C.A.R.M - Computer Aided Resource Management

Introduction to CARM

CARM provides a complete tailored solution to the growing complexities of Human Resource Management and Duty Rostering in particular.

Deployment of a wider mix of skills, new welfare and training issues, budgetary constraints and increased public expectations are just some of the challenges facing public safety organizations across the world.

CARM utilizes the latest technology to meet these challenges and deliver improved speed and flexibility to the duty rostering process - enabling faster and more effective deployment and management of public resources.

Now on release 3, CARM offers a host of benefits to all parts of the organization from the individual to higher management. By creating 'user profiles' that control functional access to various parts of the application and 'user views' that control organizational access, the CARM system administrator can tailor CARM to suit each different member of the organization. Thus individuals will only be able to access functions that are relevant to their role and to those parts of the organization that they need to know about.

Typically these would include profiles for:

Each individual
Supervisory functions
Duty Planning functions
Training Department functions
Court functions
Finance functions
HR functions
Management functions
System Administration functions

Each member of the organization is able to access CARM information from any workstation on the organization network. CARM is a web based product and therefore the workstation just needs a standard IE browser to access the centrally held information. So no matter where the person is situated, they have immediate access.

Each individual:

Functions available to every individual may include:

Viewing any changes to your schedules, future, current or past, (daily, weekly, monthly and annual views) - such as shift changes, absences (e.g. leave and sick), activities (e.g. court, training, secondment, etc., duties (e.g. walking beats, cars, etc.), assignments (e.g. acting ranks, on-call, etc) and operations.

Viewing any upcoming court attendances as a witness together with case information (accused, reference numbers, other witnesses, etc.)

Viewing details of any upcoming training courses as an attendee as well as being able to indicate any training courses you would like to attend in the future (your 'wish list') that the training department can then utilize when planning future training needs.

Viewing any special skills that you may have that may be relevant to the job e.g. additional languages, firearms, driving, supervisory, search, etc. This may also include dates for any re-certification requirements or mandatory training.

Viewing and claiming electronically (for pay or lieu-time) any overtime generated as a result of your working conditions. E.g. working on statutory holidays or rest days, extending shifts, callbacks, paid duties, etc.

Viewing the status of all overtime claims working their way through the overtime process. E.g. Awaiting claim, awaiting authorization, awaiting administration, awaiting payment and paid.

Viewing the status of any time banks relevant to the organization and the individual. E.g. Annual Leave bank showing credits (entitlements - that may be automatically generated by CARM based on length of service, etc.) and debits (Annual Leave planned or taken). Any activity type may be designated as a time bank for the purposes of tracking time (e.g. Annual Leave, Lieu Time, Personal Leave, Family Leave, etc.)

Electronically place requests for Annual Leave, Lieu Time, or any other activity for the appropriate authorizations to be sought - also electronically. Thus removing the need for a 'paper chase'.

Viewing the status of all activity requests working their way through the process. E.g. Awaiting authorization, awaiting application to the schedule and applied.

Viewing and updating any personal information that may then be restricted to only those people that need access. e.g. contact information (address and telephone numbers etc.), next of kin information, blood group, driving license, passport, firearms and handcuff serial numbers, etc.

Optional capability for individuals to book on and off duty to capture accurate attendance information and manage working time welfare requirements.

Ability to indicate availability for overtime for supervisors and duty planners to offer overtime in a fair and equitable manner.

Built in messaging capability to allow messages to be sent to other members of the organization as well as integration into your organizations own email facilities.

Flexi time recording for any individuals operating under any defined flexi time schemes.

Supervisors:

Additional functions available to supervisors may include:

Electronic authorization or rejection of overtime claims - with automatic updating of appropriate time banks (e.g. crediting to Lieu Time banks with authorized overtime claims elected for Lieu Time instead of Pay - together with verifications regarding limits allowed within those banks)

Electronic authorization or rejection of requests placed by individuals for Annual Leave, Lieu Time, etc.

Electronic authorization or rejection of requests placed by training department for planned training courses of individuals under their supervision.

Optional electronic verification of requests placed by the courts (or court liaison) for planned trials dates of individuals as witnesses under their supervision.

Booking on and off of teams under their supervision as an alternative (or in addition) to individuals booking on and off. E.g. a platoon Sergeant may book their whole platoon on duty at start of tour and book them off at the end. Provides for the capability of individuals remaining on duty at tour end for overtime purposes as necessary.

Recording of absences of individuals in teams under their supervision.

