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Emergency Services

Problems

Continuing pressure to improve service levels whilst reducing staffing costs by approximately 3% per annum.
Lack of cost analysis when responding to incidents and events.
Historical working patterns do not fit the actual work load demand. This leads to low confidence levels in responding to incidents with the right resources, low productivity, low service levels and high costs.
Working together with the unions, Emergency Services organisations are seeking to engineer much more flexible working practices based around their anticipated demand.
Where complex rules and conditions of contract exist optimal staffing of rosters can be affected by random events and incidents as well as the weather - this is a resource management nightmare.
Staffing with on-call staff and the equitable allocation of reserve time demands the use of sophisticated Workforce Management solutions.
Recording who did what and when demands that the application of the correct payment rules is paramount in understanding how to improve in the future.

Solution

WorkPlace Systems workforce management solutions feature:

An end-to-end application designed for the Emergency Services sector.
Forecasting tools for command and control to accurately calculate the demand for work at 15 minutes intervals over a year in advance.
The calculation of baseline rosters for over a year to be established and augmented by reserve hours as operational circumstances dictate.
Equitable and fair placement of hours within constraints and rules.
Absence management for sickness and holidays.
Borrowing staff from adjacent locations.
Self service web access to schedules and holidays.
Capturing both the time and the activities performed allowing resource planners to learn the reason for any discrepancies and to propose improvements.
Headquarter level advanced web-based reporting capabilities.
Service level budgeting and scenario modelling application

Benefits

Save on the number of staff hours rostered by up to 20%, and thereby reduce labour costs by implementing a flexible rostering solution.
Improve the productivity of Emergency Services staff by up to 20%.
Increase confidence levels in responding to incidents with the right person with the right skill at the right time.
Understanding of costs involved in responding to incidents and covering events
Improve on coverage of known absence (e.g. holidays, sickness and training) with appropriate staff.
Compliance to labour laws.
Eliminating wasteful rostering processes (e.g. chaining for acting up) by using pools and prioritised staff lists.
Reduce errors in over-payment and reduce un-authorised absence through better visibility of attended hours.
More immediate control by headquarters due to central visibility of rostering information.

Client Quotes

"WorkPlace impressed us with their understanding and approach in developing and implementing a new rostering model which gave us a labour saving in excess of 5%. They have also helped to change the way we look at workforce utilisation, leading to the development of more innovative demand led approaches in other areas of our work."

Steve Beckley - ACFO, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service

"The WorkPlace, 5 Watch methodology returned significant savings in excess of 5% of total labour costs and at the same time improved our service performance standards."

Steve Beckley - ACFO, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service

"The WorkPlace solution for Staffordshire Ambulance Service is providing innovative ways of improving the scheduling of our paramedics and technicians; it also gives increased focus on the costs associated with attendance management delivering improved unit hour utilisation analysis."

John Wright, Acting Director of Production, Staffordshire Ambulance Service

Client References

Industry Ranges

Demand Led Rostering and Duty Management Systems for Emergency Services