- DATE:
- AUTHOR:
- The Fountain team
Email-First Rehire Matching in I-9 Center
When I-9 Center is active, two workers who share a personal email address are now always matched, so a returning worker's paperwork lands on their existing record.
Matching relied entirely on the attributes each customer selected, such as social security number, personal email, and date of birth, and on whether all or any of them had to agree. That worked until the data disagreed with itself. A worker returning with a different SSN but the same email would not match, and would be created as a new identity. Worse in the other direction: two different people sharing an email address could end up with one person's I-9 attached to the other, or with one blocking the other's approval.
What's new
Email is matched first, and always — When I-9 Center is active, workers who share a personal email address are matched before any other criteria are considered.
Your criteria handle the rest — Where emails differ, the attributes you selected and your all-or-any logic run exactly as configured.
Email is re-checked afterwards — A subsequent change of email address is still picked up, so a match is not lost because the address moved.
EIN boundaries hold throughout — All matching happens against workers associated with the same EIN.
Clearer guidance in settings — The Worker profiles matching and rehire page states the email rule directly, so the behavior is visible where the criteria are chosen.
Why it matters
A returning worker's I-9 history is only useful if it attaches to the right person, and email is the most dependable thing a rehire brings back with them. Matching on it first removes the most common cause of split records, and just as importantly stops one person's I-9 from being handed to someone who merely shares their inbox.
What to expect
This governs matching from here on. Profile links that are already wrong are not repaired, and historical I-9 records are not backfilled. These settings apply through the automation that checks for existing worker profiles, so they take effect when that automation runs.
Availability
Available to all I-9 Center customers.