CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Scheduling in Highly Complex Industries and Areas

IN THIS CHAPTER, A DETAILED look is given to the scheduling needs and issues from a few industries and areas: healthcare, manufacturing, education, and corrections and law enforcement. The challenges faced in these industries are often shared among others. What an organization should take away from this chapter is a new perspective or suggestions on how to handle, or better yet proactively manage, such scheduling complexities in their own sphere. Each industry is different, so it is important to consider size, constraints, and scope. The text here is only a snapshot, but opens up the discussion for many other scheduling topics.

13.1 MANAGING OVERTIME: A COMMON CHALLENGE IN THE WORKPLACE, ESPECIALLY IN HEALTHCARE37

Time management within hospitals and similar urgent care institutions share many challenges with other industry sectors, particularly those that operate 24/7. Like their peers, healthcare institutions accommodate a complex mix of hourly and exempt employees; unionized/nonunionized employees; full- and part-time as well as per diem/contingent employees and agency workers. They also manage the complexities of overtime and shift work. The latter is particularly important as excessive overtime can contribute to diminished care as well as increased financial pressures in an already cash-strapped sector.

In this section, we will discuss scheduling techniques for hospitals and similar facilities with a particular focus on creating schedules that minimize the need for excessive overtime and how these relate to workforce management (WFM) technology solutions.

(a) Impact of Overtime

In any industry, overtime occurs for a variety of planned and unplanned reasons. When workload in the healthcare industry exceeds expected budget only temporarily or sporadically, overtime can be a more cost-effective solution than adding additional staff.

Indeed, a study on hospital profitability found that a decrease in labor intensity by 1/100th full-time equivalent (FTE) per adjusted inpatient day would increase after-tax operating margin by approximately 3.5 percent.1 This suggests relatively large gains in profit margin from increases in personnel efficiency.

At the same time, higher overtime is directly correlated to reduced patient outcomes. When the labor management institute (LMI) analyzed data for nearly 7,200 units across four years, it discovered that higher levels of overtime (typically over 5 percent of hours worked) correlated to an increase in patient falls and medication errors. Overtime in excess of 8 percent was found to correlate even more highly with adverse patient outcomes (med errors and patient falls).2 The LMI studies also found that unexpected absences above 5 percent correlated to overtime above 5 percent.3 It is widely recognized that schedule dissatisfaction is a leading reason for employee turnover.

(b) Why Overtime Occurs

Overtime hours may be calculated against either total worked hours or total paid hours; however, its impact is most greatly felt with employees and patients when it is measured against total worked hours. When overtime is measured against total paid hours, it includes the use of nonproductive benefit time (e.g., vacation or paid time off [PTO]), which often diminishes its reporting impact. For example, overtime of 7.4 percent total worked hours may appear as 4.9 percent total paid hours when the nonproductive benefit hours are included.

Therefore, to measure the impact of overtime on labor resources, focus on overtime in excess of 5 percent of total worked hours.4

(c) Overtime: Regular or End-of-Shift Occurrences

To adequately manage overtime the different types of overtime must be understood. While overtime may be seen as occurring toward the end of the work week, or after exceeding a daily hours, limit for those states that require daily overtime payments, overtime results from the additional hours worked on a shift-by-shift basis that eventually add up or exceed the thresholds. Those additional hours may come incrementally and unexpectedly. Overtime may be planned (resulting from the schedule or an event) or unplanned (need driven, unexpected, and lengthier in nature). Understanding the two types—regular and end-of-shift overtime—may suggest ways to use WFM systems to flag and avoid these situations.

i. Regular Overtime (over 30 minutes)5

Regular overtime is any occurrence greater than 30 minutes per event. Examples include the need for additional staff to care for patients arriving at the change of shift, replacement of a work shift when another employee calls in sick, and so on.

ii. End-of-Shift Overtime (30 minutes or less)6

End-of-shift overtime is any occurrence 30 minutes or less. Examples include the 8 to 15 minutes of overtime that occurs when employees do not punch out on time at the end of their shift. Reductions in end-of-shift overtime by 1 to 2 percent of total hours worked can yield significant savings.

The common reasons for overtime to exceed 5 percent of total hours worked per pay included:7,8

• Manager-approved vacation/PTO in excess of 10 percent of total worked hours.
• Unexpected absence greater than 5 percent of total worked hours.
• Leave of Absence (LOA)/Fair Labor Standards Act (FMLA)/Intermittent FMLA absence hours greater than 10 percent of total worked hours.
• Vacancy hours (unfilled shifts attributable to vacant positions) greater than 10 percent of total worked hours.
• Sitter or one-to-one observation hours exceeding 2 percent of total worked hours.
• Supplemental staffing hours exceeding 15 percent of total worked hours (e.g., any source of labor that is not part of the unit's core staff. This includes anyone who floats into the unit from another unit, outside agency or traveler staff or unit, float pool, or organizational per diem or contingent staff).

