Article Highlights
- The problem: Lack of fire department schedule visibility
- The solution: Fire scheduling software
- The benefits of personnel scheduling software for fire
The problem: Lack of fire department schedule visibility
Today, many fire departments still use manual paper and spreadsheet systems for schedule management – copies are printed out and posted on bulletin boards or emailed to every staff member. But a significant problem with these traditional processes is that they don’t provide real-time schedule visibility across the entire fire department.
Schedulers have to manage and update schedules manually, which is cumbersome and difficult to keep up with in real time. Schedule maintenance alone can take up to 20% of a manager's work week. When fire staff swap schedules, request sick time or PTO, or any other change is made, the schedule has to be manually updated, reprinted, reposted, and resent to all your employees.
Without a real-time scheduling system, It's difficult to efficiently track and disseminate fire department schedule updates and changes, PTO requests, and open shifts that need to be filled. You could end up with multiple schedule versions, which leads to errors, miscommunications, and misunderstandings about firefighter staffing levels. Departments often struggle to ensure all staff have seen and acknowledged the schedule changes, making it harder to ensure all of the required shifts are filled each day so the department can operate effectively.
Ultimately, this lack of visibility makes problems with understaffing and overscheduling worse, which hinders firefighter safety and quality of services in the field.
The solution: Fire scheduling software
PowerTime by PowerDMS is a digital scheduling software that improves internal communication and schedule visibility across your entire fire department. By housing all your employee scheduling information in one centralized location, PowerTime provides a real-time view of schedules across the organization.
In the system, when administrators need to quickly inform fire staff of live updates, they can send email or text message blasts to the entire staff or a specific group. Furthermore, individual staff members can set automatic notifications about specific events, like when their PTO requests are approved or a new schedule is published.
The software also lets you manage staffing needs at every level with tiered approval systems, digital timesheets, and employee information logging. To top it all off, PowerTime provides 24/7 access to the most up-to-date schedule from any digital device and even allows staff to swap shifts themselves from home or at work.
The benefits of personnel scheduling software for fire
The PowerTime fire scheduling software saves time with digital accessibility and real-time scheduling, reducing the manual work of fire department schedulers. As a cloud-based platform that maintains all of your scheduling information, PowerTime ensures firefighters have access to the most up-to-date schedule from any device and remain aware of schedule changes no matter where they are – ensuring your entire workforce is always informed and accountable.
Moving away from paper schedules posted on a bulletin board means you no longer have multiple or outdated versions of schedules in rotation. Employee schedule changes are visible to everyone in real-time, so there’s never any confusion about which schedule is correct. This complete schedule visibility also minimizes overscheduling and errors related to miscommunications, and helps schedulers ensure proper firefighter staffing levels to keep firefighters and the community safe.
Learn more
Learn more about how PowerTime can increase schedule visibility, save time and improve internal communication by scheduling a free demo on our website.