Fire Department Recruitment, Hiring, and Retention Practices

By GARRETT PINGOL

Today’s fire service is far removed from the days where the profession was the only recruiting tool required to find ample firefighter candidates.

• Perspectives on Leadership: Recruitment, Hiring, and Retention
• Reevaluating Firefighter Recruitment: Finding the Best People
• Climbing the Ladder of Success: Demystifying the Hiring Process

Those of us who have been in this game for more than 20 years remember the days of long lines at testing sessions and multiyear waiting lists for acceptance into the local fire academy, where you paid your own way. We also remember when “The Job” didn’t require a recruiting division or teams of personnel collecting data on why we cannot fulfill all of our current vacancies.

Today, the fire service is in shock, disbelief, and confusion as to why the candidates have stopped coming. We are baffled as to why more young men and women do not want to be a part of the greatest job in the world. The “Greatest Job in the World”—is that the problem? Is this no longer the greatest job in the world? Maybe the job has changed, and we missed it. Maybe it’s just no longer popular to serve others. Or, maybe, we have simply done a poor job as a service to keep our youth educated on the benefits of public service that go beyond the paycheck. Maybe we have failed to communicate to our community just how far the service has come and that it is no longer about just fighting fires.

Unlike most things in the fire service, we cannot rely on past lessons or practices to solve this challenge of today. All our historical data and proprietary knowledge on this topic are failing us as we try to pivot. From how we recruit to how applicants apply and become processed requires rebuilding from the ground up. In the day and age of social media, rapid technology advancements, and instant gratification at our fingertips (smart devices), we must completely rethink how we operate. Recruitment, hiring, and retention must all start to align with how mainstream employers in the private sector work, not necessarily because they are right but more so because we are losing the race against them to influence our local workforce. There is an old saying that isn’t usually right, but may be, in this case: “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”

The fire service’s processes, as a whole, have been noninclusive, cumbersome, time consuming, confusing, and downright frustrating to some candidates. For the longest time, we have told ourselves that the process should be rigorous, designed to thin out the weak or the ones who just want the pay or benefits. Sadly, I believe that continued philosophy is part of what has led to our dwindling numbers of candidates flocking to our human resources divisions. Why would candidates go through our rigorous process without guarantee of employment or even genuine consideration when, in some cases, they can apply for dozens of jobs simultaneously on their smartphones and be employed within days?

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, we are venturing down a new path to improve our candidate numbers. We are doing it with the intent to broaden our candidate pool to improve quality, diversity, and skill while also increasing overall applicant numbers. We decided to be honest with ourselves and admit that simply being the fire department doesn’t make us special anymore.

Recruitment

Recruitment is a dynamic part of finding new firefighters, and some of the details will depend on how your agency hires. Some agencies only require a high school diploma or equivalent, while other agencies require state certifications for firefighting and paramedic prior to employment. Regardless of what you require, the intent of recruitment is to educate and excite your community about the fire service and why they should work for you. Following are a few recruitment tools to consider:

• “Touch-a-Truck” events. Work with all of your city’s departments and set up a “Touch-a-Truck” day where your youth can get up close to fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, bulldozers, garbage trucks, and so on. This sparks imagination in your youth and gets them talking to their parents about public service from a younger age. We must recognize that these events may even spark adults in your community to consider the fire service as well when they attend with their children.
• School demos. Engage your crews in school demonstrations. Target age groups that make sense for you community with events where parents are present.
• Fire explorer/cadet programs. Start or grow an explorer/cadet program that allows your middle school- and high school-age kids to learn and fall in love with the job. Create a fast track where explorers will graduate the program with certifications and, potentially, get preference points in your hiring process.
• High school and college athletic program affiliation. Talk to your local high school and college athletic programs regularly about the benefits of becoming an “industrial athlete.” Athletes love the fire service—they get to continue the team component while also challenging themselves physically.
• Social media. Grow a robust social media platform and post, post, post! Get pictures out there of your explorers working with current firefighters. Post news links to your significant incidents. Show your crews engaging with the community you serve. Reinforce that your community needs to step up and become part of the team. Share videos of your graduating classes as well as retirements. Also consider a “Meet Your Firefighters” campaign on social media. Each month, select a member to showcase to the community.

Application Processes and Entry Testing

The application process for firefighter positions needs to be as streamlined as possible. Increase your number of viable candidates by processing as many candidates as possible, including the unlikely ones. We must get away from tedious application processes that require numerous attachments and certifications that have no relevance until we want to offer actual employment. Historically, my agency required everything from copies of certifications to high school transcripts, driving records, physical ability credentials, and swim competency certifications just to apply. Candidates only had two weeks to compile all the required documents. This gauntlet of information submission thinned our numbers and is irrelevant until they’ve successfully passed the entrance exam anyway. The message here is that you should not require more than you need to get them into the entry written examination. Following are a few application submission processes and entry testing areas to consider.