(d) Overtime Reduction Strategies

There are a number of strategies that may be used in employee scheduling and daily staffing that can help to reduce overtime.

A properly planned time management infrastructure should address two primary considerations:

(e) Scheduling Methodologies

Three scheduling methods can be used effectively to utilize resources, help limit overtime, and increase staff satisfaction:10

(f) Managing and Fixing Overtime and Other Schedule-Related Problems

Smart scheduling requires analysis and planning so that the proper principles of good scheduling are instituted and manageable. Good schedules do not happen by accident and often organizations mistakenly dismiss scheduling as something that can come about informally and requires few if any special skills or tools. Workforce asset management professionals (WAM-Pros) can help their organization—regardless of size, labor demand, and demographics—by helping the organization use WFM technology to seriously consider the relationship between schedules, patient and quality outcomes, technology, and cost.

Conduct a schedule assessment. Overtime challenges often will lie in the scheduling process. If remedies do not begin in the schedule, changes will not endure.18 To identify underlying drivers for overtime, analyze the schedule for actual practices for a four-week period that excludes a major holiday. Holidays distort workload volumes as patients most often want to be home with their families, and there are higher planned absences.

Schedule assessments should include none or a minimum of:19

• Hours scheduled and/or worked in excess of the employee's hired work agreement.
• Hours scheduled and/or worked below the employee's hired work agreement.
• Unscheduled hours.
• Tardy or “early out” occurrences.
• “Terminal”/end-of-shift absence as a substitute for a meal break.
• Unplanned absences greater than planned absences.
• Working for overtime on paid vacation/benefit time.
• No calls–no shows.
• Working in excess of 60 hours per week, 14 hours per day.
• Working consecutive shifts > five for 8-hour employees and > four for 12-hour employees.
• Prescheduled overtime > 5 percent of total worked hours.
• Shift switches (day shift/night shift/day off), particularly before a scheduled day off.
• Single shifts associated to call-ins for unplanned absence.

Leverage training and emphasize the adoption of smart scheduling. Correct problems at their origin through financial and leadership training with managers, team leaders, members of the scheduling committee to develop schedules and staffing plans that reflect the budget total worked hours and FTEs for the budget workload as well as distributions of care hours by shift and day of week that reflect actual workload averages.

Use smart scheduling practices that produce quality schedules in four to six hours per month and maintain them in one to two hours per week (for an average unit of 57 employees20). These practices include:

• Establishing employee request guidelines recognizing they are affected by the culture, morale, and leadership of the unit, including:21
  • Staff requesting time off, not days to work.
  • Clearly defined weekend definitions (e.g., if a weekend is Friday/Saturday night, then the work week is Sunday through Thursday for night staff and day/night rotators).
  • Everyone working to their hired work agreement before prescheduled overtime is granted.
  • Fair and equitable weekend rotations for all staff (e.g., every other, every third, etc.), unless seniority is being recognized in some special way.
  • Fair and equitable off-shift rotations to rotating day/night and day/evening staff.
  • Avoiding excessive consecutively worked shifts.
  • Avoiding excessive worked hours (>60 per week or >14 per 24 hours or <8 hours off between shifts).
  • Avoiding single day shifts to reduce call-ins and improve continuity of patient care.

Use technology and automation. Organizations should, to the extent possible, automate policies for timekeeping, scheduling, tracking overtime, and reporting. WFM technology should integrate data from multiple sources (financial, clinical volumes, and financial budgets) automatically to update schedules with actual punches for real-time analysis. Identify the specific patient and treatment information that drives schedules and interface it into the timekeeping and scheduling systems. Align budgeting goals with scheduling design to keep cost top of mind when supervisors make scheduling decisions. WAM-Pros should connect compensation and overtime requirements with scheduling practice and process inside the design of labor levels, comments, work rule design, and time reporting screens and reports.

Understand the metrics and guidelines involved in overtime management.22

• Establish policies and procedures governing mandatory and voluntary overtime usage.
• Adopt research23 and industry guidelines for total worked hours:
  • Overtime less than 4.9 percent: normal (represents a reasonable response to fluctuating workload volumes or deficit demand).
  • Overtime of 5 to 7.9 percent: financial bleeding (consider schedule imbalances—too many people on the shift and inadequate coverage on the shift, overauthorizing employee requests for time off causing staffing shortages).
  • Overtime of 8 percent or higher: financial hemorrhaging (consider vacancies; patient admission, discharge, and transfer (ADT) activity within the unit that creates workload intensity and workload fluctuations; and mismatched 8/12 hour shift combinations in addition to the suggestions for the preceding.

