The Braidwood Fire Department’s antiquated scheduling process was replaced with FIRE Manager, a state-of-the-art web-based system increasing efficiency and saving time
Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota - Illinois’ Braidwood Fire Department commits to Aladtec’s FIRE Manager for all their scheduling and crew management needs. FIRE Manager is a subscription-based online employee scheduling and workforce management system designed for full-time, part-time, volunteer, and combination departments.
“I love the repeats and rotations function of scheduling. I enjoy making one entry per employee and they are scheduled for an entire month, quarter, year - whatever time period you select. It is also helpful to use the certification/expiration reminders. It reminds the employees that they need to recertify prior to expiration and allows me to keep track of their records easily. Plus, employees trade amongst themselves so I’m not being interrupted several times a day to manually make a change to a handwritten schedule,” explains Kristin Wexell, Administrative Assistant at the Braidwood Fire Department.
Scheduling on paper or a whiteboard can be very frustrating since each and every change has to be made and distributed by the scheduler. With an online system, schedulers, administrators and employees simply log-in to have instant access to the schedule and changes are immediate for all to see. Certification records, department wide emails, important reading material, timeclock and events are all found with just a click of the mouse.
“We have 54 firefighters from ages 18-60. Not all of them are comfortable with computers, but they were all able to be trained on FIRE Manager and easily transitioned to the new scheduling program. Prior to this, they filled out an availability sheet each month and some of the guys were scared of using a computer scheduling program - but I never had to train a person on the program more than once,” adds Wexell. “Every firefighter at our department is able to use this program and it was easy to implement.”
An important advantage of online employee scheduling and workforce management systems, regardless of the industry, is the 24/7/365 access capability. The web-based software is available literally any time of day or night from any location with internet access. Many users are surprised by how much they rely on accessing FIRE Manager from their smartphone. They’ve discovered they access the system more frequently which allows them to keep up-to-date on rapidly changing agency information and schedule changes that may affect them.
Prices for online scheduling and workforce management software can vary greatly. Similar services can be priced thousands of dollars apart so it’s important to compare products. “I began asking around and several other fire departments recommended trying FIRE Manager. We did shop around but we couldn’t find a product that was more firehouse and user-friendly than FIRE Manager,” Wexell states. Often, as in Aladtec’s case, the online service is offered as a monthly or yearly subscription versus a one-time large investment making it much more budget friendly for smaller agencies. FIRE Manager includes training and tech support throughout the length of the subscription.
About FIRE Manager
Aladtec, Inc. is a provider of web-based software solutions for online employee scheduling and workforce management applications. The company’s flagship products, EMS Manager and FIRE Manager, are leaders in the public safety sector and together serve more than 750 EMS and fire departments, and nearly 50,000 employees. Their newest product, Zanager, is another workforce management system which is ideal for businesses in the private sector. Aladtec is headquartered just outside the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area in Hudson, Wisconsin. For more information, visit www.aladtec.com.