On July 1, 2012, the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) began implementation of the NEOGOV web-based software to automate the entire screening and hiring process with the most comprehensive applicant tracking solution in the marketplace. NEOGOV works with a large number of state and local government agencies such as the state of South Carolina; the state of Tennessee; city of Nashville, Tenn.; city of Dallas, Texas; city of Houston, Texas; Baltimore County, Md.; city and county of Denver, Colo.; city and county of Honolulu, Hawaii and more than 25 percent of California's counties.

The NEOGOV system enables the hiring manager to enter human resource (HR) requests directly online. The system automatically notifies the required approvers via email, including budget, section directors and executive leadership. This streamlines the approval procedure and a tracking feature allows users to see the status of an HR request, thus increasing the transparency of the process.  Additionally, since the request is online, lost paperwork is no longer an issue. Once the request has been approved by all parties, HR begins the hiring process.

HR is able to publish job openings and descriptions to the DPH website. The career portal maintains the same look and feel as the DPH website, including the online job application and self-service portal. With NEOGOV, DPH is able to increase the applicant pool, measure traffic and advertising sources, and eliminate time and effort related to posting jobs and processing applicants, all while improving DPH's image and applicant satisfaction.

NEOGOV simplifies the process for all parties involved and allows for a paperless process. Improvements to the hiring process and this new system should shorten the timeframe required to bring staff on board. As implementation continues and initial trainings are complete, there will be a continuing process to train new hiring managers and to enable staff to refresh training through online training modules.

The Operations Division, Projects and Reports Section is in charge of implementation  and training. The division is also tasked with ensuring all staff with related responsibility are provided with the appropriate training and access to NEOGOV.  Our partners in the Office of Human Resources will be working with all managers and staff on an ongoing basis as rollout occurs so that the advantages the system offers will be realized.  

The implementation plan is a gradual roll out to all DPH programs and districts. If you haven't been brought on board with NEOGOV yet, it's coming your way!

Any questions concerning the NEOGOV system should be addressed to Mauri Smith or Lisa Miller.

-Story by Mauri Smith, DPH operations division project director