Ohio City Leverages IoT for Data Transparency and Personnel Decisions during Pandemic

The City of Akron, Ohio, faced a significant challenge when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With a workforce of about 2,100 full-time and seasonal employees across various divisions, city officials had to make quick decisions to protect not only residents but also its employees. The initial stay-at-home orders issued in March 2020 necessitated accurate, real-time data to make important decisions on how to bring employees back to work and support active city employees. The city needed to determine which employees were essential and nonessential, manage benefits for essential employees, and track leave types to analyze its impact on staffing levels and overtime costs. However, the city's legacy applications made access to real-time data for decision-making difficult. The process of obtaining personnel data was time-consuming and involved several steps, including requesting reports from the appropriate staff member or department or directly accessing the database to pull data into a CSV format.

The City of Akron, Ohio, is the state's fifth-largest city with a population of 200,000. Governed by Mayor Daniel Horrigan and the Akron City Council, it is a midlevel municipality that manages a range of city services, from parks and recreation to fire, water, and sanitation. The city employs about 2,100 full-time and seasonal employees across all divisions. Like other cities and towns, Akron was thrust into uncharted territory when COVID-19 began spreading across the United States. The city officials had to make fast decisions to protect not only residents but also its employees, beginning with the initial stay-at-home orders issued in March 2020.