IOT Partners with DOL to Build & Deploy New Youth Employment System
The Indiana Department of Labor’s Bureau of Youth Employment has created a new Youth Employment System (YES), backed by a new law where schools are no longer responsible for issuing work permits and do not have to track or register employees younger than 18-years-old.
YES has been available since June 1, and thousands of employers have already set up their accounts and collectively registered tens of thousands of minor employees.
Collaboration
The Indiana Office of Technology worked with DOL for six months to finally launch this application. Joelle Boothe of the Application Development team said the collaboration was a positive experience.
“We’ve had so much positive feedback from so many employers – everything is so quick now,” Boothe said. “Employers can now have minors employed within five minutes where before it took days to hear back from the schools. This new law really streamlines the process.”
The new system
Employers can access the app via their smart devices, such as a smartphone or tablet, as well as their desktop or laptop. Once they have set up their employer profile, they can enter the minor’s data – name, age and hire date – within minutes.
The new system will not impact the state’s work-hour requirement for minors, and all employers must still comply with the Teens Work Hour restrictions and Prohibited and Hazardous Occupation restrictions for minors.
DOL’s Director of Youth Development, Michael Myers, said they’ve worked with the IOT team on a number of application development projects over the past five years.
“What I liked best about IOT is that they’re in-house,” he said. “We had used outside vendors before, but we decided to start working with IOT on a number of applications. We worked on the process of communicating back and forth and being patient with each other – collaboration is definitely key.”
Myers, who had previously worked in the private industry and understood just how important this legislation was, worked with legislators on the bill that went into effect July 1.
Because of IOT’s help, the project was ready to launch three months early.
“We gave 35 employers two months to test the system, where they could give feedback on what worked and what didn’t,” Myers said.
After two full months of testing, the system was launched for all employers on June 1.
Employers who fail to comply with the new law could face penalties of up to $400 per infraction, per minor employee. Indiana employers must keep all work permits issued prior to July 1, 2021 for two years.
If you have an application need, reach out to Jamison Hemmert at JHemmert@iot.in.gov and let us help you turn your headache into an opportunity!
Success continues with the IOT liaison program
In 2016, IOT launched several initiatives to help IOT improve our business relationship with its customers - an important one was the restructured IOT Agency Liaison Program.
In April 2016, 12 agencies that already used many of IOT’s services joined the free program. IOT executives played the role of agency liaison, meeting with agencies once a month. Within two years, the program grew to include 63 agencies.
With the growing collaboration, IOT created three full-time liaison positions that are now dedicated to interface with participating agencies. The first IOT Liaison position was posted in January 2020, the second in September 2020, and the third and final was filled February 2021. The program now includes 79 agencies.
Aaron Corbett, Jason Garrett and Lisa Pratt are responsible for working with each participating agency on their performance, billing, service improvement, issue escalation, IT security, IT project review, change management and training.
Meaghan Fukunaga, Deputy Director of the Indiana Archives and Records Administration (IARA) has worked with Lisa Pratt since Lisa was named a liaison in 2020.
“I think IOT could not have made a better move than when they restructured the program last year and hired a devoted full-time employee,” she said. “This program is extremely valuable to IARA as we do not have our own IT staff but have many projects that involve technology. This program connects us with the IOT people and resources we need to get our work done. I'm not sure how we'd accomplish all we need to accomplish without it.”
For more information on the liaison program, reach out to Lisa Pratt (lpratt1@iot.in.gov), Jason Garrett (jgarrett2@iot.in.gov), Aaron Corbett (acorbett@iot.in.gov) or John Toole (jtoole@iot.in.gov).
Deploying Equipment
With all state employees returning to the office, there may be an interruption to receive equipment and monitors quickly. The pandemic has impacted the supply chain causing component shortages which has affected all IT operations. IOT has not been immune to these global problems.
The IOT PC Refresh team is diligently working on all state employees’ requests; it just may take some time. For example, we have been waiting months instead of weeks to receive PC hardware and that has halted some deployments. Multiple agencies are in a holding pattern awaiting the PC hardware so IOT can start their deployments. New hire equipment and break-fix are the team’s priorities at the moment, until the recovery of the supply chain.
What does the PC Refresh team do?
The team manages the scheduling, ordering, building, and deployment of more than 9,000 PCs each year to meet the IOT’s commitment to a new PC every four years. They provide PCs and PC Accessories to new hire employees and provide loaner laptops to state agencies – more than 12,000 in 2020 alone. The team then collaborates with the Indiana Department of Administration to decommission old PCs by performing data sanitization and certification to provide for donation to Indiana Schools or de-manufacturing.
