Article Highlights
- The problem: Telecommunicators are overscheduled, leading to stress and burnout
- The solution: PowerTime scheduling software
- The benefits: Reduce overscheduling, minimize 911 burnout, and ensure quality services
The problem: Overscheduling and burnout
As emergency communications centers across the country struggle with understaffing, they also face increased risk for overscheduling, burnout, and low retention. That’s because telecommunicators must work overtime to maintain minimum staffing levels, uphold SLAs, and provide quality public safety services. Employees who continue to work with burnout are more likely to quit and prolong the problem of understaffing.
You further exacerbate these risks if your agency still relies on an outdated, manual scheduling process. While you undertake what feels like a herculean feat to fill empty shifts and manage an understaffed 911 dispatch at your emergency communications center, you can’t always tell if you’ve scheduled a telecommunicator for too many shifts.
Without clear schedule visibility, ECC Directors can’t identify which telecommunicators are being regularly overscheduled. You may ask specific staff to work too frequently, perpetuating the cycle of burnout, high turnover, and understaffed 911 dispatch. Likewise, if telecommunicators don’t have a reliable way to request time off and take a much-needed vacation, their burnout can cause them to make more mistakes. This can lead to safety issues for partners and the community and compliance issues for your agency.
The solution: Public safety scheduling software
The real-time scheduling features that ECC scheduling software provides can alleviate factors contributing to telecommunicator burnout, overscheduling and stress. PowerTime, PowerDMS’s schedule management system, improves scheduling visibility so you can better track employee hours and ensure emergency telecommunicators get the time off they need. That’s because this public safety scheduling software streamlines schedule management and updates for your ECC.
PowerTime facilitates real-time scheduling so everyone is always aware of who’s working when. Telecommunicators can choose to receive automated notifications so they remain aware of schedule changes as they happen. This schedule management system also warns you when telecommunicators reach their maximum hours so that you can avoid accidentally overscheduling them.
Additionally, PowerTime provides telecommunicators with more autonomy to work a schedule that meets their needs. Staff can use this system to trade shifts with other telecommunicators and submit time off requests to supervisors. PowerTime streamlines this process with a multi-tiered approval system for time off requests. Its automated system also helps with tracking employee hours accrued, approvals, and time off banks, making it easy for supervisors and employees to collaborate around scheduling.
The benefits of a schedule management system
Because PowerDMS’s ECC scheduling software sends automated alerts to ensure telecommunicators aren’t overscheduled, your agency can experience improved emergency telecommunicator morale and increased retention. This streamlined, real-time scheduling also makes it easier for telecommunicators to request time off and view their schedules 24/7, so they don’t experience inevitable burnout and frustration from missed vacations and scheduling miscommunications.
The PowerTime scheduling software ensures compliance and quality services by keeping staff motivated, informed and energized. Because your agency experiences fewer errors and staffing issues, ECC Directors can rest assured knowing that you’re providing public safety partners and the community with the highest level of service possible.
Learn more
Stop contributing to burnout by using an outdated scheduling system. Book a no-obligation demo today to learn more about how PowerTime can optimize your ECC schedules to reduce stress and 911 burnout.