88%
reduction
in daily scheduling/ timekeeping time.
100%
visibility
of scheduling history, changes and reasons.
100%
prevention
of scheduling unqualified staff.
Overview of North Dakota Department of Corrections (DOC)
The North Dakota DOC headquartered in Bismarck is the biggest state prison in North Dakota. The department houses maximum security inmates down to minimum security inmates. Currently, they have 225 staff.
The North Dakota DOC Past Challenges
Some of the challenges they face as a correctional institute include managing sick and vacation leaves while ensuring they have adequate staff.
Before InTime, the North Dakota DOC relied on antiquated paper processes for the scheduling, timekeeping, and overall workforce management. They were facing challenges including poor oversight which also hindered their ability to ensure staffing compliance, and a waste of time and resources.
PAPER PROCESSES DIDN’T ALLOW FOR STAFFING OVERSIGHT
With a reliance on paper processes, the North Dakota DOC faced challenges in effectively ensuring minimum coverage during periods of high sick or vacation leaves. They would have to flip through numerous pages of schedules to review coverage levels. Keeping track of historical records, changes and reasons was extremely challenging. And due to human error, schedules might not be updated properly which caused issues when making staffing decisions.
Lastly, with COVID-19 affecting resource levels, it was proven that their paper processes could not meet the unique demands of the complex situation they were in. With an unforeseen higher level of sick leaves, they were challenged with quickly ensuring adequate staffing levels. The lack of visibility combined with the time it took to complete scheduling tasks meant meeting mission-critical demands became harder than necessary.
STAFF TIME BECAME TIED UP ON MANAGING ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS
Due to the manual processes of paper scheduling, resources became tied up in managing administrative tasks. This hindered them from focusing on other tasks that could have brought the department more value. In fact, it took three staff members 25 hours a week to complete timesheets.
ENSURING QUALIFIED SCHEDULED STAFF WAS A CHALLENGE
With a lack of visibility into staff’s training records, it was a challenge to ensure that staff were properly qualified in their scheduled posts. This could have led to potential, bigger ramifications for the department.
Present Day Improvements
North Dakota DOC implemented InTime in 2019 with the goal of upgrading their manual processes to a more effective, intelligent scheduling and workforce management tool. Now, with InTime, North Dakota DOC is optimizing their resources, improving efficiency with smart and efficient staff management, and ensuring staffing compliance.
88% REDUCTION IN DAILY SCHEDULING AND TIMEKEEPING TASKS
Approving leave requests and timesheets, creating schedules, making changes to the schedule, and assigning training shifts for staff, now takes a couple of clicks. Also, accessing the schedule is much easier which has been crucial during complex situations like COVID-19.
“It’s so convenient that you can see everyone for a whole month without having to flip through multiple pages of paper” – Captain Schwehr, North Dakota DOC
EFFICIENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ARE AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH WITH COMPLETE DEPARTMENTAL OVERSIGHT
With InTime’s location (post) view and unit view, North Dakota DOC has full visibility into their coverage levels. Everything is in one screen and easy to foresee schedules days, weeks, or even months ahead, creating efficiency when making staffing decisions. Now, they can access historical records and track past changes and reasons which ensures accountability. Lastly, North Dakota DOC benefit from InTime’s reporting function. They can now instantly produce a report to see how many times a staff member has gone on leave and the kind of leave it is attributed to.
“Most of our shift captains just look at that location view since it’s super easy to know where they need to move resources from one location to another” – Captain Schwehr, North Dakota DOC
100% PREVENTION IN SCHEDULING UNQUALIFIED STAFF
Now, they can now enter certain training that staff has completed. With this information, InTime, through its intelligent training alerts, prevents unqualified staff from being scheduled to certain posts.
“Our tower and perimeter spot all need to be rifle, handgun, shotgun qualified, so once staff has completed their training courses, I can enter them into intime and now they can work those certain posts.” – Captain Schwehr, North Dakota DOC
