Master Plan Nashua Fire Rescue, NH
» Manage the promotion process in conjunction with Human Resources. ESCI recommended within
the Promotions Processes Section of this report that Nashua Fire Rescue re-evaluate the merits of
including the civilian Board of Fire Commissioners within the promotional process. It is ESCl’s
suggestion that Nashua Fire Rescue may be able to improve the current promotional process by
allowing the professional human resources and fire department personnel to conduct the entire
process, thereby eliminating the potential political influence that could be introduced by the
inclusion of the elected board. The Assistant Chief of Uniform Professional Standards would be
well-positioned to facilitate this process on behalf of the fire department.
= Develop, implement, and manage a Professional Development Program for Nashua Fire
Rescue. Officers who fail to learn leadership skills are challenged almost immediately upon
promotion. As detailed in the Career Development section of this report, both Nashua Fire Rescue
and its employees stand to gain from the development and implementation of a Career
Development Program.
Emergency Services Division
20. Nashua Fire Rescue should consider creating a promoted position of Apparatus Driver.
Each firefighter within Nashua Fire Rescue is expected to be able to operate the fire apparatus. ESCI
suggests that Nashua Fire Rescue consider creating a promotional position for Driver. In 2017 alone,
more than 15,000 fire department vehicles were involved in collisions nationwide, resulting in 4,555
firefighter injuries occurring while responding to or returning from an incident.*° Considering the risk
involved in operating emergency vehicles, it would be prudent for Nashua Fire Rescue to establish
promoted Driver positions that require additional and ongoing safe driver training.
21. Toreduce overtime expenses, Nashua should consider hiring additional firefighters to achieve a 1.2%
Staffing Relief Factor.
In 2020 and for 2021, Nashua budgeted $842,818 in overtime and overtime coverage. An alternative
approach to using overtime coverage is the use of a staffing relief factor. A relief factor is the amount of
additional FTE positions needed to reasonably cover time off including, leave, training, vacancies, etc.
The following is an industry-accepted methodology used to determine a relief factor to cover paid leave,
training time off, and vacancies adequately for 24-hour fire and EMS department shifts. While overtime
cannot be reasonably eliminated in all situations, the relief factor, when calculated based on the
department's time off usage, will significantly reduce overtime and ensure that adequate staffing is
available. Determining the relief factor is outlined in the following:
= The average of Nashua Fire Rescue FY 2017-19 firefighter paid leave, time off for training,
unscheduled time off, and position vacancies is 54,720 hours annually.
= 54,720 hours divided by the scheduled 2,184 hours per position annually = 25.1 FTEs of annual
coverage required for time off.
30 NFPA Journal, U.S. Firefighter injuries 2017, Nov-Dec 2018.
¢ J Emergency Services
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