SIA Conference Speeches - effective staff scheduling is still a problem!
At the recent SIA Annual Stakeholder Conference on 16th October 2014 there were, in our opinion, many good speeches. I think the conference and the principle of the conference is a great idea. Having read the speeches and linked presentations I will give some serious thought to attending next year.
Having read them, I found comforting reinforcement of what we have been trying to achieve at PARiM with our workforce management software program. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there for this conference, as we have been very busy preparing our next version launch as well as our mobile Apps for both Android and IPhone.
There was a good speech by Ian Thomas, Security Consultant for Police Scotland, about The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and Private Contract Security Deployment. Here are some excerpts from the presentation that went with the speech.
Ian Thomas concluded with two lists of points that caught my eye and I have replicated them here for you below (so in effect, they are straight from the horse's mouth):
The first list was:
Games - Time Performance
Overall the security and stewarding companies performed to a good standard.
Efficiency improved as multi-day deployments progressed.
In some cases it was difficult to provide confidence that the larger deployments would meet the demand for staff.
The huge logistical problems were solved.
Scheduling of staff remained a problem.
I would love the chance to speak to Ian and to ask him why “scheduling of staff remained a problem”? Not having had that chance, I can only speculate what Ian had in mind. However, from my experience when dealing with many security companies, the issues might be one or several such as:
difficulties in scheduling the right staff for the right job - not scheduling according to the certificates
unfulfilled shifts, absences with no or late notification
difficulties in managing staff on site - not knowing exactly when a staff is, or is not on the site
difficulties in managing subcontractors - harder to reach and schedule their time, therefore plenty of space for miscommunication and timesheets errors
At PARiM we have developed a cloud based, scheduling solution supported by Apps that, in my opinion solves all of the problems above, allowing you to schedule on the go, whenever you want, wherever you are (WiFi or Broadband allowing of course!).
You can drag and drop shifts into a staff member, create shift patterns, select staff by site preferred status, certificate or position so getting the right person for the right job shouldn’t be easier. The system also allows you to hold a large database of staff and switch their availability on/ off, as and when, you need. You can even schedule staff by event, instead of just site.
Despite its size and potential complexity, using PARiM, it would have been simple to create an event within the system, called The Commonwealth Games and then have all the various locations as specific sub-sites. You could then staff by each of these sub-sites in turn, so that you can manage and monitor clocking in and staff attendance, even subcontractor attendance on site! The same way you could for a theme park - schedule by ride NOT just by the park "globally".
And the second list was:
Lessons Learned
The private security industry has challenges in providing sufficient and appropriate staff for high threat, large-scale, multi-day, multi-venue events
Organisers of such events should make the administrative burden placed on companies as streamlined and efficient as possible
It is likely that organisers will need to provide high levels of administrative support to companies
The deployment of military personnel and police officers at such high threat events provides a strong foundation for the security response
Effective communication between companies and organisers is essential
If the above was to act as a check list of things you would want a cloud based, security staff management program to do and solve, PARiM does them ALL. In terms of development points we wrote down last year as targets to achieve I could highlight ALL of the above.
At PARiM we have always been looking to:
make life as easy as possible for security company admin functions
make it easy to manage large numbers of staff
make it easy to manage subcontractors
make communication instant and easy
give management more face to face staff and client time
put Management, Staff and Clients ALL on the same page – and that’s why we have 3, yes 3, switch on/ off self-service access portals so you can choose how you run your company!
And what’s better is that PARiM allows you to set the system up as you would like it to be, in the simplest and most effective way possible. So that you and your company pick the correctly qualified person for the right job every time. The system automates the mundane communication minimising the administrative burden and maximising management time.
We have a rolling list of development ideas and targets.
If you have read this and want to comment or suggest features or functionalities that you feel it would be good for us to add, get in contact david@parim.co.uk.
You can see the whole presentation HERE