Publish schedules with core staff filling at least 85 percent of scheduled shifts so that supplemental staffing (agency, travelers, float pool, or other unit staff that float into the unit) is needed less than 15 percent of the time.24

Review costs of incentives, premium pay, and bonuses; monitor thresholds closely. Use WFM systems to track and report these activities.25

Review policies and guidelines concerning fatigue as overtime increases. Engage timekeeping rules that count hours and report consecutive work day activity to alert managers to these situations.26

Strategies take time to implement, so plan for contingencies in advance. Managing human and financial resources is important especially for times of high demand. Map these guidelines to WFM data by designing the system to provide meaningful staffing data and scheduling tools that directly result in avoiding and reducing incidental and planned overtime.

13.2 MANUFACTURING, MINING, AND ENERGY38

Workforce scheduling is a complex undertaking, and the manufacturing, mining, and energy industries are no exception. Each of these industries has the overarching goal of delivering qualified, performance-ready people to the right time and place for required job tasks. Many companies within these three industries face the added complexity of scheduling in accordance with work rules negotiated with one or more bargaining units, sometimes at the same work site. Federal and state regulations as well as labor agreements on compensation can limit the flexibility of workforce scheduling options. And, in addition to these common scheduling issues, each of these industries faces its own unique set of complications. The paragraphs that follow highlight the particular issues found in each of these three industries.

(a) Workforce Asset Management in Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the large industry sector that makes goods, meaning that it converts capital, labor, raw materials and/or parts, and energy into a wide array of tangible products. There are two primary types of manufacturing—discrete and process. Discrete manufacturing is somewhat synonymous with batch or unit production, because specified product units can be made at one time. Additionally, equipment used in this type of manufacturing can be run at varying rates or speeds, and also can be started and stopped as demand levels or other production scheduling variables dictate. Common examples of discrete manufacturing are airplanes, cars, computer components, household appliances, and plastic toys or medical supplies. One or many raw materials can be required in discrete manufacturing, resulting in a wide range of schedule complexity from simple to highly complex.

Process manufacturing, however, is synonymous with bulk production. It also requires formulas or recipes, and once a product is produced it cannot be converted back to its input states. Additionally, process manufacturing is characterized by its continuousness, its capital intensity, and the high costs associated with equipment or process downtime. Common examples include chemicals, pharmaceuticals, paper, beverages, and packaged foods.

From a Workforce Asset Management perspective, the more challenging type of manufacturing is discrete. While process manufacturing by design is steady state, meaning it operates the same way at all times except during outages, discrete manufacturing is intended to be variable to consumer and/or business demand cycles. This characteristic changed somewhat from the 1980s through the early 2000s. During this period, many companies consolidated plants and equipment and moved to continuous (24/7 and even 365-day) operations. These discrete-type manufacturers were driven to full asset utilization (i.e., increasing throughput and related profit margins by using all available work-hours capacity) in order to address finance pressures rising from the high cost of capital.

Over the past 15 years, though, there has been tension in many businesses between asset-utilization pressures and just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing principles. JIT aims to reduce inventories and uses sophisticated supply chain management methodologies and tools to become purely order driven. Since the great recession hit worldwide in 2008–2009, both discrete and process manufacturing have been faced with a much more dynamic marketplace. Both of these demand dynamics have resulted in the need for more flexible manufacturing systems. This includes flexible (highly variable) people deployment, which can be quite challenging to the workforce since people tend to prefer predictable work schedules. Even in some process industries, such as beverages and packaged foods manufacturing, dynamic demand levels are necessitating more flexible deployment of people assets. This dynamism is expected to continue for some time into the future. For this reason, it is increasingly important for operations and human resources (HR) managers to have robust, timely, and integrated data and workforce analytics that enable them to better forecast demand levels and better plan their people deployment structures, policies, and practices. Additionally, companies need to become much more knowledgeable about flexible scheduling and how to use it to benefit both the business and the people.

(b) Workforce Asset Management in Mining

This industry encompasses the mining and quarrying of metallic and nonmetallic minerals, the extraction of coal, and more recently the extraction of oil from oil sands. Mining, in this broad sense, poses special issues for Workforce Asset Management due to the geographic location of these operations. These activities typically take place in highly remote locations, from the mountains of Colombia to the oil sands of far northern Canada to the depths of a gold mine in Australia. As a result, particular constraints often exist on both workforce scheduling and technology utilization. Mobile technology is especially vital for this industry, and its nascent successes in remote locations bode well for the future.