Duty Planners:

Additional functions available to duty planners may include:

Application of authorized activity requests from supervisors. E.g. Annual Leave, Lieu Time etc.

Changes to schedules. E.g. swapping shifts with rest days, applying callbacks, extending shifts etc.

Recording activities. E.g. Absences such as sickness, secondment, training, court attendance, meetings, etc.

Recording duties. E.g. cars, patrol zones, beats, etc.

Recording assignments. E.g. On-call, acting ranks, etc.

Recording special operations.

Managing resource levels through cover graphs that indicate, hour by hour, availability of personnel against minimum and suggested levels of cover.

Planning for periods of Annual Leave or other long-term activities

Checking for the availability of individuals in a fair and equitable manner when offering overtime.

Checking amount of working time for welfare purpose.

Checking for the availability of individuals with particular skills. E.g. are there any Spanish speakers on duty at the moment?

Checking for the availability of time for individuals for particular activities. e.g. When are particular individuals available for a particular activity (e.g. training)?

Notification to individuals, and any other interested personnel, of any changes to duties either by the CARM messaging system or by the organizations own email facility.

Ability to lock down periods of time for parts of the organization against any activity types being applied. E.g. No leave to be applied during an upcoming event.

Training Department:

Additional functions available to the training department may include:

Management of training courses and reviewing individuals training 'wish lists'.

Planning training courses and identification of attendees and dates using a 'best fit date' query capability.

Automatic training requests forwarded to individuals supervisors for authorization or rejection.

Automatic email notification from the supervisors with the appropriate response.

Confirmation of training courses and updating the individuals schedules, automatically rescheduling shifts as appropriate to suit the training course requirements.

Automatic notification of confirmed training courses to the attendees involved.

Management of any cancellations of planned training courses and/or individual attendees on those courses.

Maintenance of individuals' skills sets as a result of completing training courses.

Management of Travel Time for course attendance.

Courts or Courts Liaison:

Additional functions available to the courts or court liaison department may include:

Management of court cases.

Setting trial dates for witnesses using a 'best fit date' query capability.

Automatic updating of witnesses schedules, creating overtime as appropriate.

Automatic notification of trial dates to the witnesses involved.

Management of any 'countermanding' of trials and/or individual witnesses for those trials.

Finance:

Additional functions available to the finance department may include:

Administration of overtime with the recording of costing information (alternatively, this may be captured at the point of overtime claim)

Entry of any additional overtime claims as a result of secondment outside the organization or any other additional overtime allowances.

Pre-validation of overtime information, including shift differentials, prior to extract for payroll.

Extract of overtime and shift differentials information, including any 'overtime debits' as a result of previously paid overtime being changed, for passing to an appropriate payroll system.

Verification of extracted overtime and shift differentials information.

Human Resources:

Additional functions available to the human resources department may include:

New hires, resignations, retirements and transfers of personnel, including rank changes.

Recording of anniversary dates for any number of time bank entitlements. E.g. Annual Leave, Family Time, Blood Days, etc.

Recording of any opening balances of time in time banks, e.g. Cancelled Rest Days, Annual Leave, Lieu Time, Family Time, Blood Days, etc.

Management of working conditions and allocation of shift patterns.

Management of skills including languages etc.

Upload of personnel photographs with access throughout the system.

Management:

Additional functions available to management may include:

Working time analyses for welfare purposes. Includes Average Hours, Insufficient Rest Days analyses, Inter-shift break times, etc.

Analyses of Leave, Sickness, Courts, Training, Secondment and Other Activities

Analyses of Shift Deviations

Analyses of Overtime

Analyses of Time Banks

Analyses of Schedules and Resource Cover.

System Maintenance:

Additional functions available to the system administrators may include:

Maintenance of all code tables including Ranks, Skills, Activities, Duties, Assignments, Operations, Analyses codes, Training Centres, Cancellation reasons, Courts, Countermand reasons and Costing information.

Maintenance of Shift Patterns of any length and complexity, including Flexi Time Schemes, Shift Leveling, meal breaks, automatic activities and assignments, full time and part time personnel, etc.

Maintenance of the Organization structure and re-organization capabilities.

Maintenance of user profiles, users and organizational access rights.

Maintenance of special days, especially Statutory Holidays.

Maintenance of System Control parameters.

Definition of colours.

Maintenance of Time Bank Entitlement tables.

Localization of all text within CARM to suit the organizations own nomenclature.

Incorporation of 'user buttons' to enable links to the organizations other web pages wherever necessary.

Incorporation of any special reports developed by the organization into the CARM menu allowing seamless integration.