Optimum partnered with a state law enforcement oversight agency to standardize hiring, onboarding, and offboarding workflows by integrating Jira and Smartsheet, delivering real time visibility, stronger controls, and reduced operational risk.
About the Client
The client is a state government regulatory agency in the public safety and law enforcement sector. They are responsible for setting statewide standards for licensing, training, and compliance for law enforcement personnel and agencies statewide. Their hiring managers, IT, HR, and enforcement stakeholders manage a steady volume of new hires each week.
Business Challenges
The agency needed a reliable way to manage open positions, track candidates, and ensure that onboarding and offboarding tasks were completed consistently and securely. Prior to engaging Optimum, processes were spread across SharePoint lists, Excel files, email, and a limited candidate tracking system. This fragmented approach made it difficult to understand where candidates were in the hiring process, created duplicated effort, and required significant manual follow up between teams.
Offboarding presented an even greater risk. The agency issues sensitive equipment such as firearms and access credentials and is required to maintain process records for up to 75 years. Without a centralized checklist or shared visibility, there was a risk that equipment was not fully accounted for or that required steps were missed.
In addition, the IT team managed onboarding-related work in Jira and wanted to preserve that workflow while giving hiring managers and executives clearer insight into onboarding status without requiring them to work directly in Jira.
Optimum’s Involvement
Optimum partnered with the agency to simplify a complex process and replace ad hoc tracking with a standardized, integrated workflow. The solution centered on Smartsheet as the system of record for onboarding and offboarding while maintaining Jira as the operational tool for IT.
Key solution components included:
- Designing a standardized onboarding and offboarding checklist for each employee, replacing inconsistent Excel and email-based tracking.
- Integrating Jira and Smartsheet using the Jira connector so IT tickets could be tracked alongside onboarding tasks.
- Building role-based dashboards for hiring managers, IT, HR, and enforcement teams to provide real time visibility into status and completion.
- Consolidating all onboarding and offboarding information into a single system to reduce duplication and improve collaboration.
The result was a streamlined, easy to understand process that aligned teams around a shared view of progress while respecting existing tool preferences.
Project Outcomes and Benefits
The integrated Smartsheet and Jira solution gave the agency a single source of truth for hiring, onboarding, and offboarding activities. Each employee now has a standardized checklist that clearly shows what has been completed, what is in progress, and what remains outstanding.
Hiring managers and executives can quickly assess status through dashboards rather than relying on email updates, while IT can continue working in Jira with confidence that their progress is visible to the broader organization. The agency also reduced risk by ensuring offboarding steps related to equipment and access are consistently tracked and verified.
Benefits of the solution:
- Centralized tracking of hiring, onboarding, and offboarding processes.
- Clear visibility into IT dependencies tied to each employee.
- Reduced manual follow up and duplicated work across teams.
- Greater confidence in equipment recovery and compliance tracking.
Key outcomes:
- 40% reduction in time spent by hiring managers chasing status updates.
- 30% improvement in process visibility across HR, IT, and enforcement stakeholders.
- 25% reduction in onboarding and offboarding errors through standardized checklists and shared dashboards.
Future Opportunities
With the foundational workflow in place, the agency has several opportunities to further enhance the solution:
- Tracking equipment at a more granular level, including serial numbers, to strengthen accountability.
- Using enhanced automation and provisioning at scale to automate checklist creation for new hires.
- Integrating training modules currently managed in separate systems into Smartsheet for end to end onboarding visibility.
- Expanding dashboards to include performance metrics and audit readiness indicators.
About Optimum
Optimum is an award-winning, nationally recognized IT consulting firm and proud Smartsheet Partner, serving clients across multiple industries in the US and Canada. We specialize in helping organizations enhance efficiency, overcome project management challenges, and achieve digital transformation through strategic planning, innovative technologies, and streamlined processes.
We offer a comprehensive range of project management solutions and services, including Smartsheet Consulting, Systems Integration, Business Process Optimization and Automation, Business Intelligence (BI), Custom Application Development, and Staff Augmentation.
Reach out today for a complimentary discovery session, and let’s explore the best solution for your needs!
Contact us: info@optimumcs.com | 713.505.0300 | www.optimumcs.com
