Osceola County Sheriff’s Office Automated Employment Applications

When reviewing enterprise content management systems, the office chose Laserfiche from MCCi because of the software’s widespread use in other public sector agencies and MCCi’s experience working with law enforcement agencies to implement Laserfiche solutions.

While still in the process of transitioning their employee files to Laserfiche, OCSO was eager to begin implementing Laserfiche in other areas within the human resources, finance and IT departments.

Perhaps one of OCSO’s most significant Laserfiche implementations to date has been the new pre-employment application process. Previously, the 25-page application was available online. Applicants would print out the application and either mail it in or personally deliver it to the OCSO personnel office. Recruiters frequently ran into problems when reviewing applications, as applicants wouldn’t always complete the application, include all relevant documents, or fill out every field, thereby slowing the overall review process.  As they examined where to get started with Laserfiche, this seemed like an ideal process to focus on for automation, given the time savings it could yield.  As they began automating this part of the process, OCSO staff focused on converting the agency’s personnel files so they would all be accessed electronically through Laserfiche.

With Laserfiche Forms, applications cannot be submitted unless certain required fields are completed. In addition to yielding more complete applications, the tools in Laserfiche Forms allowed OCSO to streamline and specifically tailor their application for each applicant through the use of ‘trigger questions’.

It was very helpful to the process because, depending on the position being applied for and the answers to certain questions, different pertinent fields will be displayed.

For example, if you select that you are applying for a sworn position, additional questions that are not required for civilian applications will populate.

Depending on the answers applicants give to certain questions, additional fields will be required or eliminated from the application. For example, if an applicant gives an answer to a question that requires further explanation, a text box will appear. If an applicant answers that they have not been previously employed, the employment history fields do not appear on the application.

The change has simplified the process for both the applicant and the OCSO staff. With all the field rules available in the Laserfiche Forms designer, we’ve been able to reduce the application to 10-15 pages, depending on the applicant.

Another instance in which the Laserfiche application saved the office time involves applicants with tattoos. While OCSO allows its employees to have tattoos, visible tattoos must be deemed appropriate. Before Laserfiche, the office would contact applicants who noted they had tattoos and ask them to come to the office so their tattoos could be photographed and reviewed with their application. Now, if an applicant has a tattoo, they can upload photos of the tattoo(s) with their application.

While reducing the size of the forms, their team established trigger questions that modify the application when an applicant answers a question that would disqualify them from employment with the sheriff’s office, such as questions related to drug use, citizenship status, and felony convictions.

The accuracy and completion of information makes the applications much easier for recruiters to process.

In lieu of the recruiters printing out additional documents (such as background checks) to attach to each application, OCSO trained the recruiters to use the Laserfiche Snapshot tool, which “prints” the documents into the Laserfiche repository.

The simplified process increased application intake by 200 percent. The new application process saves OCSO thousands of dollars a year in file folders, paper, and storage, in addition to saving time on the manual filing process.

As for future projects, OCSO is eager to implement Laserfiche in the office’s open enrollment process and make more agency forms electronic through Weblink on their intranet. So far, they prepared Laserfiche Forms versions of their direct deposit authorization agreement, check request, property transfer, training request, and off-duty detail forms for intranet use. As far as they are concerned, the more Laserfiche implementations, the better.