Paper I-9s, AI Bias and $27K Fines: Where HR Compliance Breaks in 2026

The latest episode of You Should Know, titled The HR Compliance Risks Companies Keep Missing, hosted by Ryan Leary of the WRKdefined Podcast Network, brings listeners a candid conversation with Jeremy Mancheski, Founder and CEO of OutSolve. Published August 11, 2026, the episode examines why HR compliance has grown harder in a landscape of overlapping federal, state, city and county rules, aggressive ICE enforcement, and rapidly emerging AI hiring tools. Mancheski, who founded OutSolve in 1998, explains why technology has not eliminated the need for experienced human oversight and where most employers are quietly exposed.

Leary and Mancheski cover the ground where compliance actually breaks down inside real companies. Topic threads include:

• The persistence of paper I-9 forms and inconsistent retention practices in an electronic era
• Remote workforce risk across differing state, city and county posting, pay transparency and reporting rules
• AI hiring decisions, potential bias, and the Workday-related litigation raising accountability questions
• Break room compliance posters as the overlooked foundation of a company's compliance posture
• The uncertain future of the EEO-1 report and why blue states are building their own versions

Mancheski does not soft-pedal the financial stakes. "You could have up to $27,000 for a fine for a violation in I-9s, and that's per employee," he tells Leary, noting that ICE enforcement is currently prevalent and that most employers have deficiencies they do not know about. On the political whiplash reshaping HR, he adds: "You've had harder swings in one direction, then the next administration swings them in the other, and it's muddied those lanes a bit." The conversation is direct, practical, and grounded in what OutSolve's roughly 70 HR compliance consultants see inside client accounts every week.

The deeper argument in the episode is that what is old is new again. Mancheski points to the mid-1990s shift from paper applications to applicant tracking systems as a mirror for today's move from paper I-9s to electronic verification, including remote I-9 verification that emerged during COVID. He also urges HR leaders to physically read their break room posters, because federal OSHA notices and state-specific requirements often reveal contradictions between red-state and blue-state obligations. On AI, he compares current hiring tools to those first-generation ATS platforms: useful, but flawed, with bias issues that plaintiffs' attorneys and regulators are already testing in court.

You Should Know is a WRKdefined Podcast Network show co-hosted by Ryan Leary and William Tincup that unpacks the pivotal leadership challenges reshaping the workplace. Reaching more than 3.9 million verified listeners each month, the podcast explores workforce dynamics, career mobility, HR technology and the human side of the evolving world of work. Learn more at wrkdefined.com/podcast/you-should-know. The episode is available now wherever podcasts are heard.

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