Police Department Simplifies Officer and Staff Scheduling with ScheduleAnywhere Employee Scheduling Software

Customer

The Folsom California Police Department is a full-service police department of 75 sworn officers and 27 professional staff members. The department provides service to approximately 78,000 residents living in the 30 square mile city. Along with patrol and investigative divisions, the Folsom Police Department provides its own dispatch, records and front desk services, maintains a SWAT team, a motor unit, a mounted enforcement detail, K-9 officers, bicycle patrol, school resource officers, and is supported by a robust volunteer program.

Challenge

Schedulers at the Folsom Police Department were creating and managing schedules using an Excel spreadsheet. With this scheduling method, it took schedulers several hours to complete each one-month schedule. To ensure proper shift coverage, supervisors spent additional time manually counting the number of employees and officers who were scheduled and had to constantly monitor staffing levels to account for call offs, vacation, and other last-minute schedule changes. This was time-intensive and took supervisors away from their additional responsibilities. The schedule request, review and approval processes were also performed manually, and communicating schedule information such as overtime opportunities was complex and time consuming.

“It used to take several hours to complete and double check a one-month schedule using an Excel spreadsheet, and we had to manually count who was scheduled to make sure we had enough coverage.” Elva Valasek

Solution

The Folsom Police Department adopted ScheduleAnywhere as its staff scheduling solution, which replaced Excel spreadsheets and gives administrators and employees anywhere, anytime schedule access. The department first began using ScheduleAnywhere to schedule employees in its Communications and Records division. The software worked well and was soon implemented across the entire department. Schedules can be shared between departments and locations, so everyone has the most up-to-date schedule information. ScheduleAnywhere makes it easy for supervisors to copy schedules and rotations and build schedules for the entire year. This has significantly reduced the time supervisors spend on scheduling. The coverage watch feature allows managers to instantly see whether there are too many or too few employees scheduled for each shift. Employees can submit time-off and other schedule requests online. Supervisors can instantly see whether the request conflicts with any previously scheduled shifts and can accept or deny the request. ScheduleAnywhere has also improved communication for the Folsom Police Department. Administrators can communicate with staff via text message or email about open shifts, overtime opportunities or variances in manpower demands. Messages can be sent to individuals, all employees, or a select group of officers based on credentials, shift, skill, or availability.

“With ScheduleAnywhere, we can create coverage watches and our staffing calculations are done automatically.” Elva Valasek

Key Features & Benefits

• Access real-time schedules anytime, anywhere
• Share schedules across the entire organization
• Fill open shifts fast
• Track skills, certifications, and training
• Free mobile app

ScheduleAnywhere is the ideal employee scheduling software for law enforcement. Learn how ScheduleAnywhere simplifies staff and officer scheduling, and request your free 30-day trial today.

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