For most police departments the thought of have part time cops or job sharing in policing is simply unacceptable. Having officers on the street that work less than half of a year (including holidays and sick time) and still maintain a sharp investigative or emergency response edge, to them, is without a doubt impossible. Or is it?
As with most professions, we in law enforcement have to change with the times. In Canada and the United States we are presently stuck in a hiring crunch. With all of the baby boomers retiring we are competing with other organizations and other police agencies for those employable people in our community who may want to be police officers. It is becoming a generational need. The cream of the crop gets watered down as we struggle to hire qualified people while we watch our experience and expertise walk out the door with our older officers who are looking to improve their quality of life with their family. We could stand there and stomp our feet and say those officers, be it men or women, are not loyal or dedicated and that "FINE - don't let the door hit you on the way out!" But really folks, with nothing left in the hiring pool to fill their boots, perhaps we should be looking for alternatives to keep our experienced staff in our organizations?
I'm not going to lie to you. Most of the officers who will take you up on job sharing or "Flexible Employment Opportunities" will likely be women and it will likely be for family reasons. Is family not a good enough reason? Look around at who you arrest. Why are you arresting them? Haven't they got a family who will discipline them or keep an eye on them? Aha... my point exactly.
Ok, let's say for interest sake, you are open-minded about job sharing. Let's explore what it looks like to be a "family friendly employer". Let's see what flexible policing provides your organization:
- Assists in retaining existing workforce
- Efficiently uses skilled staff members instead of losing them
- Having experienced workers rather than constantly having to train a replacement
- Encourages female officers to return to work after maternity leave
Studies in New Zealand indicated that other benefits to the police organization are happier employees who are keen to work; they have less stress, increased motivation and get through a lot of work because they know their time is limited. They also provide a more quality output because they don't feel the accumulating stress others do in the field and they do not have the family stress of being away from home that often compounds stress when on shift. The downside? Maintaining training can be an issue or at the very least the trust from other members that the part time officer is "battle ready". With a part time employee you are always short half a position or, in the case of job sharing, you could be down an entire officer if the department does not hire to replace that second person. Also, part time employees would not be available for special operations and court commitments could be a nightmare.
This same New Zealand study found that it wasn't only women that were applying for the flexible positions. In fact there were a variety of reasons why this type of arrangement was attractive to the employee. Of the male employees one was a high profile triathelete, one was getting a post-secondary degree, and one was assisting in a family business. For women both the family commitment and study purposes were popular. In many of these cases the officers would have quit policing to make these commitments. With flexible employment they are able to do both.
So, interested in exploring job sharing or flexible employment for your organization? It is not an easy road to go down for several reasons; first of all the logistics. Considerations need to be made in regards to issues such as overtime, seniority, pension, discipline, training, court commitments, sick days, file assignments and completion, annual leave and work assignments. These logistical issues are different for every department, but rest assured there are many departments that have gone through it. The Saskatoon Police Service finally embarked on job sharing in 2008; however other Canadian police services such as Edmonton and Calgary have been doing it for years. Contact one of these organizations to gain insight as to the issues that are faced when job sharing is offered. Remember when competing for talented police recruits, if your organization offered job sharing, say after five years of continuous service, you would be the employer of choice compared to other policing organizations.
After you've done your research and have worked out the logistics, implementing the program is a whole new challenge. Introducing a family friendly employment strategy in a command and control world is not so easy. Most of your officers feel that flexible employment is a privilege, but in reality it is an entitlement. An organization must positively promote and communicate the program, or it is destined to fail. Just like anything else in our organization, some go out of their way to make things work and others work just as hard to prove that it can't. Having said that, identify the potential disadvantages of flexible employment. If training is a potential issue, then address it and ensure all job sharing employees are adequately trained on an annual basis, just as everyone else is. If being shorthanded on the street is the issue, then hire to fill in the vacant position if possible; police services that have had this program in place for some time plan for a given amount of vacancies due to job sharing and hire to replace those positions annually.
I know this appears to have the "cake and eat it too" look to it. Maybe in the days when we had few jobs and hundreds of qualified applicants, this may not have been an option. If you are in a position of influence in your organization, this may be somewhere you need to explore. It is one of those "out of the box" thinking things. Give it a try.
