Delivering performance management
Gwent Police updated its performance management process for police officers and staff with a hi-tech solution that could measure staff performance and help allocate resources more efficiently.
Performance management was the key driver for the decision by Gwent Police to adopt new technologies to improve efficiencies and help shape the direction of the force.
Gwent Police was looking for a way of measuring staff performance and allocating resources more efficiently.
Covering an area of 600 square miles, the forces existing performance management system was not capable of providing the information needed by officers and was no longer adequate to meet the needs of a modern policing environment plus there was an urgent need for data to be centralised to allow access at station and ward level.
The introduction of the QlikTech product QlikView now allows all authorised staff to have access to their own performance statistics, the aggregated information of their commanders, any staff they supervise and details of occurrences within the business area in which they work.
The business intelligence tool will assist accountability and performance and also offers software licences to allow further in-house development.
It is being deployed to Gwents 2,500 employees and can be up-and-running with minimum training.
John Stafford, chief information officer at Gwent Police, explained: The use of QlikView will enable us to assess in detail the performance of police officers and staff at all levels of the organisation, which with the previous systems in place at the force has not been possible. In addition, it will enable us to more clearly identify the availability of appropriately-trained staff and highlight where there are shortages.
The software presents improved staff performance monitoring at all levels, providing essential information needed for staff reviews. Individuals will get detailed information on their performance in certain business areas, and this performance can be compared to their colleagues aggregate data. If, for example, an officer applies to be a detective, supervisors can examine the applicants case history and make an informed and accurate decision on the candidates previous performance in the crime investigation arena.
The data will also help identify future objectives by analysing current performance data.
QlikView can also present the data needed to identify training needs and therefore reduce the need for generic training. For example, by extracting data relating to how many family liaison officers were available in one particular station, the software could identify a shortage and therefore a training need.
The system will allow Gwent Police to quickly identify resource management issues and get a plan in place to resolve them. The power of the application is to allow the user to ask a question at any time while analysing the data. In much the same way as everyday conversations include spontaneous questions, it lets the user ask questions as they use the application.
Saves time
Automated production of management information dramatically reduces the time it takes to collect statistical information. This helps improve the management information processes by providing up-to-date information for local reporting.
The management information is held in one place so there is no longer any need to access several force applications to obtain the required data, not only improving the decision-making process but reducing the time it takes to extract management information, ultimately improving the quality of service to victims of crime. Supervisors can then determine which resources to allocate to specific trouble spots or events.
Cross references
The system also enables Gwent Police to identify the total crime instances per month, break down the statistics into divisional areas, then station level and finally ward level. The results can then be divided in
