Fire Department Scheduling

Snap Schedule scheduling software significantly reduces the time taken to create and maintain fire department staff schedules.

Employee scheduling for fire departments and Fire/EMS companies varies depending on community needs. Many fire departments operate on the 24-48 (24 on 48 off) shift schedule where firefighters work as a team at the same fire station for an entire 24-hour shift then take two days off. Another option is the 48-96 work schedule where firefighters work two straight 24-hour days then take 4 days off. The challenges to fire station scheduling are many. Union and FLSA rules place restrictions on work hours, consecutive work days, overtime compensation, as well as the types of schedules that can be implemented. In addition, you must keep track of training assignments, compensatory time, off time and know when part-time or volunteer firefighters will be available for work. When necessary, you must find qualified backup and on-call personnel to fill a shift as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Snap Schedule Fire Department Scheduling Capabilities

Easily schedule unlimited number of fire department employees and volunteers

Drag & drop to easily assign shifts, mark time off, move or copy assignments.
For each shift, line-up on-call or stand-by firefighters for emergency situations.
View assignments and schedule firefigters from three different views. Use whichever view is easiest and most effective for your scheduling tasks.
Create rolling work schedules – from days to years.
Automatically generate work schedules using industry standard or user-definable schedule plans. Preview work schedules and make changes as necessary.

Track all training, vacation, sick leave, and other off-work requests

Define as many paid and un-paid time-off reasons as you like.
Simply drag & drop a reason onto the Schedule Planner to mark when a firefighter is off-work.
The Schedule Outlook shows who are off-work and why.
Available reports provide details on planned vacation, training, time off hours for any time period you select.
Publish calendars showing work schedule and scheduled time-off.

Flexible multi-location scheduling

Define work locations (fire stations) for your organization and schedule firefighters for each.
Know instantly where the firefighters are assigned from a single computer screen. No need to flip through pages of paper to see absentees, on-call, training, or overtime situations. Show shift and rotation scheduling for any fire station on any date.
Use standard reports to gain visibility into scheduling activities and cost data at all locations, groups of locations, or a specific location.

Quickly and efficiently fill a shift or find a substitute

Quickly find and contact available firefighters when additional manpower is needed.
Tell Snap Schedule your criteria and it will show you a ranked list of available candidates to fill a shift. Ranking can be based on many criteria including job position, skills, availability, labor cost, work hour limits, and seniority.

Multi-skill scheduling is a breeze

You can identify applicable skills and certifications for any fire department employees. Define skills and certifications related to special training, technical rescue, para-medicine, emergency medical services, etc.
The Shift Coverage Planner lets you know if there are enough firefighters with the right skills to staff a shift.
The Staffing Overview graph displays the number of scheduled firefighters having a specified skill by location, shift, or hourly coverage.

Work around your schedule constraints with ease

Define each firefighter’s availability schedule, desired work hours, daily work hour constraints, and weekly work hour constraints.
The Schedule Planner alerts you to availability conflicts, duplicate shift assignments, overlapped shift assignments, and conflicts with scheduled time off.
The Daily Assignment Validation report identifies all discrepancies and constraint violations.

Manage labor costs and avoid over/under staffing

Set overtime policies for your organization.
Define hourly cost, overtime exempt status and work hour constraints for each firefighter.
Use the Shift Coverage planner to monitor under/over staffing conditions based on position, skill, and assignment reason.
Adjust firefigters' shift assignment start time, end time, and payable hours as necessary to reflect actual work hours.
Standard reports provide labor cost details and summary data associated with the schedules you created over any specified period.
Export labor cost data for payroll and accounting purposes.

Easily publish schedules to firefighters and management

Print schedule views, lists, shift assignment calendars, and reports to communicate schedule information to management and fire protection personnel.
Easily publish work schedules, calendars, and any report in PDF and a variety of other formats.
Automatically email work schedules (in text or iCalendar file format) to fire department employees and/or their supervisors.