The Advantages of Computerized Police Scheduling

Resources

July 31, 2019

Resource: Blog Industry: Law Enforcement, Public Safety
Tags: Innovation, Law Enforcement, Workforce Management

Effective scheduling impacts multiple aspects of police work. More efficient scheduling has the potential to improve job performance, increase morale and provide greater satisfaction in communities. Here’s a look at why police scheduling is such a crucial workforce management issue and how the right employee scheduling software can make a dramatic difference.

Scheduling Mistakes Can Be Harmful

Police officers, as well as many other types of public employees, often work shifts that last 12 hours or more. For safety reasons, police officers are often required to have a certain number of rest hours between shifts. When you consider the stressful situations law enforcement often faces, it can cause serious problems when they are overworked.

Aside from anything else, police officers often spend many hours driving. Fatigue can contribute to traffic accidents as well as other safety issues. Police and other public safety employees need to be alert and functioning at full capacity in order to perform their duties properly.

Scheduling shifts for law enforcement personnel can be complicated for various reasons. After a certain number of hours, employees must be paid overtime. There may also be paid training and additional requirements to perform duties such as EMT. In this type of environment, tracking schedules manually is quite challenging. An automated scheduling system helps prevent mistakes in tracking overtime and makes it easier for everyone to understand schedules and pay rates. Additionally, it helps to avoid confusion and simplifies compliance with FLSA regulations regarding overtime.

A Fairer Scheduling System

It’s important for employees to feel shift scheduling is being handled in a way that's fair and equitable. A computerized scheduling system makes it possible to quickly and fairly notify personnel of possible overtime and fill open shifts when an employee calls in sick or cannot work for any reason.

Automated scheduling is also the best solution for the mobile era in which people tend to communicate via smartphone. Employees can check their online schedules via their mobile devices and learn about available shifts for potential overtime. They can also more easily plan for vacation time by looking at long-term schedules and time-off calendar for the whole department.

Using automated police scheduling helps create more clarity for everyone. Employees are better informed. Departments can more easily fill needed shifts and make adjustments as needed. This type of scheduling solution is suited for a fast-paced environment in which schedules may change at the last minute for many reasons.

A Scheduling Solution for Today's Challenges

Manual scheduling can contribute to many types of workforce management problems for police departments and other public safety agencies. Confusion over schedules, difficulty filling shifts and employee fatigue detract from the effectiveness and morale of any agency. If you're looking for a better option for employee scheduling software, TargetSolutions has the answer.

TargetSolutions Scheduling™ by CrewSense is the ideal scheduling solution for law enforcement, EMS, and other mission-critical agencies. TargetSolutions Scheduling™ uses advanced and innovative technology to streamline scheduling, overtime management, shift trades, time off and more.

To find out how this computerized scheduling software can make a big difference by simplifying workforce management, sign up for a free 30-day trial today!

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