With at least two-thirds of the nation's fire departments being understaffed (according to the National Fire Protection Association) schedule management is extremely important to help optimize personnel resources to provide the needed support in these areas. Specifically:

• Fire fighters must be scheduled and personnel balanced daily
• Coverage plans must be implemented and checked daily to ensure proper staffing
• Exceptions, such as absences, overtime, and training must be managed quickly and efficiently
• Detailed training records are required for each department member
• Time and attendance records are necessary for payroll and record keeping
• Employees must be evaluated and considered for promotion

Workforce Scheduling can impact all of the responsibilities of the fire department, including:

• Fire prevention and education
• Emergency medical response
• Hazardous materials mitigation
• Rescue
• Health issues, such as carbon monoxide detector investigations
• Investigation of a variety of building systems issues
• Biohazard incidents
• Response to acts of domestic terrorism

ScheduleExpress provides support for the myriad functions of fire personnel administration, such as duty scheduling, absence and vacation requests, and overtime assignment – to facilitate the optimal deployment of scarce fire resources. By making personnel management more efficient, more time, effort and funding can be applied to providing the necessary community service levels.

A large volume of information is needed to carry out standard personnel functions - the operational benefits of a ScheduleExpress deployment are obvious.

ScheduleExpress provides an efficient way of storing and retrieving information. The information that is useful for day-to-day operations also has residual value for strategic planning and managerial control. For example, the roster data may be aggregated in such a way that is useful for position control or personnel resource planning. Schedule exceptions may be reviewed by management in an effort to control excessive sick leave or overtime.

At the highest level of design, ScheduleExpress improves upon the relationship of fire department personnel functions to city (or county) personnel functions. Providing oversight to the city manager, mayor, county board, etc provides on-going justification for increased resources and funding.