A Proposal to Hire Part-time Fire Fighters

Introduction 

The fire department has been facing challenges in the shortages of its human resource, requiring the hiring more firefighters who can assist in the answering of a large number of emergency calls received every day. Since the 1990s, the number of the workforce for the department has not been increased, whereas the number of calls received within the department has increased eightfold. The full-time firefighters available in a day are eight. The fire department has considered hiring additional full-time employees, but the amount of resources available has constrained this. Ideally, full-time employees will require on top of their salaries, several benefits that are expensive for the department (McCrabb, 2014). The department has to work within its budget to meet its daily expenses as it also seeks to meet its staffing needs. 

Therefore, this proposal will assert that within the guidelines of the fire department, a process should be implemented that will outline the procedure of hiring part-time employees, the creation of a budget and after that the positions to be advertised. It has been established through pilot studies that a trained part-time employee will perform equally to a full-time employee, only that the part-time employee will be compensated with less than half what it costs the department to compensate the full-time employee. With an increase in the daily daytime staffing levels, the department will be able to improve its services. 

Areas to be Studied 

The volume of emergency calls has been on the rise, where for the fire department to offer efficient services, it has to increase the number of the employees. Many calls go unanswered, something that has made the area residents start complaining through the social media and other media source. Just like other local government permanent employees, the permanent employees at the fire department receive benefits on top of their salaries, where an analysis of the cost of adding other full-time employees to the department has been proved impossible about the cost and resource constraints. The solution to this problem relates to hiring part-time employees. Therefore, it is imperative that a policy should be passed to enshrine procedures to be followed while hiring and compensating part-time employees for the department (Yachanin, 2009). There are several other fire departments with part-time firefighters, which will call for the need to benchmark those fire departments. With an understanding of the success rates of their policy and the challenges they face, it will offer the department a good chance to design the procedures, rules, and regulations in a manner that will mitigate the challenges. 

Methodology 

The first approach to ensuring that this process succeeds relates to seeking to make the process legal so that there will be no objections regarding the policies of the department. The civil servile of the local government governs the making of the laws followed in hiring and firing of employees, as well as their deployment and promotion. Consultations with the local government civil service officials will be imperative (Yachanin, 2009). A meeting with the officials will aid n them advising the department on how to change or include the procedures of the hiring process. Furthermore, the department will discuss with the officials on how to pay the new part-time employees, the number of hours they should work and other details. Once the civil service has approved the procedure to take place, and the legality has been established through a go ahead, the department’s human resource officials will start then utilize the data that will have been gathered to develop the process of hiring which will abide by the legal confines. 

There will be several interviews, which will be held with stakeholders in the fire department, such as the officers of the fire department and union officials. To the union officials, the department will explain its intentions to create the opportunity; then it will recommend a pa structure for the part-time firefighter. The questions asked will be open-ended to allow the participation of every group. This will also present different mindsets and suggestions that will be weighed against the legal parameters as provided by the civil service commission (Geever, 2012). There will also be interviews with part-time employees from other fire departments, seeking to understand their issues and whether they were satisfied with the job, what they seek to be changed and what can improve their welfare as well as that if the departments (Neuman, 2014). With such insights, the department will be keen on safeguarding the welfare if the employees in its principles and regulations. Additionally, there will be surveys, which will be distributed to officials of other fire departments, especially those are close to the fire department and find themselves sometimes working hand in hand to solve some problems (Creswell, 2014). These surveys will depict their take on the decision to hire part-time firefighters for the department where their contributions will help in developing effective policies. 

The association of employees in the department perceives that the policy will be on an hourly-based compensation procedure s. The hourly rate has been proposed to be $10, where these employees will not have any benefits. This is on the lower end, where there is a margin of between $15 and $10 per hour. If the stakeholders agree to compensate $10 per hour, this will be a plus to the department, which faces constrained budget allocation (McCrabb, 2014). Benefits such as bereavement pay, sick time pay, funeral pay, uniform allowance, reimbursement for tuition fees, and vacation time was not to be awarded to the part-time employees. The only benefit that can be considered if demands went high was the holiday pay, which the department seeks to avoid. 

Resources for the Survey and Legalization Meetings 

Several resources will be required to handle the exercise. The first resource that will be required during the data collection and negotiations process is a camera. There are some of the meetings such as those dealing with legalizing the hiring of the part-time employees, which should go on record both on paper and through a visual media. A survey will also be required when sending survey forms to departmental officials in other fire stations that have part-time employees as well as those, which do not have part-time employees (Creswell, 2014). Additionally, there will be the facilitation of transport for those who will be involved with the interviews and consultations with the local government civil service commission. With the necessary resources, the process will succeed. 

Timetable 

The timetable is a representation of the proposed events towards ensuring that the company eventually materializes the proposed action of employing several part-time employees for the department. The timetable will have the following activities and conducted on the specified dates. 

Qualifications 

Having worked in the fire department for quite a long time, I understand the challenges that we face, and I have researched the problems to understand that we need the additional workforce on a part-time basis to solve the challenges. Therefore, the first input I have is offering credible research results, which will make it easier for the department to handle the analysis of the findings. Additionally, I have worked within the calls section, and I understand the amount of workload in this section. I have been receiving positive remarks from those who have called; therefore, I believe that my customer care and public relations skills are incredible. Therefore, I can be instrumental in training new employees. More so, with the wealth of information regarding the needs of the department, I can be instrumental in handling the surveys and interviews. 

Request for Approval 

The fire department faces a chronic deprivation in human resource attributed to complaints from residents through various media platforms. These complaints have been going on for a long time, and a focused study to ascertain the viability of the project through written proposed procedures and policy adjustment, discussing them with the civil service commission and carrying out various surveys will ascertain the need to hire part-time employees. The department cannot hire full-time employees because of resource constraints. Part-time employees will cost less than half the compensation and benefits for a full-time employee for the same amount of time worked. If the policy adjustments are successful and we hire part-time employees, the problems of unanswered calls, tired, overworked employees, and complaints will be solved. More so, the department will be in a better position to realize efficiency in its service delivery. 

References 

Cassell, C. (2010). Qualitative Methods in Management Research.  Qualitative Research ,  1 (1), 118-120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/146879410100100109 

Creswell, J. (2014).  Research design . Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications. 

Geever, J. (2012).  The Foundation Center's guide to proposal writing . [New York]: Foundation Center. 

McCrabb, R. (2014).  More fire departments using part-time firefighters .  FireRescue1 . Retrieved 30 January 2018, from https://www.firerescue1.com/fire-department-management/articles/1990586-More-fire-departments-using-part-time-firefighters/ 

Neuman, W. (2014).  Social research methods . Harlow: Pearson Education. 

Yachanin, J. (2009).  Proposal to hire part-time firefighters in Parma creates tension between city administration, council members and union .  cleveland.com . Retrieved 30 January 2018, from http://blog.cleveland.com/parmasunpost/2009/09/proposal_to_hire_parttime_fire.html