If you ask any fire chief what his or her top priority is, you might get a few variations of roughly the same several answers. Serving one’s community, helping keep others safe or even staying safe themselves are all key – maintaining the staffing schedule probably appears farther down the list.
Yet as unglamorous and downright mentally taxing it can be to fill gaps in shifts, approve overtime or make last-minute scheduling changes on the fly, these tasks are all essential to keeping a department running smoothly. Many charged with scheduling find themselves using pen and paper, or spreadsheets at best, to keep track of shifts while relying on phone lists and numerous calls when coverage is needed.
Aside from the basics of crafting each day’s line-up, there are other concerns that come along with department scheduling. Here’s what fire chiefs are often challenged with and how they can switch to a stress-free scheduling process.
WHEN THERE ARE CHALLENGES APLENTY
Scheduling for a fire department is significantly different than what’s required in just about any other industry. Fire chiefs can’t simply plug in all vacation requests and randomly fill in the remaining gaps. Minimum staffing levels are mandated, and budget restraints can be a frequent hindrance.
“In today’s fire service, everyone is short-staffed and we can never have enough people on duty,” said Robbi King, director of solutions engineers at Vector Solutions. “You want to make sure you’re able to maximize the budget but also meet minimum staffing levels.”
With 27 years of experience in the fire service, he’s seen firsthand how delicate this balance is. Agencies with sufficient budgets may be able to schedule their crew above minimum staffing levels but it’s still not an easy task when there are other competing priorities.
“One of the biggest challenges departments are faced with is, as time goes on, there’s more of a demand with other items,” said Matt Shronts, a Vector Solutions senior solutions engineer. “Folks that are traditionally responsible for filling the overtime slots and taking care of staffing are now tasked with more responsibilities as far as other areas in the community. At the administrative level, time really is money.”
When chiefs are pulled in multiple directions, it’s also difficult to spend the time needed to ensure overtime is allocated appropriately and crew burnout is avoided.
“I was always the battalion chief’s go-to,” said King. “They would ask, ‘Does anyone want to work tomorrow?’ I was the first one to say yes. But you can get burnt out, so you want to make sure whoever is doing the scheduling is being fair and equitable to follow collective bargaining or policy and procedures, but you want to make sure you’re preventing burnout.”
MAKING SCHEDULING MOBILE
Instead of spending too much time in the day working on scheduling, fire chiefs or those tasked with the assignment can use Vector Scheduling. It allows for specific rules based on a department’s unique needs and relies on an intuitive interface both for those making the schedule and those who are on it.
A key differentiator is just how easy it is to use no matter the device, says Shronts. After learning to navigate the platform on a laptop computer, switching to on-the-go access via smartphone feels the same. Whether you’re sending out overtime or moving someone on the schedule, the steps are identical.
“When you have one simplified, easy process that’s uniform across the board, that’s where the user engagement is generally more impactful,” said Shronts. “Every person in society lives on a mobile device now. What becomes a challenge is when you sit down at a computer screen and train your mind in one operation and then you go into the generalized life of picking up your phone. It can become a nuisance because I’m using one program, but then I have to learn how to use it from a mobile perspective. Vector Scheduling eliminates that challenge.”
ADVANCED TOOLS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
When it seems there’s never enough time in the day, staying on top of schedule changes may often fall by the wayside. That’s where Vector Scheduling’s AI assistant comes in, scanning several times per day to check for open positions and filling them based on a user’s preset rules.
“That’s the power of leveraging technology to be a force multiplier,” said King. “When there are things set in the policy, like allowing x number of people off or x number of firefighters or x number of drivers and so on, let the technology do that work so you have the time to be coaching and mentoring people in the field. If the chief is stuck in an office trying to make phone calls and follow the hiring list, they don’t have time to be out in the field doing their real job – leading the group of men and women that are in that agency.”
A carefully thought-out schedule can make the day-to-day operations of a department run much more smoothly, but the level of detail Vector Scheduling provides also aids agencies in tracking time spent during unique situations.
“It’s one thing to say we’re going to deploy a task force to help other communities in the aftermath of a natural disaster, but there are ancillary things that also have to occur,” explained Shronts. “We need to track that time and attendance so we can easily produce a report to attach to our FEMA submission to get reimbursed. This tool lets us do that.”
Project codes can be assigned to any number of activities and allow administrators to track scheduling analytics related to budget and resources spent. Departments can determine how many hours of regular time and overtime were spent teaching CPR classes or community risk reduction, and each report can be exported with accompanying graphs in a matter of minutes.
From one-time events that necessitate more careful staffing to managing the everyday ins and outs of running a department, Vector Scheduling addresses both the physical and mental challenges associated with the task.
“It offers a ‘set it and forget it’ mentality,” said Shronts. “It allows for a chief’s mental state to be in the right place and not worried about being distracted from other responsibilities. All of it is automated in the background and it allows them to be focused on their people – that’s the most important thing.”
Visit Vector Solutions for more information.
