The Problem
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) made the switch to Laserfiche for a fairly simple reason: they were running out of office space for file storage. They needed to find a better (and more confidential) solution for storing the personnel and medical records of their 854 employees.
The Solution
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 implementations of Laserfiche so far 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 the applications as applicants wouldn’t always fill out the application completely, include all relevant documents or complete every field, thus slowing down the overall review process. As they examined where to get started with Laserfiche, this seemed like an ideal process to focus on for automation due to the time savings that could be found. 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, according to OCSO Human Resources Clerk, Haylee Glasscock, because depending on the position being applied for and the answers given 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,” Glasscock said.
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, 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 of the field rules that are offered in the Forms designer, we’ve been able to reduce the application to between 10 and 15 pages, depending on the applicant,” Glasscock said.
Another instance in which the Laserfiche application saved the office time involves applicants with tattoos. While OCSO allows their employees to have tattoos, if they are visible, they must be deemed appropriate. Before Laserfiche, the office would contact applicants who noted they have tattoos and ask them to come to the office so their tattoos could be photographed and reviewed with their application. Now, if an applicant notes that they have a tattoo, they can upload and attach photos of the tattoo(s) for recruiters to review 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, Glasscock has taught the recruiters to use the Laserfiche Snapshot tool, which “prints” the documents into the Laserfiche repository.
The simplified process increased the intake of applications 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, Glasscock 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, Glasscock has 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 Glasscock is concerned, the more Laserfiche implementation, the better.
“We want to use Laserfiche to its full extent,” she said. “We have plans for Laserfiche Forms, Workflow, the mobile app, and more. We want to create a lot of automated process and go as paperless as we can. Laserfiche has really made things much easier.”