With respect to workforce scheduling, however, many of the constraints faced by companies in this industry may seem insurmountable. For example, consider a company that has to fly its workforce into coal-mining camps in the mountains of Colombia. This company faces particular constraints on its shift/crew change options, and packaged scheduling software typically may not fit the needs of this employer. Mining often requires highly skilled, creative scheduling proficiency and customized technical solutions to resolve their particular people deployment challenges.

(c) Workforce Asset Management in Energy

The energy industry includes activities from the exploration and production of oil and gas, the refining and distribution of products, and the generation and distribution of power. There actually is no industrial classification for energy; rather, the energy industry encompasses parts of the classifications of mining (e.g., oil sands operations, as well as coal and uranium mining), manufacturing (including process manufacturing activities like oil refining as well as discrete manufacturing activities like wind turbine production), utilities (such as electricity generation and electric power distribution), transportation (including gas pipelines as well as fuel transport via trucks or rail), and retail in the form of gas stations and newer battery-charging stations for electric vehicles. The sheer size, scope, and importance of these collective activities to the economy of every nation is why a separate energy industry has been identified and discussed in economic and political discourse, if not in industrial classification systems.

From a Workforce Asset Management perspective, this industry is significant because it is one of the most highly regulated segments of the economy (with transportation and mining being close behind), meaning that there are many rules and procedures that have to be followed when deploying people assets in this industry. For example, public utilities have to get prior approval to increase their revenues to cover significant head-count increases. Yet, nuclear power plants are under regulatory orders for fatigue management (see Chapter 9, Section 9.1 for more on regulatory requirements and fatigue risk management) that often require additional head count to meet individual work-hours limits. Managing all of the regulations that can affect workforce scheduling often requires a robust technology solution. And, it also requires cross-domain competencies from the operations, human resources, payroll, and finance fields to ensure that the equally important goals of effective workforce scheduling, labor cost containment, and regulatory compliance are achieved.

13.3 EDUCATION

In the education industry, there is not much schedule flexibility. The school board determines the school year and defines the school day. Of course, there is a certain expectation—school begins in either August or September and ends in either May or June. The school board also passes down special exceptions to the school year calendar like parent-teacher conferences, holidays and breaks, certain days for standardized testing, and so on. The workday (or in this case, school day) can range from arriving before 6 A.M. to staying until midnight. Each day is defined differently depending on the employee's position.

Teachers have the strictest schedules in the education industry. They are required to be at school while students are at school. Their class schedule is determined by enrollment numbers. Teachers are given an allotment of absences and days off that are sometimes shared among the entire group of teachers. Teachers can use WFM systems to view their absence and vacation banks. However, schools are not widely utilizing WFM schedule functions for teachers yet.

Adding to the complexity of teacher scheduling is substitute teacher staffing. Inevitably, absences occur. In the classroom where no teacher has arrived, a substitute is required. One area that the education system is beginning to utilize WFM technology is with substitute teachers. Many schools have some type of substitute calling and scheduling system. When a school has this system set up, teachers call in to the system and report their absence. The system then searches its database to fill the spot with an appropriate substitute teacher. This is based on qualities such as position, location, portfolio, and so on. The system can even take into consideration ratings of seniority or certification. Once a substitute is chosen, the system notifies the replacement and the school, usually via telephone. The substitute can either accept or deny the call.27

When a school is considering a substitute teacher scheduling system, there are a few things to consider:

• Speed and reception of the system—inbound/outbound calling.
• Substitute teacher pool size (how many options are available in the system).
• Proactive ability of the system to match skills.
• Capacity to link up with a WFM system—record absences, deduct days from sick banks, even pay substitutes.

In these difficult areas of scheduling, it can be helpful for the education industry to assess and address its needs as a business. Of course, there are restrictions and certain methods that must be preserved and respected. Yet, solutions that utilize technology to help manage assets move the industry along the spectrum in a positive direction toward maturity.

13.4 CORRECTIONS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT39

Public safety agencies are usually defined as law enforcement (police) agencies, fire departments, first responders (ambulance and medical support services), emergency services (natural disaster agencies and terrorist attack responders), and correctional agencies (jails, prisons, juvenile correctional facilities). Their primary mission is usually to protect the public and property and to restore order as quickly as possible. Public safety agencies are always working. They operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year (commonly described as 24/7/365). Public safety agencies are almost entirely supported through tax dollars. (Some ambulance and medical support responders bill insurance companies or the patient for services rendered.) When the economy slows down, revenue, in the form of tax dollars, slows down, as well. In anticipation of fewer tax dollars, many elected officials (mayors, county commissioners, and governors) will reduce budgets or freeze spending. When the economy does rebound, increases in tax revenues will not rebound for another year.

