, secure location for attorneys and HR users to access. Only documentation sharing and advanced communication platforms allow for this level of prioritization, efficiency and data security.
Global workforce management with Envoy
Envoy’s immigration management platform features game-changing visa organizers, document tools and company-level reporting features (including a heat map and employee countries of origin) to help employers manage cases and stay agile in times of changing immigration regulations.
Download our new Immigration Management: Technology’s Role During Times of Regulation Change eBook to explore alternatives to traditional global workforce management. Then contact us to learn more about how a tech-enabled immigration provider can help.
