Product
Easy to use for fire-fighters with no need for administration staff:
The easy to use interface of pdrpro keeps the main menu structure visible on all pages whilst changing dependant on the current user level logged into the system. The initial view of the pdrpro homepage gives a quick summary of the personnel logged in, including their name, location and role level. This is followed by a summary of their inbox including new messages available. These messages can range anywhere from a module being added to their pdrpro development record to them being assigned as a manager to a new personnel. They key is that new information is instantly visible to the user when they’ve logged in. And lastly there is a quick links section of commonly used functions of the role of the person logging in.
PDA (Personal Development Assessments) recording implemented to fully record equipment usage:
PDA recording has now been implemented and allows personnel the ability to record the way in which the equipment was used as well as what equipment was used. This gives a better overall view of the use of equipment at incidents. A sample of some of the PDAs together with an accompanying PDA NOS Competencies screenshot is shown below.
The screenshot below shows some of the NOS Competencies available for the 1.14 PDA (Rescues from Road Vehicles)
E-Portfolio for VQ candidates and those in maintenance:
The e-portfolio created by pdrpro for VQ candidates gives an initial overall picture of what has been obtained and what is still required. The PDR or Personal Development Record allows personnel to see what modules are currently in their plan for acquirement together with more detailed information down to comments by managers and logged development needs required to complete the plans. The PDR helps to generate competencies and show recorded progress and achievements of the various personnel.
Workplace assessment made easy:
Recorded achievements can be summarised by the matrix screen, an example of which is shown below.
Built to IPDS standards:
pdrpro has been updated to include IPDS standards such as NOS Competencies. This allows personnel to work toward module acquisition which has been aligned with National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). An example of NOS competency recording is shown in the screenshot below.
Senior Roles and Objective Setting/Appraisal System
Structure and Access Levels:
pdrpro has been designed as a hierarchical-based system focusing around the role-levels of the Fire and Rescue Service. The list of user-roles is included below (in order of descending hierarchy):
- System Administrators and Local Administrators (in the case of multiple brigades)
- Brigade Managers (typically the highest actual user-role)
- Area, Group and Station Managers
- Watch and Crew Managers and Fire-fighters
The roles are listed into these four primary groups as there are structural differences between them. For example WM, CM and FF are generally restricted to one fire station whereas area, group and station managers are linked to one or more fire stations and brigade managers aren’t linked to a fire station at all. It’s important to note that while these groups share common features to the role-levels within them, each role has its own role access level so features can be made available or unavailable to specific roles.
Objective Setting and Appraisals System:
As the screenshot above shows, individual user objectives can be set with as specific or as generic a target in mind as the entries are in free-text. The important aspect to objectives is of course the personnel being able to add their own evidence to each objective which their manager can accept or reject but on top of this pdrpro also allows the manager to add additional comments to the objectives after they have been created. Evidence can be either in a free text form (witness statements, personal statements etc) or in the form of a document which is uploaded to the pdrpro system and available for review. These features are demonstrated in the accompanying screenshot.
And lastly it meets the CIPD requirements for a fully recordable appraisal system linked to the NOS Competencies for Station and above roles.
Incident Reporting:
Recording a new incident is a simple case of adding the incident details and selecting the personnel involved from a pre-defined list. It is also possible to add additional personnel to incidents who are not in the scope of the Manager adding the incident. This allows personnel from other watches and fire stations to be included in the process of the incident evaluation. The screen below shows the page used to add an incident to the system. There is also the option to make the incident a simulation. There are similar pages available to add supporting activities and generic management records, all of which are treated differently within the pdrpro system.