In response to growing budgets and declining revenues, and to provide more efficient and responsive services, some cities and counties have blended some emergency services. These funding issues are an opportunity for WAM-Pros to help public safety agencies manage their workforce expense, gain efficiencies, and apply productivity functionality to the need to deliver labor hours with less labor budget.

The organization/management structure of public safety is changing. A number of fire departments have merged with emergency services and respond to medical emergencies as first responders. In other communities, law enforcement and firefighting functions have been combined into public safety departments, which means that police officers and firefighters are cross-trained so police officers can respond to fires, in addition to their law enforcement duties. Tracking qualifications for duty assignments is an important workforce activity not only for scheduling decisions but also for public safety.

Scheduling for public safety agencies can vary from one type of agency to another. The fire services, for example, traditionally have scheduled firefighters on 24-hour shifts. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allows fire and police agencies to schedule work using a different formula than the traditional 40-hour week. Firefighters are also compensated while sleeping and eating because they must be immediately available to respond when a call comes in. There are as many as 50 different schedules that fire services can use that will comply with the FLSA. Law enforcement, first responder, and correctional agencies have schedules that have been traditionally eight hours per day. Over the past several years, however, there have been changes to the traditional eight-hour, five-day-a-week schedule for correctional employees (hereinafter referred to as correctional officers).

In addition to the FLSA, the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), lawsuits, and collective bargaining agreements have all had a direct impact on correctional and law enforcement agencies and how work is scheduled and timekeeping is accomplished. The WAM-Pro's job is to understand and apply these unique rules to the available WFM solutions.

(a) Law Enforcement and Correctional Agencies

Most people understand the term law enforcement as referring to police departments and include in that general definition municipal police departments, specialized police departments (i.e., transportation systems, university campuses, etc.) sheriff's departments, state police, and a wide range of federal law enforcement agencies.

Correctional agencies, on the other hand, are not as well understood. The term correctional agency refers to a wide range of public and private agencies whose mission is to protect public safety by maintaining custody of offenders in their care or under their supervision and by providing programs and services that will hold offenders accountable for their crimes and help them to lead law-abiding lives in the future.

Correctional agencies include probation, parole, community corrections programs, and correctional facilities. Correctional facilities and institutions are adult local detention facilities (jails), adult correctional institutions (prisons), adult community residential programs (halfway houses), juvenile detention centers, juvenile correctional facilities (training schools), and juvenile community residential facilities.

Like public safety agencies, law enforcement and correctional agencies must be prepared for the unforeseen event that requires an immediate response. A public demonstration in a city can turn into a street riot and be easily carried over into a correctional facility as incarcerated offenders learn what is happening via radio and television. Labor disputes have also resulted in slow downs and the “blue flu.” Natural disasters can lead to the evacuation of communities and correctional facilities. These unforeseen events can have a dramatic impact on public safety and community order. This also creates unexpected demand for labor and the resulting increase in labor expense. Being prepared for the spontaneous and unplanned event requires sound policies and procedures, constant training and retraining, monitoring and evaluation of procedures, and scheduling and timekeeping practices that track these activities and costs and sustain the workforce during and emergency. The A.C.T.I.V.E. principles applied effectively help the WAM-Pro be prepared to support these public safety functions in challenging times.

Labor demand in this industry can vary by the type of institution. One distinguishing difference between adult local detention centers (jails) and adult correctional facilities (prisons) and juvenile detention centers and juvenile correctional facilities is that adult local detention centers and juvenile detention centers take new admissions any time of the day or night, any day of the week, every day of the year. Prisons and juvenile correctional facilities, on the other hand, can control their admissions. In many states, departments of corrections and departments of juvenile justice have designated receiving and classification centers often called reception and classification centers. Admissions are strictly controlled and scheduled on a Monday to Friday basis. Because adult local detention centers and juvenile detention centers are constantly accepting new admissions, they must be staffed accordingly. One event, such as a mass arrest from a public disturbance, can rapidly increase a detention center's population by 10 to 20 percent or more.

By contrast, adult and juvenile correctional facilities (prisons and juvenile training schools) can be on large tracks of land that may require employees to walk several minutes before they get to their assigned post. Employees who are slow to get to their post may delay staff going off duty from clocking out, resulting in overtime. If employees clock in at their assigned post, what is the employees' status between the time they enter the institution and the time they clock in at their assigned post? This has implications if employees are expected to respond to a crisis that may develop before they are officially on the clock. In some cases, employees have abused the system by taking longer times to arrive at their assigned post, thus enabling the employee going off duty to earn overtime. While it may only be a matter of one-tenth of an hour, over a period of time, these minutes can add up and create overtime. If an institution administers WFM systems for both types of entities, the WFM technology must be able to handle each different operating model and WFM system requirements.

