By Michael J. Barakey
Fire department assessment centers are here to stay. Fire and emergency medical services (EMS) departments are using assessment centers to evaluate candidates for promotion. This evaluation tool is being used for all ranks, from entry level or first-line supervisor positions (lieutenant, captain, and sergeant) to a mid-/senior-level officer (battalion/assistant chief/major) to executive levels (deputy and chief). The assessment center uses “job simulation exercises” designed to replicate situations or aspects of the job the candidate is seeking. Performance dimensions are identified for each assessment, which ties the assessment to the job description.
To accomplish this, fire and human resource departments will either conduct the assessment center “in house” and deliver the assessment center using fire and human resource staff or contract with a firm or vendor to deliver the assessment center. These firms or vendors are human resource consulting firms that develop, validate, and implement examinations and assessment centers.
When contracting with a firm or vendor, the assessment centers are designed under consultation with the fire and human resource departments. These firms or vendors do not hire firefighters or emergency service experts to develop and deliver the assessment center. To ensure the assessment center is relevant and department specific, the firm or vendor will assign a “lead consultant” to coordinate with the department’s liaison to ensure the assessment center is tailored to that specific department.
To be promoted in today’s fire service, especially in fire and emergency service departments that are civil service, the candidate must master the assessment center. To master the process, candidates must learn the “how and why” of the assessment center. By taking the opportunity to learn the process, the candidate’s experience will be predictable.
Preparation
Desire, preparation, and attitude. To be successful at the fire department assessment center, the candidate must have a strong desire to study and practice. Promotion will not come without effort and preparation. Also, no one can be successful without a positive attitude. Because fire department assessment centers are competitive, the candidate’s preparation matters. As with any competition, the person, athlete, or candidate who puts in the work will be rewarded. With any competition, the only way to be successful is to execute on game day. The candidate’s preparation must lead to execution. A candidate who is prepared but unable to perform at the assessment center will become frustrated and uninterested in future processes. Therefore, the work that a candidate puts in to the assessment center must pay off for the candidate to continue in future processes. The assessment center process is designed to be objective and fair and meet the intent of collective bargaining agreements. The candidate must not overlook these points.
Learn the job. The candidate must learn the job for which he is competing. This is accomplished through research and immersion. Since the candidates are close to the rank or position they desire, they can observe officers currently in the rank and inquire about the position while learning the job at its core.
Second, the candidate can research the job description for the position and must take the time to learn it. The job description covers the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) and the prerequisites for the position. If the candidate is not prepared for all aspects of the job description, he should take the time to develop a plan to get the necessary KSAs.
Learn what prerequisites are required to compete. The process is a predictable set of challenges for which the candidate will demonstrate the KSAs for the position. Learning what is expected to accomplish a move or transfer is nothing new to firefighters. For example, if a firefighter desires a transfer to the technical rescue team, he must take the time to learn the position and either formally or informally “interview” for the position. This occurs when the firefighter “researches” the position and learns the KSAs for the position (i.e., knot tying, using a self-contained breathing apparatus, and understanding vehicle components and construction) and demonstrates expertise of those skills. The prerequisites for a transfer to the technical rescue team mirrors prerequisites for promotion. Prior to requesting the transfer, the firefighter may have to complete predefined courses to be eligible for transfer to the technical rescue team. This is similar to pursuing promotional opportunities.
The Assessment Center Exercises
A candidate for promotion must be able to demonstrate the ability to perform the KSAs of the position. This occurs through training and practicing. Therefore, the department selects exercises designed to allow the candidate to demonstrate the ability to perform at that next level. The types of exercises chosen are based on the department’s input.
To best prepare for the assessment center, the candidate should break the exercises into smaller chunks and attack them individually. Just like getting ready for any other assignment in the fire department, each exercise is unique and requires preparation to be successful.
The typical fire service promotional process has a written examination prior to the assessment center. The written examination is a timed test that measures the basic job knowledge of the desired position. This type of examination is typically a multiple-choice format with four responses per question.
A predefined bibliography is used to make the examination. The books or resources used to build the examination are vetted through the fire department’s human resource bureau and meet the KSAs of the position. The references used to build the examination are universally accepted fire service textbooks, with department-specific material – i.e., standard operating procedures. The examination is built following a job analysis performed by the contracted vendor. This job analysis ensures the examination and assessments that will test the candidate’s ability to perform at that level are linked to the published job description. These linkages are required to ensure the position and the assessments are relevant and reflective of the job. The department will provide subject matter experts (SMEs) to review the job description and link it to the job analysis to ensure the job description meets the intent of the position.
The assessment center is further broken down into a variety of “situational” exercises. The most common exercises are (a) the tactical/incident command exercise, (b) the structured oral interview exercise, (c) the in-basket exercise, and (d) the role-play exercise. Each exercise has rating criteria and dimensions used to measure the candidate’s KSAs. They are based on objectives and performance criteria directly tied back to the performance measures. The goal is that the candidate will demonstrate the knowledge necessary for the position and then apply that knowledge. Each exercise measures a specific set of dimensions with specific criteria. It is possible that some dimensions can be measured over multiple exercises. Because there are specific criteria for each dimension, the rating done by the assessor becomes more objective. That is the key to a fair and unbiased assessment center.
