Recruitment

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So now you are ready to recruit the best qualified candidates. Recruitment can be defined as "the process of attracting individuals on a timely basis, in sufficient numbers and with the appropriate qualifications to apply for jobs with an organization" (Mondy & Noe, 2005).

The recruitment and selection of personnel are challenging tasks that require the expertise of emergency service leaders and personnel specialists. For example, today's fire service leaders need to hire employees with a range of skills and abilities who can help accomplish a fire service mission that goes beyond fire suppression.

Today's firefighters must be capable of learning and performing more technical skills than in the past, including public speaking, chemical analysis, and building design and construction. The physical skills necessary for fire suppression and rescue evolutions must be evaluated as well as personal orientation and cultural awareness. Obtaining the desired combination of personal skills and abilities requires a variety of recruitment and selection methods.

There are many types of emergency service and even fire service departments. For instance, there are fully career departments, combination departments, and volunteer departments. In some jurisdictions we have public safety departments, combining police and fire services. Some departments are run by agencies of the federal government and the state government along with industries with their own fire departments. Obviously recruitment (and selection) strategies will differ. The focus of the discussion in this course will be on the career fire department with reference to recruiting volunteers.

Reading Assignment: Edwards (2005) addresses recruitment in Chapter 5. He discusses recruitment processes (including selective recruitment), outlines the various recruitment methods, and the importance of evaluating the recruitment effort. Please read Chapter 5, pages 79-90, "Fire Service Recruitment," from the Fire Service Personnel Management textbook by Steven Edwards. Be sure to read the Phoenix Fire Department's sample recruitment piece on page 84.

Minimum Requirements

One interesting area in the recruitment arena is the growing tendency of some emergency service organizations to stipulate certain certifications and licenses as minimum requirements for competing. While ability to legally work in the United States and possession of a valid driver's license (or capability of obtaining one) are not particularly controversial, there is some debate as to the legitimacy of requiring higher level certifications as minimum requirements. Some fire service agencies, for example, are now requiring Firefighter I certification as a minimum requirement. Some combination fire and EMS organizations are now requiring basic EMT certification as a minimum requirement.

Why one or both of these certifications as minimum requirements? There are any number of reasons, probably the most important one being an issue of cost savings for the organization. Rather than having to send someone to a regional academy for "basic training," or even provide this training locally, these folks essentially are ready to "hit the ground running" with only departmental orientation. Particularly regarding the fire service, it tends to reduce the number of applicants that need to be put through the selection testing processes. Given the numbers of applications some areas of the country experience, these requirements effectively serve as screening tools.

While the possession of these certifications is obviously job related, the question of concern is their impact on equal employment opportunity and affirmative action issues. What may be the impact on those potential applicants from lower income environments or from ethnic enclaves within the community who may or may not have ready access financially or geographically to the "required" training?

Recommendation: If your organization requires these types of certifications as "minimum requirements," it would be advisable to have your recruitment processes scrutinized by the department or jurisdictional attorney as there is certainly room for discussion as to the impact these requirements have on the recruitment and selection processes.

Application Fees

The same questions and concerns can be raised regarding the practice of charging "application fees" for completing the application and potential subsequent testing, another practice in some career fire departments. While the primary reasons are two fold, having only "serious" applicants apply and reducing the cost of the recruitment and selection processes, is this practice in any way discriminatory? For the record, of those departments charging the application fee, the vast majority, if not all, do offer financial assistance for those potential applicants believed incapable of affording the application fee.

The Use of Regional Recruitment

In the interest of administrative efficiency and cost effectiveness, some jurisdictions engage in regional recruitment activities. Recruitment is carried out in much the same fashion as it would be by singular departments or agencies but results in a central pool of candidates from which the member departments select their employees.

There are some distinct advantages and disadvantages in the use of regional recruitment. On the plus side, as indicated above, regional recruitment does result in administrative efficiencies and cost effectiveness. Additionally, it typically means that when a vacancy arises, there is more likely to be a pool of candidates from which to choose, thus reducing the "down" time between occurrence of a vacancy and the potential conduct of a recruitment effort.

Among the questionable attributes of the regional recruiting effort is the actual selection process. Depending upon how long the list has been in existence and the demand for recruits, you may not be getting "the cream of the crop" available at the time of the vacancy. If other agencies have selected from the pool of candidates, you may be calling and interviewing those whose performance and potential is less than stellar; they may be in the middle of the performers or below rather than the top. A second consideration: while agencies obviously collaborate in this joint endeavor, were the advertisement and job descriptions circulated REALLY reflective of the special talents and attributes that your agency may be looking for or did they become more generic to better fit all of the agencies?

The individual agencies involved need to evaluate the pros and the cons in view of their needs, budgets, and experiences with regional recruitment. Sometimes what is more efficient up front is more time consuming (and potentially costly) down the road.

View the City of Madison's Fire Department website's page on "Recruitment and Hiring" for a sample of recruitment processes and issues at http://www.ci.madison.wi.us/fire/recruitment/recruitment_hiring.htm.

The Recruitment of Volunteers

Given the fact there are so many volunteer and combination departments, I feel it would be negligent not to briefly address the recruitment of volunteers. I suspect that the structure and format of recruitment are less formal. Students have told me that in their departments recruitment for volunteers is largely by word of mouth and perhaps an announcement in the local paper or an appearance at the local high school. Another concern sometimes expressed is the lack of volunteers and the turnover of volunteers.

Given the preceding, volunteer and combination departments might want to look at their recruitment of volunteers. There are certainly many more things that could be done to generate applicants with minimal expense, not the least of which would be to develop a serious marketing strategy. A more serious outreach to community members might well result in greater numbers, perhaps a better qualified, and certainly a more diverse pool of potential volunteers. While we will talk more about this in the Selection for Employment segment, potential volunteers need to be given realistic job previews as part of the recruitment process.

Optional Reading Assignment: If you are in a leadership role in a volunteer or combination department, or if you aspire to such a role, you may wish to read the following articles regarding volunteer recruitment and retention: Article entitled "Volunteer Recruitment: Tips from the Field," developed by Sarah jane Rehnborg and Betsy Clubie at http://www.serviceleader.org/new/managers/2004/03/000213.php While not oriented specifically to the emergency services, this article nonetheless offers some excellent tips regarding the recruitment of volunteers. Article from Firehouse.com's website entitled "Experts Offer Volunteer Departments Remedies for Recruitment, Retention" by Eric Brooks at http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/article.jsp?id=50524&sectionId=12\

References

Edwards, S. Fire Service Personnel Management. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Education, 2005.

Mondy, W. & Noe, R. Human Resource Management. 9th edition. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2005.

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