(b) Eight-, 10-, 12-Hour Shifts: The Great Debate

Tested scheduling and timekeeping procedures and practices in public safety agencies, especially law enforcement and correctional agencies, are an absolutely necessary part of protecting the public. Historically, law enforcement and correctional facilities scheduled their workforce around traditional eight-hour shifts, five days a week. In many cases, the typical coverage was 8:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. 4:00 P.M. to midnight; and midnight to 8:00 A.M. Days off were often determined by seniority or collective bargaining agreements.

Beginning in the late 1950s and early 1960s, at the request of employees and some employee unions, some employers began to experiment with different shifts and hours of work. It has become known as the compressed workweek (CWW). Law enforcement and correctional facilities followed and began to experiment with different shifts. Some agencies and institutions began with police officers and correctional officers working 10-hour shifts. In these cases, employees worked four days in a seven-day period. Others experimented with 12-hour shifts. Employees working this type of shift would work three days at 12 hours and 4 hours on a fourth day. Another option allowed employees to work three days and have four days off, followed by four working days and three days off. Thus, within an 80-hour pay period a police officer or correctional officer would work a 36 hour schedule and then a 48 hour schedule.

There has been considerable debate in the corrections and law enforcement professions regarding the CWW. In December 2011, Dr. Karen Amendola, Dr. David Weisburd, and their associates submitted their research report to the National Institute of Justice on the CWW in two police departments. Their report, The Impact of Shift Length in Policing on Performance, Health, Quality of Life, Sleep, Fatigue, and Extra Duty Employment, is the first known randomized study that examined the impact of various shift lengths (8, 10, and 12 hours) and the CWW on police officers. In the report, the authors found that in recent data gathered from 47 Texas law enforcement agencies, 43 percent were using 8-hour shifts, 34 percent were using 10-hour shifts, and 23 percent were using 12-hour shifts.28 While the study found that “compressed schedules (10- and 12-hour) did not seem to have a significant impact on our measures of performance,”29 the researchers did find that “those officers working the 10-hour shifts got more sleep per night than those on 8-hour shifts (greater than four hours more per week). Furthermore, those officers assigned to 8-hour shifts worked significantly more overtime than did those on 10- or 12-hour shifts (more than five times as much as those on 10-hour shifts, and more than three times as much as those on 12-hour shifts).”30

The research also pointed out that “there were some disadvantages related to 12-hour shifts, including greater reported levels of sleepiness and lower levels of alertness while at work as compared to those on 8-hour shifts. Because past researchers have indicated that people underestimate their fatigue levels,31 this finding should be reason for further concern. The fact that the benefits associated with 10-hour shifts—better quality of work life and greater average sleep amount—did not extend to 12-hour shifts indicates a nonlinear effect. Indeed, the lower levels of alertness and higher levels of sleepiness for those on 12-hour shifts suggests diminishing returns for the 12-hour shift configuration, although in one site alertness was diminished for the 10-hour shift as well.”32

Although 8- and 12-hour shifts can be more equally divided over a 24-hour day, which is not possible with 10-hour shifts, the researchers concluded, “Nevertheless, the gains in quality of work life, increased sleep, and overtime savings associated with 10-hour tours may result in a net benefit to law enforcement agencies.”33 (The full report is available online at: www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/237330.pdf.)

When considering CWW, law enforcement and correctional agencies should consider the impact on parents, especially single mothers or single fathers. In many parts of the country, it is difficult, if not impossible to find child care that covers more than 12 hours. With 12-hour shifts and the time it takes to get from the place of employment to the child care facility, it can be closer to 13 hours. The same is true of police officers and correctional officers who are caring for older parents.

