VCS Blog

Now more than ever, the benefits of automated scheduling are increasingly convincing police departments to eliminate paper-based time and attendance tracking and instead allow software technology to accurately manage complex scheduling processes.

There is no denying that wellness for any human being is important, but when considering our safety personnel, how crucial is maintaining mental and physical wellness on the job? When constantly faced with danger, it is imperative that law enforcement officers always remain sharp and alert. Crime never sleeps, and for that reason, police officers must be working around the clock to keep civilians safe.

In police officer scheduling, the terms extra duty, special duty and off duty refer to times where a police officer is not scheduled to work a regular shift, but they are nonetheless hired to work events paid by third parties. Traditionally, these events were scheduled by personnel in the precincts’ administration departments, but recently, more and more police departments have been making the switch to utilize a new best practice – outsourcing their extra duty management.

While there are other organizations that provide managed services for extra duty, Jobs4Blue is the only one with the POSS advantage.

The Hillside Police Department is an existing POSS customer who recently made the switch to Jobs4Blue for the management of their extra duty administration. They almost immediately noticed a difference.

The general public is mostly unaware of the process behind officer dispatch. But any police department knows that there is a considerable amount of work that goes into directing a police officer to the site of an accident, a protest, or any other event that requires crowd, traffic direction, security, as well as interpersonal interactions -- which is why we created Jobs4Blue.

Jobs4Blue is dedicated to making the extra duty scheduling challenges of the past obsolete. Our services take over the administrative side of extra duty operations, allowing contractors to work directly with us rather than the police department. After receiving a request from a contractor, we hire the officers, allowing them to monitor their work, and update the details of their work through the website or app (such as whether they need to leave a job early or set specific hours), all the while promoting transparency through all aspects of the process. Police departments working with Jobs4Blue give their officers better control over all aspects of their extra duty schedules.

If your goals are to increase productivity, prevent overtime costs, avoid miscommunication, and reduce absenteeism in the workplace, then introducing a scheduling system into your workforce is a must.

Today, technology is everywhere, and it is not going away anytime soon. It is a part of our personal and professional lives daily. Throughout the past few decades, the evolution of technology has become more rapid than ever.

Technology has been implemented into the workplace in large masses, and it has surely impacted the workforce in ways that are hard to now live without. So, why is the evolution of technology so important to grasp?

Anyone who has tried to track employee time manually knows just how time-consuming it is to complete a weekly schedule, never-mind the fact that they know how frustrating it is. Entering employee work information is traditionally done by filling out an Excel spreadsheet, but in government workforces such as a police department - where extra duty and overtime calculations are commonplace - it is very difficult for administrators to keep track of day-to-day developments.

You've been looking into purchasing new employee scheduling software, but you don't know how to evaluate prospective vendors. We don't blame you, as there are hundreds of scheduling vendors who appear to offering similar products with different price tags. According to a 2015 WorkJam study of 500 U.S. service company managers, "68% of employers say the most difficult part of scheduling is assigning shifts that accommodate both their staff's availability and business needs” (Source Page 3). This statement highlights the importance of determining the right questions to ask prospective vendors. In this post we are providing a brief summary of important questions to ask prospective vendors, in order to simplify your purchasing process.

Implementing effective workforce management strategies to ensure optimal levels of productivity can be successfully accomplished with a proactive scheduling solution. Utilizing an automated scheduling system can ensure that the right people are always working at the right time with the right skill sets thus eliminating the need for excessive and costly overtime. Learn how a scheduling solution can streamline your business processes saving your business time and money in the process.