The Jasper County Board of Supervisors have unanimously approved adding a Physical Capacity Profile to the hiring process for deputies, dispatchers, and jailers at the Sheriff’s Department. Jasper County’s Director of Human Resources, Dennis Simon, recommended the assessment, which will be done by the Physical Therapy Office at MercyOne Newton. 

“They do an assessment on our new employees to make sure they are physically capable of performing the essential functions, and create a baseline if we have any worker’s compensation issues, so we know we have them back to full status as far as pre-employment. So it would be beneficial in a lot of different ways.”

Simon told the County Supervisors each Physical Capacity Profile costs $90. After six months, Simon says he would like to extend the Physical Capacity Profile to the hiring process for the skilled labor employees in the County Engineer’s Office.