Demanding hours and shift work are also major contributing factors in turnover and retention challenges in correctional facilities. In 2003, the American Correctional Association commissioned Workforce Associates, Inc., to conduct a national survey for the correctional workforce. This project was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance. Workforce Associates sent surveys to the Departments of Corrections and the Departments of Juvenile Justice in all 50 states and the District of Columbia that asked several questions about their correctional officers and administrators in correctional facilities. Fifty-two percent of the Departments of Corrections and 44 percent of the Departments of Juvenile Justice reported that “demanding hours and shift work” was the number one reason for retention difficulty. Inadequate pay and benefits ranked second.34

(c) Federal Law and National and State Standards

Federal and state laws govern and regulate many of the practices and procedures in prisons, jails, juvenile detention and correctional facilities, and other public and private correctional facilities. In addition, correctional administrators and elected officials should make sure that their correctional programs and facilities meet all constitutional requirements. Compliance with state standards is necessary in states where adult and juvenile correctional facilities must be certified or licensed to operate. The adoption and implementation of national standards by correctional facilities and programs is normally a voluntary decision on the part of the federal, state, or local correctional agency and leads to national accreditation. WAM-Pros can support the accreditation process with enabling technologies and systems that report on compliance and standards.

i. Cross-Gender Supervision

The Prison Rape Elimination Act, commonly referred to as PREA, was written to combat the serious problem of sexual assaults and sexual harassment in adult and juvenile correctional facilities and programs. The act is intended to curb sexual harassment, sexual assaults, and rapes in correctional programs through a zero-tolerance policy and requires correctional facilities and programs to establish robust policies and procedures to prevent sexual harassment and sexual assaults and rapes. Correctional agencies must also provide comprehensive training to employees and offenders on this federal law and how sexual assaults and harassments are to be reported and investigated. The U.S. Department of Justice will monitor these sexual offenses through research and information gathering. The act also develops national standards to prevent incidents of sexual violence in prison and establishes procedures for the monitoring of correctional facilities by independent auditors at least every three years. By increasing accountability for reporting sexual harassment, assaults, and rapes; by improving data collection and information gathering; and by comprehensive background checks for employees, it is anticipated that the incidents of sexual violence will be significantly reduced, if not eliminated. President George W. Bush signed PREA into law on September 4, 2003.

On the surface, it might not appear that this law has anything to do with employee scheduling and timekeeping, but, in fact, it does. The law places considerable attention on the issue of cross-gender supervision and searches of offenders in detention and correctional facilities. Correctional administrators must consider the number of female correctional officers on duty at any given time in correctional facilities for women, as well as the number of male correctional officers in facilities for women. The same is true in facilities for men. In some Southern states, there are more female correctional officers than males. This can create an imbalance in cross-gender supervision. To correct this problem, a warden may have to accept additional overtime to determine if the searching and supervision policies and procedures are followed as required by the law.

ii. National and State Standards

The American Correctional Association (ACA) is the largest professional corrections association in the world. For over 100 years, the ACA has pioneered in the development of national standards for prison, jails, and juvenile detention and correctional facilities. The ACA established a process for measuring compliance with national standards and created the Commission on Accreditation for Corrections in 1974.

The ACA has published manuals of standards for various correctional institutions and programs, including, but not limited to adult local detention centers, juvenile detention facilities, adult correctional institutions, juvenile correctional facilities, adult community residential facilities, and others. These standards are also being used by several foreign nations.

Among the many standards that address human resource issues is a standard that states, “When both males and females are housed in the facility, at least one male staff member and one female staff member are on duty at all times.”35 This standard, like the PREA standards, may require that a correctional administrator accept overtime to comply, because this is critical for the protection of offenders.

Although ACA standards do not require a specific staffing ratio (number of offenders per correctional officer), the standards do require that each facility review its staffing plan annually. The ACA standard states, “A comprehensive staffing analysis is conducted annually. The staffing analysis is used to determine staffing needs and plans. Relief factors are calculated for each classification of staff that is assigned to relieved posts or positions. Essential posts and positions, as determined in the staffing plan, are consistently filled with qualified personnel.”36 Software that is now available for public safety agencies can document the use of overtime and identify areas where additional staffing or schedule changes may be necessary to meet appropriate staffing ratios.

In addition to the ACA standards, many states have developed their own standards and certification procedures for correctional facilities. The purposes of these standards are to make sure that the offenders are being cared for in facilities that meet constitutional requirements and that correctional administrators manage facilities using nationally recognized practices. In addressing human resource issues, including training and working conditions, the standards strengthen the facilities' policies, procedures, and practices and help to prevent costly litigation.

(d) Correctional Facility Design Impacts Labor Management and Cost

When experienced correctional architects and corrections professionals begin to design a new correctional facility, they begin with the end in mind; a staff-efficient facility that will protect the public, provide cost-effective services and programs to offenders, and be environmentally friendly. Although the general public believes that the biggest cost of building new jails or prisons is in the construction, the National Institute of Corrections found that when it comes to building an adult local detention facility (jail), the total 30-year costs of construction and operating the facility reveals a different picture. When considered over a 30-year period, the construction and financing costs represent approximately 10 percent of the total construction and operating costs. Inmate care represents slightly less, about 9 percent. Maintenance, utilities, and other operating expenses are in the order of 18 percent. Staffing represents the remaining 63 percent.

