Employee Scheduling Software
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Scott County Jail Found Efficient Way of Making Schedules with VSS Pro Scheduling Software
“VSS Pro scheduling software helps us to stay in compliance with regulatory staffing levels.”
Capt. Bonnie Case, Scott County Jail Administrator
Scott County Sheriff's Office
Customer Profile
The Scott County Jail in Shakopee, Minnesota is a full service detention facility, including 160 cells, with 264 beds. The Scott County Jail, with square footage of almost 90,000, houses sentence and pre-trail adult male and female offenders, and juvenile delinquent offenders for up to 6 hours. Scott County is the fastest growing county in the state of Minnesota, having increased population from 57,846 in 1990 to 89,498 in 2007 - a gain of 55%.
Situation/Challenge
Managing the county jail facility requires compliance with regulatory staffing levels for housing male, female, and short-term juvenile offenders. Prior to 2001, the Scott County Jail was using time consuming and cumbersome manual scheduling. The pencil-and-paper method of scheduling was ineffective, especially in the area of monitoring required shift coverage and scheduling staff to different posts. The jail administration knew that in order to better utilize the staff of 44 full-time and 7 part-time correctional officers, they needed a scheduling solution capable of providing immediate staffing information, which would allow them to respond instantly to any schedule changes.
Solution
The Scott County Jail selected Visual Staff Scheduler Pro (VSS Pro) for its ability to track staffing requirements versus hours scheduled, and convenience in creating staff schedules. VSS Pro proved to be the right solution for the scheduling needs of a correctional facility like Scott County Jail. “With VSS Pro, I can easily see how any changes to the schedule will impact shift coverage. I can move officers between shifts or posts quickly and make all necessary schedule adjustments in no time. This allows us to make better decisions when it comes to approving time-off requests or providing time availability for court duties,” explains Capt. Bonnie Case, Scott County Jail Administrator.
Benefits
In addition to ensuring mandated staffing levels, VSS Pro scheduling software saves Capt. Case the time needed to create reoccurring schedules because it automatically copies schedule rotations and places them in future dates. Any vacant positions can be temporarily inactivated from the scheduling pool, until filled with the new hire. Capt. Case is also utilizing the highlighter feature in VSS Pro, which allows her to easily spot specific staffing situations and trends, like personnel sickness. VSS Pro has also improved internal communication of work schedules. Now every officer can access schedule information in the view-mode, from computer stations located in the designated places within the correctional facility. This enables officers to get access to the schedule to view open slots for taking time-off or print their post assignments. VSS Pro assists the Scott County Jail with their planning efforts, too. “The software allows us to provide an availability report quickly and effortlessly. The report makes it easy to see the authorized staff,” says Capt. Case. “I like the convenience of scheduling with VSS Pro. Now the schedules are built effortlessly and all the scheduling information resides in one place. However, VSS Pro gives us more than that. It gives us the assurance we are meeting mandatory staffing requirements,” Capt. Case concluded.