The assessment center’s defined set of exercises is designed to measure the candidate’s KSAs. Although there are a variety of exercises the department can use to measure the candidate’s KSAs, whatever exercises are used are designed to put the candidate in a situation that is similar to and realistic for the job for which the candidate is competing.
The tactical/incident command exercise. In this exercise, the goal is for the assessment to simulate what would happen on a “real-life” fire or emergency incident scene. The areas measured are communication, requesting additional resources, assignment of companies, strategy and tactics, and escalation or de-escalation of the incident based on continuous size-up. The candidate will have either a static or an interactive/dynamic fire problem. The static problem is a “fireground picture” for which the candidate must respond to a set number of questions based on what is seen in the picture (photo 1).
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| (1) An example of a static fire problem for an assessment center’s incident command/tactical exercise. (Photos by author.) |
An interactive/dynamic fire problem will be “video” based or developed from software tailored to the fire service. The candidate will be required to respond to “real-life injects” based on a dynamic fire or an emergency incident. This type of exercise is designed to have the candidate make critical decisions based on the situation seen on the video or in the photo (photo 2).
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| (2) The goal of the incident command exercise is to simulate what would happen on a “real-life” fire or emergency incident scene and have the candidate perform as if he were in command. |
The structured oral interview exercise. The structured oral interview exercise is a panel-style interview with a defined set of questions. The candidate is required to respond to situational-based questions and personal-based questions. The candidate must respond within a specified time, and his response must encompass the KSAs of the position. Typically, the assessors take turns asking the questions.
Some assessment centers insert a structured oral interview as an exercise – for example, following the incident command/tactical exercise, the candidate will be asked a series of predefined questions. Questions in the interview can range from situational questions about the candidate’s preparation and development to hypothetical situations the candidate will have to mitigate in real life after promotion. A sample question might be: “What have you done to prepare for the position of fire captain?” or “Why are you the best candidate for the position?” You have five minutes for your response.
The situational-based question may be structured as follows: “As a new fire captain at Station 3, a firefighter approaches you and states he is having problems getting along with the senior firefighter in the station. As the new officer, how would you handle this situation?” Again, you would have five minutes for your response. Situational-based questions require that the candidate describe how he would handle anything from a personnel challenge to his reaction on an emergency incident.
The in-basket exercise. Many candidates dread this exercise most. The candidate is asked to prioritize a predefined number of “items” or injects and to respond to them in a defined time. Some in-basket exercises require verbal response; others require handwritten or typed responses. The goal is to create in the candidate the mindset of returning to the fire station after being off for a shift and prioritizing written correspondence, phone calls, directives, policies, and verbal injects.
The following items may be in the in-basket: Item #1. The driver of your engine has called out sick. The offgoing driver has to leave for a family emergency. Item #2: The engine has minor damage to a compartment. Item #3: The public information officer calls and asks you to be at Roosevelt High School for a “Job Fair” in 30 minutes. Item #4: The EMS supervisor radios you and asks you to call him in reference to your engine hitting his ambulance. With this exercise, the candidate demonstrates written communication, prioritization, problem analysis and problem solving, decision making, and supervisory skills and ability.
The role-play exercise. This exercise challenges the candidate to interact with and respond to an employee while the assessors observe the candidate’s behavior and response. The scenario might be the candidate’s entering a room where he encounters an “employee” (an actor) who states, “Hi, Captain, I am depressed. My mother passed a few months back; my girlfriend is leaving me. I am being transferred to C shift.” The candidate is to engage the “employee” and respond as if it were a real-life situation. The candidate must demonstrate tolerance, communication skills, knowledge of standard operating procedures, interpersonal skills, and leadership traits. This exercise may be recorded and played back to the assessors at a later date.
The assessment center is a grueling process. Career, combination, and volunteer departments are using some form of assessment center to identify the best candidate for the position. Assessment centers are the wave of the future, and the newer generation of firefighters will have to perform in an assessment center whenever they compete for a promotion, regardless of the rank and to exhibit proficiency in areas that include the following: oral and written communications, problem analysis and problem identification, prioritization, judgment, decision making, creativity, planning, organization, critical decision making, organizational sensitivity, initiative, interpersonal and organizational relations, independence, delegation, and decisiveness.
MICHAEL J. BARAKEY (EFO, CFO) has been in the fire service since 1993. He serves as the district chief of administrative services with the Virginia Beach (VA) Fire Department and oversees communications and information technology, finance and budget, resource management, research and analysis, and accreditation. Barakey was previously assigned as the shift commander of B shift, the district chief of personnel and development, and the chief of training. He is a hazmat specialist and instructor III; a nationally registered paramedic; and a neonatal/pediatric critical care paramedic for the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in Norfolk, Virginia. Barakey is a plans team manager for the VA-TF2 US&R team and has had multiple deployments; he is an exercise design/controller for Spec Rescue International. Barakey has a master of public administration degree from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia; is a graduate of the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program (2009); and is a peer assessor for the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. He regularly contributes to Fire Engineering and is an FDIC International classroom instructor.
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