Law enforcement and correctional agencies have particular challenges that impact scheduling and timekeeping. As with other occupations, changes in technology and society are having considerable impact on how law enforcement and correctional agencies provide services, but regardless of the pace of change, public safety will continue to be provided by individuals who will work 24-hour shifts, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

NOTES

1. L. C. Gapenski, W. B. Vogel, and B. Langland-Orban, “The Determinants of Hospital Profitability,” Hospital & Health Services Administration 38, no. 1 (1993): 63–80.

2. “Impact of Admissions, Discharges, Transfers (ADT) on Average Length of Stay (ALOS), Decreasing Length of Stay impacts Admissions, ADT, ALOS, OT% Compared to Med Errors and Patient Falls”; PSS™ Perspectives in Staffing & Scheduling Newsletter© 27, no. 1 (January 2008).

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. “Managing Your Non-productive Budget. Formulas for Calculating Your Non-productive Benefit Time. Self vs Selfish Scheduling, Employee Request Guidelines, Impact of Planned vs Unplanned Absences. Developing a Vacation Plan Form,” PSS™ Perspectives in Staffing & Scheduling Newsletter© 18 (March 2009).

9. “Schedulers, Worker Performance and Work Environment Scheduling Principles, Defining Employee Requests, Measuring Quality with Schedule Report Cards, 10 Indicators That Your Unit's Schedule Is Not Working, Scheduling Best Practices,” PSS™ Perspectives in Staffing & Scheduling Newsletter© 18 (March 2008). 

10. Ibid.

11. “Managing Your Non-productive Budget. Formulas for Calculating Your Non-productive Benefit Time. Self Vs. Selfish Scheduling, Employee Request Guidelines, Impact of Planned Vs Unplanned Absences. Developing a Vacation Plan Form.” PSS™ Perspectives in Staffing & Scheduling Newsletter©; volume XVIII, March 2009.

12. ChrysMarie Suby, ed., 2011 PSS™ Annual Survey of Hours Report© (Bloomington, MN: Labor Management Institute, October 15, 2011).

13. “Managing Your Non-productive Budget.”

14. “Schedulers, Worker Performance and Work Environment Scheduling Principles.” 

15. Ibid. 

16. “Managing Your Non-productive Budget.”

17. “Schedulers, Worker Performance and Work Environment Scheduling Principles.” 

18. Ibid.

19. Ibid.

20. Suby, 2011 PSS™ Annual Survey of Hours Report©.

21. “Managing Your Non-productive Budget”; “Schedulers, Worker Performance and Work Environment Scheduling Principles.”

22. “Impact of Admissions, Discharges, Transfers (ADT) on Average Length of Stay (ALOS).”

23. Ibid.

24. “Managing Your Non-productive Budget”; “Schedulers, Worker Performance and Work Environment Scheduling Principles.”

25. “Schedulers, Worker Performance and Work Environment Scheduling Principles.” 

26. “Impact of Admissions, Discharges, Transfers (ADT) on Average Length of Stay (ALOS).”

27. Interview with Pamela Ely, Product Manager, CRS Advanced Technology.

28. A. DiMambro, “Patrol Shift Schedules,” TELEMASP Bulletin 15, no. 2 (2008): 1–8, retrieved from http://www.lemitonline.org/publications/telemasp/Pdf/volume%2015/vol15no2.pdf.

29. Karen L. Amendola, David Weisburd, Edwin E. Hamilton, Greg Jones, Meghan Slipka, Anneke Heitmann, Jon Shane, Christopher Ortiz, and Eliab Tarkghen, The Impact of Shift Length in Policing on Performance, Health, Quality of Life, Sleep, Fatigue, and Extra Duty Employment (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 2012), 102.

30. Ibid., 105.

31. M. R. Rosekind and G. E. Schwartz, “Perception of Sleep and Wakefulness: Accuracy and Certainty of Subjective Judgments,” Sleep Research 17 (1988): 89.

32. Amendola et al., The Impact of Shift Length, 109.

33. Ibid., 106.

34. Workforce Associates, Inc., A 21st Century Workforce: For America's Correctional Institutions, Part One of a Three-Part Study Commissioned by the American Correctional Association (Indianapolis: Author, 2004).

35. American Correctional Association, Performance-Based Standards for Adult Local Detention Facilities, 4th ed. (Alexandria, VA: Author, 2004), 17.

36. Ibid., 18.

37. This section was contributed by ChrysMarie Suby.

38. This section was contributed by Susan Koen, PhD.

39. This section was contributed by Charles J. Kehoe, ACSW, CCE.