Workforce Services Division

The Workforce Services Division of Will County, IL is a federally funded, non-profit employment and training agency covering Will County, IL. The agency runs programs for job seekers and businesses, and for schools and colleges that are applying for grant money for training programs. It also runs a program to provide behavior-disordered children with marketable job skills.

The agency’s primary mandate is to match job seekers with job openings in the county. “If an employer asks for 10 forklift operators, we search our database for people that we know are looking for those types of jobs and retrieve that information,” says Faith Rumfelt, Information Services Supervisor.

The agency had tried using both Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel, but found neither quite met its needs for its jobs databases and equipment inventory database.

“I started programming a vast database in Access that tracked all job information. Well, I’m not a programmer and because this is a small office, it was very hard for us to even outsource that kind of project and get what we wanted,” says Rumfelt.

“What I didn’t like about Excel spreadsheets was the freedom for anyone to go in there, and change the data. Sharing data makes it very difficult to insure its integrity,” says Rumfelt.

“The WebOffice Database Manager helps us effectively and securely manage the data in various programs,” said Rumfelt.

The agency uses WebOffice as its contact database for business service representatives who solicit job orders from local businesses. The database activity log allows the agency to monitor and manage where the business service representatives are going each day.

The agency also uses the WebOffice Database Manager for its equipment inventory.

"WebOffice appeals to me because it is web-based, and I can control access to the databases. So, I’m assured that my data has integrity — which we need, because we report to three levels of government."

- Faith Rumfelt, Information Services Supervisor, Workforce Services Division of Will County, IL.

“WebOffice gives us much greater efficiency than we’ve ever had before — in managing both the employment data and the data for assets in our training programs,” says Rumfelt.

“There are 23 people in our organization -- business services representatives, case managers, and administrative, fiscal and IT staff. Everyone benefits from using WebOffice.”

WebOffice allows the agency to easily customize its jobs database, and set permissions for who can access, enter and change data.

Once job orders are placed in the database by the business service representatives, case managers, who work with the job seekers, can search by job order immediately and provide a list of appropriate openings for somebody looking for work.

“Before WebOffice, the five business services representatives had all been keeping their data a different way. Collecting data from them and generating reports to the various boards that we answer to had been difficult and time consuming,” Rumfelt said. “Using WebOffice simplified and speeded up their reporting process, and as a result, made it easier for me to quickly generate the reports I need.”

“Now, I can go into WebOffice and run my standard report simply by changing my dates to the correlating month. At a local level, I’m running reports every month. The U.S. Department of Labor wants spot checks for the number of jobs posted, and the state of Illinois also requires a number of reports. Given the large number of reports I’m required to run, WebOffice has certainly improved productivity here.”

In addition to employment services, the Workforce Services Division’s training programs also generate substantial amounts of data that need to be securely managed.

“Local schools and colleges apply for grant money for training programs through our division and between these, and our own program for behavior-disordered children, we purchase a lot of equipment.”

“Now, we use the WebOffice Database Manager to track all these assets — both the ones at our offices and the ones we purchase for our subcontractors running the outlying training programs at local schools and colleges. With WebOffice, the integrity of the data is much more secure.”

“We also use the Database Manager to schedule people for basic computer workshops and resume workshops.”

“Our receptionist and I use the WebOffice Documents Manager to store files, particularly larger files that I may need to access later at home.”

Workforce Services Division of Will County, IL uses the WebOffice In and Out Board to track who is available to help job seekers at any given moment. “It’s a nice feature for us, because we are a small outfit and we don’t need some elaborate program just to tell us someone is at lunch.”

“WebOffice has given me peace of mind,” Rumfelt concluded.