Salt Lake City Fire Transforms Scheduling, Improves Accountability, and Realizes Significant Time Savings
Kronos TeleStaff Benefits
“The Kronos TeleStaff solution effectively bridged the gap between our scheduling and payroll processes. It saves administrative employees a great deal of time through automation and has provided our employees with the ability to manage their own time, which has increased job satisfaction and decreased our liability. The Kronos TeleStaff solution is an effective tool in the management of the complex schedules in the fire service.” — David Herrmann, Technology Services Director, Salt Lake City Fire Department
- Automates scheduling
- Speeds scheduling communications
- Supports client-specific configuration
- Improves operational efficiency
- Increases staffing accuracy
- Helps ensure compliance
- Controls labor costs
- Promotes employee satisfaction
- Integrates with the Kronos workforce management suite
- Integrates with third-party systems
Salt Lake City Fire Department at a Glance
Industry: Municipal Fire
Location: Utah, USA
Residents: 200,000
Fire Personnel: 360
Service Area: 97 square miles
CHALLENGES
The Salt Lake City Fire Department (SLCFD) was officially formed in 1853 and made up of a fire brigade composed of volunteers. In those early days, the department used leather buckets and wooden ladders to get the job done.
Today, the department has 360 staff members and relies on an array of state-of-the-art equipment and technology to support its mission of providing the most efficient and economical service possible. Before, however, battalion chiefs relied on Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, and a white board with magnets representing individual fire companies, to create and fill assignments, notify employees of work opportunities, track employee eligibility for overtime, and manage various leave types. This manual process took battalion chiefs up to three hours daily.
Because scheduling data was kept in multiple spreadsheets and binders, fi refi ghters relied heavily on the battalion chief to complete staffing changes. SLCFD needed a better way to schedule employees and manage their time, as well as create greater firefighter accountability for scheduling issues.
Additionally, submitting employee work hours to payroll was very cumbersome. The process required the daily battalion chief to enter employee work hours into an Excel spreadsheet and then email the data to the timekeeper. At that point, the data was manually entered into the city’s payroll system. This process caused redundant data entry work, which was prone to errors.
SOLUTION
To address these challenges, the department released a request for proposal (RFP) for a scheduling and timekeeping solution and selected the Kronos® TeleStaff™ solution. The system’s capabilities and the implementation and support team’s extensive knowledge of fire industry scheduling were key factors that led to the award through a competitive bid process.
BENEFITS
SLCFD-specifi c configuration improves compliance
Within a matter of months, the Kronos TeleStaff solution was up and running. To automate the fire department’s scheduling and timekeeping processes — and help ensure compliance — the Kronos TeleStaff team configured a database specifically based on SLCFD’s rules and labor mandates.
Increased scheduling accuracy and accountability
The Kronos TeleStaff solution has greatly improved scheduling and timekeeping accuracy and increased accountability, which decreases the likelihood of accidental over-compensation and scheduling favoritism. With the Kronos TeleStaff solution, shift opportunities are distributed fairly based on SLCFD’s rules.
Automated scheduling saves significant time
Staffing personnel are saving nearly 20 hours a week with auto-mating scheduling. Instead of the battalion chief deciding which firefighters to assign and contact, the Kronos TeleStaff solution automatically generates lists that determine the right candidates for the positions and then automatically notifies them.
In addition, the solution automatically notifies swing firefighters of their daily assignments, so battalion chiefs no longer have to make time-consuming phone calls to offer working opportunities to meet mandatory staffing levels. And battalion chiefs no longer need to enter employee work hours into spreadsheets and then email them to the timekeeper.
Self-service tools enhance accountability and satisfaction
Accountability issues are now shared among battalion chiefs and firefighters because the Kronos TeleStaff solution gives users access to their own personal calendars to request time off and manage vacation and other leave types via the phone, intranet, or internet. Personnel at all levels enjoy having easy access to their information and control of their schedules.
Automated solution creates payroll time savings
The process of maintaining multiple spreadsheets and binders to store payroll data is no longer needed because the Kronos TeleStaff solution keeps the data and automatically exports it to payroll — saving payroll personnel 16 hours every month. Now, timekeepers and battalion chiefs have more time to focus on other important tasks, such as quality assurance and training.
Daily reporting provides operational and labor insight
SLCFD is further benefiting from the Kronos TeleStaff solution’s auto-generated reports. Each day, the solution generates output that includes roster and audit reports. Battalion chiefs are able to use these reports for greater insight into operations and labor issues and to perform analysis.
More information about Kronos customer success stories may be found at www.kronos.com/resources. © 2011, Kronos Incorporated. Kronos and the Kronos logo are registered trademarks of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. TeleStaff is a trademark of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. For a full list of Kronos trademarks, please visit the “trademarks” page at www.kronos.com. All other product, company names, or marks mentioned, if any, are used for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective owners. All specifications are subject to change. All rights reserved.