Mathew PaquetChecklist · 4 min read
The Payroll and Hiring Sign-Off Sheet
Decide what an AI agent may do alone in payroll and hiring, and where your name still goes, so approving means you checked.
Derek Mobley says AI hiring software rejected him for more than a hundred jobs, so he sued the software company, Workday, not the employers. Nothing is decided, and Workday says the case is without merit. But in letting it go forward, the judge wrote that an employer can't escape liability by handing off a job like hiring to a third party.
What an AI agent is. AI that doesn't just answer: it takes the next step. Workday's three words are anticipate, advise and act. Small business payroll apps have them already:
Every one of these companies says a person approves. Now do the math on that 10 percent. A landscaping company has twelve hourly crew. One crew member's hours come in ten short. At $25 an hour, that is $250, about 2 percent of the whole run. If the 10 percent is measured on the whole run, there is no text. The owner approves, and someone is paid $250 less than they earned.
If you can't say why someone's check is different, you didn't approve it. You received it.If the agent gets one of the left-hand steps wrong, you lose a few minutes. That is also where most of the time savings are.
Before it submits, text [NAMED PERSON] a list of what changed since last week, person by person: hours, overtime, tips, total pay.
Flag any one person whose pay is different from last week, and why.
Don't submit until [NAMED PERSON] approves.
Check the first run. After you type a standing order, look at the first text it sends. If it shows a total and not each person, the order isn't doing what you asked.
Nobody signs off on ten thousand rejections one by one, so the signature moves to the rules. In law, an agent is someone who acts for you, and whose actions you can answer for. Responsibility doesn't move to the software. It adds up: you still answer, and your vendor might too.
None of this is legal advice.
Workday is building an off switch into a product called Agent Passport: it tests each agent before it goes live, watches it after, and Workday says a single revocation can stop or limit an agent across the business. In a twelve person company it's simpler. Fill this in once.
Runs in: [APP]
Set up by: [NAME] Date: [DATE]
Who approves its work: [NAME]
How to stop it: [THE EXACT STEPS, OR WHO TO CALL]
How to stop the texts: [THE EXACT STEPS]
Then ask any vendor selling you an agent these three questions, and keep the answers with the register.
When the company selling the agent starts selling the off switch too, that tells you where the risk is.
Sources
Mathew's LibraryLibrary card
Keep reading free with your library card
One email opens this checklist and all 3 resources in Mathew's library. No account, no password.
Before your next pay run, open what changed since last week, person by person, and approve only if you can say why each check is different.
Saving works best in your phone's browser. A copy is also in your inbox.