Returning to the office will make refreshing PCs easier as state employees come back. During the pandemic, individuals were scheduled to go into an office to get their PC replaced. The Surplus and Deployment Room teams were here onsite for the entire duration of the pandemic. Because they were the “boots on the ground,” they took on extra duties of customer drop off and pickups, assisting techs by power cycling devices onsite, troubleshooting customer issues and shipping more devices than we ever have.
Thank you to all state employees for their continued patience, and welcome back to the office!
Training opportunities with the IN.gov team
IOT’s IN.gov has various services available to state employees to help manage an agency’s online presence. These services are free for standard use and include implementation and support by the team.
What are some services the team provides training for?
- Content Management System (Squiz Matrix): The modern and easy-to-use interface has new features, including flexible development and content creation tools, multi-device preview tools and more.
- Search Services (Funnelback): IN.gov managed sites use this tool for their default site search. You can spotlight services at the top of search results and adjust the returns against a search query. Features include a content auditor, analytics, optimization tools and more.
- Google Analytics: This tool tracks websites and applications related to page views, user activity, and demographic information, all with the ability to quickly generate reports that can be shared with non-Google Analytics users.
- GovDelivery: This is offered to state agencies as an effective tool to manage email and SMS digital communications.
- IN.gov calendar: This is a single place for citizens and state employees to learn about your agency’s events, press releases and public meetings.
- Siteimprove: This tool provides quality assurance to agencies, giving a complete overview of resources and more. Siteimprove helps ensure your content is compliant for those with disabilities.
There are more statewide solutions here. If you currently utilize one of these services and would like to receive more training, click here.
ASM Self-Service Portal
IOT has always made it a goal to make it easier for state government to implement information technology solutions in its operations. As IOT celebrates its 16th birthday, it has grown tremendously. Any organization that experiences growth must continue to ensure its processes and customer flows remain lean.
In February 2019, the IOT Executive Staff met to discuss how to improve the customer experience. Customers were asking, “what services does IOT offer electronically, and where can I find them?” At that time, IOT was offering eleven unique locations to manage or order services. IOT management knew that the agency had grown and needed to consolidate where to send their customers. So, after reviewing the options, the IOT Executive Staff selected the vFire Customer Portal (now known as the ASM Self-Service Portal) as the One-Stop-Shop for their customers to find and request IOT’s services.
Two years later, nearly all IOT services can be managed in ASM. The IOT portal contains 300+ FAQs (updated daily from multiple sources) and 165+ Service Requests/Offerings (and growing daily). ASM itself is a product that 16 other state agencies are using to help manage their operations.
In the ASM portal, IOT’s customers track progress on their active HelpDesk Tickets and Requests and provide additional information when needed. They can review their Approvals and Resources and access the new Chatbot/Live Chat or reset their password. Other features include viewing available IT Training and the IOT Change Management System, the IOT Billing Dashboard, the IOT Services Catalog (describes our services) and the IOT Services Rates Table.
The portal is secure, so only the people that should have access to a service can gain access.
If you have not visited the ASM Self-Service Portal lately, please click here and give it a try. You may be surprised with what you can do!
NOTES:
It is recommended you be connected to the state network.
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) browser is no longer supported.
If you have questions about ASM, contact John Toole.
What is GIS?
A Geographic Information System is a collection of tools to build, maintain, and use electronic maps and associated databases.
Indiana benefits from a community of GIS practitioners working in all parts of the state. The GIS community is governed by a structure that blends government-based statutory responsibilities of the Indiana Geographic Information Office (GIO) with the participation of the Indiana Geographic Information Council, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. This has resulted in a wide range of projects and activities that contribute to the well-being of Hoosiers, including an unprecedented model of data-sharing between state government and all 92 counties.
In September 2020, the GIO worked with the Polis Center at Indiana University Purdue Indiana University (IUPUI) to continue the Data Harvest Program, which began in 2008. The Data Harvest Program seeks to share as much data as possible between state and county government. This collaboration means taxpayers are receiving more bang for their buck as the data gets used more frequently. The team developed and published four new statewide geographic data layers using existing county data: land parcels, address points that connect a street address with a geographic coordinate, street centerlines, and local administrative boundaries such as school and township boundaries.
Indiana citizens and others now have access to these data layers as statewide data sets and are now available for download at both the state and county level.
What have been some questions answered through GIS projects in Indiana?
- Where in Indiana are parcels of land that would be perfect for a new auto manufacturer plant?
- Where across 32 Indiana counties should tornado damage response efforts be focused?
- Where is the weather causing hazardous driving conditions?
Want to learn more? Visit the Indiana GIS website.