Chino Valley Independent Fire District Dramatically Reduces Scheduling Time Using PDSI's Telestaff
In Chino Hills, CA, it is usually the Chino Valley Independent Fire District (CVIFD) that speeds to the rescue of those in distress when called upon to fight fires and protect the lives and property of its populace.
By 1998, however, it was the CVIFD that found itself in need of a helping hand. The CVIFD wanted to end the time-consuming task of scheduling and staffing the department's 100 firefighters, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, including arranging for back-up personnel. The CVIFD discovered a more than adequate solution in a hardware/software system designed specifically for fire departments, which enabled it to perform this function 320 times faster than its existing resources.
CVIFD is a small fire department by the standards of most of sprawling Southern California. Thus, the story of its adoption and use of a computerized staff scheduling system illustrates how sophisticated technology is well within the reach of smaller communities.
CVIFD is headquartered in the small San Bernardino County town of Chino Hills. The city and its surrounding communities, however, are currently part of Southern California's rapidly expanding eastern frontier of new homes and neighborhoods.
CVIFD officials recognized the need to purchase a computerized staffing system as early as the late 1980s. But, the department did not begin to seriously explore its options until years later. Before the department computerized, all work schedules were manually written on a grid and relayed by staffing personnel to every employee — a system used since CVIFD was founded in 1895.
A more advanced approach finally arrived in 1993 when a computer consulting firm supplied CVIFD with a DOS-based system that included eight computers. This network consisted of one computer at each of the department's six stations, along with two in the department's administration building (one acting as the file server). The system worked adequately for three years until the consulting firm's dissolution and, thus, the end of its technical support.
Pressing Need Leads To A Necessary Step
The suspending of this customer-consultant relationship was fortuitous, however, in that it forced CVIFD to consider its long-term needs and to plan how to meet those needs.
"At that time, we felt urgently we should be upgrading to a Windows-based system. So, negotiations began with contractor programmers to head in that direction," said Darlene Ungeheier, CVIFD's computer system analyst who writes the work schedules with two captains.
The fee for such an upgrade was estimated at approximately $30,000. It was a costly, but necessary, step administrators felt they had to take, even if it required budgeting $10,000 over a three-year period (1996-99).
The department continued using its limited DOS-based program through 1997 before a story in the January 1998 edition of a fire industry trade publication ultimately led to the permanent solution CVIFD officials had been seeking. Fire Chief Al Grams read a story about a computerized staffing system known as TeleStaff from PDSI of Irvine, CA. Based on what he read, he thought the system might provide a more efficient and less expensive solution compared to other automated systems the department had been exploring.
TeleStaff's Features Far Surpassed CVIFD's DOS-Based System
Chief Grams asked Ms. Ungeheier to contact PDSI and less than a month later, a demonstration of TeleStaff and its Windows-based system was conducted before the department's top executives. PDSI's Greg Ekstrom and Felicia Black provided an overview of TeleStaff's modules and capabilities, presenting several hypothetical scheduling problems followed by their solutions.
The software is specifically designed to automate and manage the staffing needs of fire departments. The main hardware elements of the TeleStaff system are a personal computer workstation with built-in telephony capabilities to notify employees of staffing requirements and updates. The firefighters use a touch-tone phone to access this information and notify the department of changes in their schedules.
The first demo impressed CVIFD's decision-makers to the point that they immediately announced their intent to purchase TeleStaff, which they did in July 1998. Not the least of the compelling factors endorsing TeleStaff was the fact that the total price for both the hardware and software comprising the system was less than they had forecast in their budget.
Like TeleStaff, the existing DOS-based system scheduled overtime, days off and vacation requests. The major difference, however, is that TeleStaff's automated system does not require staffing personnel to call employees.
When staff changes create gaps in the daily schedule, the system automatically makes calls to employees to fill empty positions. Following the completion of staffing, daily work rosters are printed, faxed and/or downloaded to upper management.
TeleStaff Can Be Tailored To Accommodate The Needs Of Any Size Department
"TeleStaff is unique because it can be configured to fit the requirements of any size department, which was another major selling point for us," said Ms. Ungeheier.
With CVIFD's TeleStaff purchase, the process of configuration began. The total number of employees, hiring practices and standard operating procedures were entered into the system. After TeleStaff was installed, PDSI personnel walked CVIFD officials through the system during a four-hour orientation session. The product was installed next to the old DOS-based system so CVIFD officials could "parallel" their performance before closing down the old system permanently.
Time Devoted To Scheduling Processes And Overtime Tracking Errors Reduced Dramatically
CVIFD has noted two primary benefits with TeleStaff since it implemented the system more than one year ago.
First, CVIFD noted a total elimination of errors relating to the tracking of overtime eligibility using TeleStaff. The system generates detailed staffing and payroll reports that have enabled the department to make sure it distributes overtime to its firefighters fairly and, even more importantly, stay within its own guidelines and labor rules.
Second, TeleStaff's automated functions have also led to a dramatic time reduction in the various processes of schedule making. The daily process of hiring substitutes to fill vacancies due to illness is one example. With the system programmed to automatically contact employees eligible for overtime and with the firefighters themselves now able to respond via touch-tone phone, the time-consuming process of manually conducting calls and waiting for callbacks has been curtailed.
In addition, CVIFD performs several longer-term scheduling processes, including "scheduled overtime" hires, on a monthly basis. During the month of July 1999, when vacation demand is at its highest, the department had to fill a total of 100 positions, matching shift vacancies with firefighters who signed up for overtime. This process, which used to require approximately 16 hours to complete manually, is now finished in three minutes.
"TeleStaff performs this function perfectly," said Ms. Ungeheier. "Once all the information is entered, it electronically hires exactly who we hired manually and accomplishes this function 320 times faster than the manual processes of the past. That, in fact, was one of our motivating forces last year, to have a system operational by June so that scheduling during the vacation-heavy month of July would not be such a lengthy process."