• Online application. Move to a 100% online application process option. If you want to recruit statewide or simply allow the candidate who cannot get off of work to apply, offer a 100% online option. Limit what you require at the time of application and obtain the balance of document and credential needs as they move through your process. Don’t cause initial application hurdles that will deter a diamond in the rough.
• Online examination. Move to a 100% online written examination option. Once again, we need to allow those who cannot attend during normal city working hours to take the exam. Likely, these are the hardest workers! They are the people working two jobs to support a family or honor their commitments and willing to miss an opportunity because their reputation means more to them. My agency is working to move toward an online exam option that can be done in the candidate’s home or a testing center. Additionally, it can be done at any hour and during any day of the week. This will let candidates who work long or unusual hours give their best effort without sacrificing household earnings or breaking obligations.
• Video interviews. Consider a video-based or recorded interview process for initial scanning and ranking. Once again, we must do what “big business” is doing and make the process fast, accessible, and inclusive. You will still get your in-person interview when you are considering employment for the candidate.
• Show face. Greet your candidates at the time of testing and let them see a face from the organization. If you test your candidates in person, show up and talk to them on test day. If you have an online testing process, include a welcome video from your chief or the person overseeing the hiring process. Humans are emotional creatures; use that to your recruitment advantage.
• Be inclusive. Identify gender, cultural, and financial barriers that may limit your candidate pool’s diversity. Consider preemployment physical training programs to help candidates who were simply never taught about physical fitness. Also consider swim programs if your organization requires a candidate to swim prior to employment. Our organization offers free swim lessons to candidates in our application process so they can successfully pass the required swim assessment. Consider processes that will not put a financial burden on the applicants.

Retention

Once we hire firefighters, we must do our part to help retain them. We must look from all angles and recognize that we lose candidates for a multitude of reasons. Sometimes, we lose candidates because they failed to meet performance standards at no fault of ours. We also lose candidates when we fail to fully prepare them to meet those same performance standards. We must also ensure that they feel like they are becoming a part of our family. Unfortunately, in today’s fire service, we have slowly moved away from assigning new firefighters to a single firehouse during their probation and moved toward bouncing them around the department to fill vacancies and reduce overtime. Remember that for firefighters there is more to job-related “currency” than U.S. dollars. Money is not the only motivator to do this job or to stay with our organization. Following are a few retention practices to consider:

• Training. Develop and implement a comprehensive probationary training program that follows a script. Don’t allow your rookies’ training to be based off their specific company officer’s belief system or experience. It must be comprehensive and standardized and help them successfully meet your organization’s probationary expectations.
• Assign a house. If at all possible, assign your rookies to just one or two houses throughout their probationary period; they will benefit from crew comradery and building trusting relationships. “Floating” rookies around does not build them up and, at times, allows those falling behind to go unnoticed.
• Have conversations. Assign a firefighter a mentor and encourage him to have a lot of conversations. The mentor is the person he can confide in, ask anything, and vent to when things are tough.
• Engage the rookies. Involve rookies in company and physical fitness training and fellowships. They are not housekeepers; they are firefighters. Yes, they must pull the rookie’s share of the work, but once that is done, engage them. Reinforce that they are rookies while also including them in all company activities. This becomes extremely important for our first-generation firefighters who do not understand our culture as well as minority, LGBTQ, and female firefighters. We must understand that they may overanalyze any form of different treatment and not realize it’s a historical right of passage for all first-generation firefighters.
• Recognize good work. Ensure your organization has a way to reinforce good behavior. Whether it’s daily evaluations or a “Rookie of the Month” award, do something that gives them a goal to strive for.

The fire service is moving into uncharted territory and organizations are frantically searching for the answers to their staffing shortage woes. Some industry experts point the finger at generational changes or what the workforce of today is looking for. Others say the desire to serve others is becoming more and more lost. Regardless of the challenges, all our organizations must realize that the game has changed dramatically, and we must also consider making major changes. We must do what firefighters do and solve the problem by setting aside pride, ego, past practice, and tunnel-vision thinking. We must come to grips with the fact that the tragedy of 9/11 allowed many of our organizations to abandon recruitment or simply become lazy in those efforts. It’s time to get to work.

GARRETT PINGOL is a 23-year veteran of and is an executive officer with Fort Lauderdale (FL) Fire Rescue (FLFR). He has worked in operations, fire training, and fire administration. Pingol is also the FLFR’s chief of communications and oversees a multitude of administrative projects. He has a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership and a master’s in business administration; is certified as a fire instructor 3, live fire instructor 1, and fire officer 2; and is a designated Chief Fire Officer from the Center for Public Safety Excellence.