Chicago Fire Department

To contact the Chicago Fire Department, visit www.cityofchicago.org

The Employee Relations Group of the Chicago Fire Department handles hundreds of thousands of pages of documentation relating to employee grievance and arbitration issues. Because the documentation process was handled manually, there were inefficiencies and delays in resolving grievances.

Edge Systems provided an IMEDGE imaging and document management system to electronically process grievance and arbitration matters for the Fire Department. Edge provided scanning and hosting of existing documents at its Wabash Ave. facility (Welfare to Work Initiative), and implemented a scanning system at the Fire Department so that employees can scan future documents. An internet-based system was developed to allow Fire Department employees to process grievance and arbitration issues on-line.

The Department realized tremendous efficiency gains after implementation of the system. The review process was streamlined and grievance and arbitration issues are handled more quickly, resulting in improved worker morale and improved productivity.