New Employee Hiring and Orientation

Orientation for new employees helps solidify their relationship with the district and is the process of introducing new employees to their position and work environment. There are many ways in which to orient a new employee. Suggest creating a checklist of items to review with new employees and the following are ideas on documents to include in an orientation packet:

  • Form I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification
  • Form W-4 Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate
  • Form W-4MN Minnesota Employee Withholding Allowance/Exemption Certificate
  • Minnesota New Hire Reporting Form
  • Completed Dept. of Labor and Industry Employee Notice Form
  • PERA: Just the Basics brochure
  • MCIT Employee Assistance Program fact sheet (if applicable)
  • Emergency contact form (if available)
  • Background check form (if applicable)
  • Payroll direct deposit form (if applicable)
  • Health insurance information and enrollment form (if applicable)
  • District’s Policy Handbook (if available)
  • General information sheet on district (if available)
  • Common acronyms used listing (sample provided in Appendix)

Payroll Forms

A brief overview for several payroll forms is provided in this section. This may not be an all-inclusive list and is subject to change as laws and regulations are updated or initiated. BWSR does not provide accounting or legal advice. Please consult with your accountant or legal counsel for more current or additional information. You may also want to check with your county Human Resources for assistance.

Eligibility for Employment

To verify that a new employee is legally eligible to work in the United States, complete the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification (sample provided in Appendix) available on their website: https://www.uscis.gov/forms. Within QuickBooks, the form may be found in the Payroll Center, Hiring Forms. Both employees and employers (or authorized representatives of the employer) must complete the form. The employee must attest to his or her employment authorization and present acceptable document(s) to support identity and employment authorization. The employer must examine the documents to determine if genuine and related to the employee then record document(s) reviewed on the Form I-9.

Income Tax Withholding

To know how much federal income tax to withhold from an employee’s wages, the employer should have a Form W-4 Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate on file. The form is typically updated annually by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

  • Ask all new employees to provide a signed Form W-4 when they start work and make the form effective with the first wage payment. If a new employee doesn’t provide the signed form, withhold income tax as if he/she is single with zero withholding allowances.
  • Employees may file an updated Form W-4 periodically, especially if they owed taxes or received a large refund the previous tax year.
  • Form W-4 available online at: https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-w-4 or potentially within the district’s payroll program. Within QuickBooks, the form may be found in the Payroll Center, Hiring Forms.
  • A Form W-4 claiming exemption from withholding is effective when it is given to the employer and only for that calendar year. To continue to be exempt from withholding in the next calendar year, an employee must provide a new Form W-4. More detail is provided in IRS Publication 15 in Section 9. Withholding from Employees’ Wages.
  • A withholding adjustment for non-resident alien employees is outlined in IRS Publication 15 in Section 9. Withholding from Employees’ Wages.
  • NOTE: If the IRS determines that an employee does not have enough withholding, the IRS will notify the employer by issuing a “lock-in” letter. More info available online at: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/withholding-compliance-questions-and-answers.

To know how much Minnesota state income tax to withhold from an employee’s wages, the MN Dept. of Revenue recommends employees use Form W-4MN to find their MN withholding allowances separate from their federal allowances. New for 2020, every employee that completes a 2020 federal Form W-4 must complete Form W-4MN to determine their Minnesota withholding tax; if the employee does not complete a Form W-4MN, the employer must withhold tax at the single filing status with zero allowances. More information available online at: https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/minnesota-withholding-employees.

New Hire Reporting

Employers report any new employee hires to a designated state new hire registry. A new employee is an employee who hasn’t previously been employed by the organization or was previously employed by the organization but has been separated from such prior employment for at least 60 consecutive days. Many states accept a copy of Form W-4 with employer information added in Boxes 8, 9 and 10. Visit the Office of Child Support Enforcement website for more information: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/css/employers. (IRS Publication 15)

According to the MN New Hire Reporting Center, the State of MN may accept the Form W-4 as noted above, Minnesota New Hire Reporting Form (sample provided in the Appendix), or employers can choose to submit electronically. Most SWCDs submit the Minnesota New Hire Reporting Form. For more information: https://newhire-reporting.com/MN-Newhire/faq.aspx.

Employee Notice

As of July 1, 2019, all employers must provide each employee with a written notice of specific information at the start of their employment and keep a signed copy of the notice on file. The notice must contain required information about an employee’s employment status and terms of employment.

A sample form provided by the Dept. of Labor and Industry is provided in the Appendix. See their website for a Word or editable PDF version of the form: https://dli.mn.gov/business/employment-practices/employee-notice.

PERA’s Defined Benefit Plan

The Notice of Member Enrollment into PERA’s Defined Benefit Plan form identifies the information needed to enroll an employee whose coverage under the Coordinated or Basic plan is required under M.S. §353.01, subd. 2a, 2d(a)(5) or 2d(b). Completion may be required even if the person has prior membership in a different PERA plan based on another public service position or another Minnesota retirement system. In most cases, the data is entered by the district using their online PERA account and most district employees apply for enrollment in the Coordinated Plan. The hard copy form is only submitted by employers who do not have internet or email capabilities. A sample form is provided in the Appendix and also located on PERA’s website at: https://www.mnpera.org/forms/#employer. Best practice would be to provide new employees with information on PERA, such as the PERA: Just the Basics brochure (sample provided in the Appendix) found on the PERA website: https://www.mnpera.org/publications/.

MCIT Employee Assistance Program

If the district is a member of the Minnesota Counties Intergovernmental Trust (MCIT), employees may have access to no-cost, convenient, and confidential counseling. The Employee Assistance Program is a risk management program designed to help employees identify and resolve challenges that may impair their performance at work. It is a voluntary program to assist the employee, employee’s spouse, and employee’s dependents with difficult personal issues through access to professional counselors. Best practice would be to provide employees with a MCIT Employee Assistance Program fact sheet (sample provided in the Appendix) upon hire and have extra fact sheets available in the district office. More information on the MCIT website: https://www.mcit.org/employee-assistance-program/.

Internal Controls

New hire paperwork often requires collecting personal information about employees. Employers should keep this in mind when determining how to securely retain and store the documentation so personal information does not get into the wrong hands. Best practice would be a locked file cabinet within a lockable office space. When the data is no longer required to be retained, the hard copy files should be securely disposed of or shredded.

Officers from the Department of Homeland Security, employees from the Immigrant and Employee Rights Section at the Department of Justice and employees from the Department of Labor may ask to inspect the Form I-9s. No matter how you choose to store the Form I-9s, you must be able to present them to government officials for inspection within three business days of the date requested. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recommends employers keep Form I-9s separate from personnel records to facilitate an inspection request. More information at: https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/retain-store-form-i-9/storing-form-i-9.