BY JOHN R. DUNCAN
There is some confusion in the fire service today about the best form of training to use. Time is limited for many agencies, and enough re-sources and training tools are not always available. For most EMS departments, training is completed on the job, and mistakes are often made and not corrected in time for the next assignment. The errors are repeated until finally someone is singled out as “inefficient” and “in need of training.”
The educational process in the fire service needs to be more deliberate and intentional. Pinpointing specific areas of need within the organization and determining to address those needs are stalwart tasks and require insight into the realms of training and development.
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
Training refers to teaching skills that apply to an employee’s current job. Some have expanded this basic definition to include the facilitation of learning. This facilitation is really at the core of any training activity. We can only observe that Susan Jones has been able, as a result of a learning experience, to produce 100 widgets in eight hours when, prior to the learning experience, she could produce only 75 widgets in the same period of time. This observation reflects that the training “facilitation” has been successful.
Development, on the other hand, refers to preparing the employee for future responsibility, often at a different level within the organization; sometimes, it includes professional development extending beyond the organization. Training narrows the range of activities among trainees, whereas development broadens it. For example, teaching firefighters to successfully operate a pump panel and charge a hoseline would be considered training. Teaching the same firefighters the general theories of hydraulics, friction loss, and flow pressure would be considered development.
Right now you may be thinking, “Big deal! Another article on training with useless regurgitation.” Well, don’t stop reading just yet. This article does not offer concrete solutions, but it will stimulate a thought process for prioritizing training and development within your organization.
Most often, training in the fire service comes by way of a professional hired from the outside who conducts the lectures and hands-on training in a well-organized, comfortable setting free from the distractions of everyday tasks. NOT! Most departments, even big-budget ones, are limited in the amount of training that can be scheduled. The call load, along with minimum staffing of most agencies, makes it difficult to squeeze in the desired training-not to mention the required training by local, state, and federal governments hampered by management preferences, trainers’ education, and bargaining agreements. All seem to keep training as somewhat of an afterthought.
Captain Mike Tucker of Reedy Creek Emergency Services, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, finds scheduling crews for training the most difficult task of his job. “Rappelling training, which could be considered a luxury,” says Tucker, “would take nine days to run everyone through. But just to complete required training, such as advanced cardiac life support and basic trauma life support, would require two- to four-hour days from each of our three stations to be scheduled around the call load somehow.”
PRIORITIZING TO ENHANCE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
There are at least three areas to consider when prioritizing to improve training and development.
Emphasize the Organization’s Culture
First, examine the culture of your organization. In any organization, the culture is typically a reflection of its leaders. Is top management sold on the need for developing its people? Is there a sense of urgency for creating a top-notch, finely tuned workforce? If not, then it is time for the training officer to sell the urgency! It is difficult to get a train moving without the engine.
Years ago, when I worked for the city of Casselberry, Florida, a very small paid department, we had two-person engines and sometimes two-person stations. The management of the department was very centralized, and any training was done at the expense of the employees and on their own time. Some of us finally compiled data of several near mishaps and on-the-job injuries to convince our management team of the need for specific training. Units were taken out of service, and the nearby Seminole County Fire Department covered our district while we trained with other agencies at the local fire academy.
Upper management must endorse and encourage training as a priority and allow the entire “system” to function under it. Employee performance does not occur in a vacuum. We have to take a system’s perspective and look not only at our employees but also at the environments in which we expect them to perform. It has been said that if we put good performers in bad systems, the systems will win every time. Ensure that the culture in your organization stimulates an environment that emphasizes training and developing the people who make things happen.
Determine Members’ Needs
Determine the needs of the people in your organization. A technical, drawn-out needs analysis is wonderful, but who has the time for it? The people in your organization are … well … people! Talk with them. Better still, listen! If possible. meet one-on-one with every member of your organization. Have each one tell you which areas in the job description need improvement. You may be surprised at the honesty of the replies.
In a consulting project with which I was involved at the Orange County Convention Center, I interviewed 162 convention center employees and discovered that, without exception, every employee wanted to open up and reveal weaknesses and areas in need of fine-tuning through training. Just the fact that they were asked the questions concerning their capabilities created some building blocks for a future foundation of trust and provided invaluable information for their training department to use to develop training classes.1 Home in on weak areas and find a commonality. The next training class you develop can cover these topics and bring everyone up to a desired standard level.
Encourage Creativity
Encourage creativity among your employees. It is a known fact that almost every piece of equipment, technique, method, and procedure used in the fire service was created by fire department personnel in the trenches performing the everyday tasks. If you want to make something work better, give it to your personnel. Given the opportunity, most emergency service personnel want to improve their performance. Encourage employees to discuss the difficulties, idiosyncrasies, and successes of various calls. An informal discussion of the previous call can usually provide a forum for asking questions and expressing ideas.
Organizations have a nasty habit of becoming institutions, and institutions of becoming monuments. When a movement becomes a monument, there is less room for the entrepreneurially gifted. Identify the natural leaders within the different shifts and work stations, and empower them to provide in-station training for those who need and desire it. Our agency is slowly evolving in the use of this process. Some of our personnel are, or have been, instructors with local technological and community colleges. These individuals have come forward to instruct their coworkers in various subjects such as drafting techniques, EMT recertification courses, rope rescue, and local protocol guidelines, just to name a few.
Training, then, becomes an ongoing process in which the training officer becomes the facilitator, providing tools and time as needed. Don’t allow your policies and procedures to stifle your brightest stars. Be flexible, and bend the rules. Never be in bondage to your policy manual. Set goals and objectives, but don’t let them arise out of corporate policy or department loyalty. Seek out and listen for the weak areas and the needs of your people.
Simple. Right? Of course not! But these are steps in the right direction and those that are being taken by the smart players. The raison d’être in our line of work is to always be ready for the unexpected. To do this requires constant training, refinement of skills, and increased development in preparation for satisfactorily carrying out responsibilities now and in the future.
Endnote
- Just as the Hawthorne experiments of the 1920s revealed, workers’ production improved simply because management was paying attention to the workers. In the Hawthorne experiments, workers’ production improved when the lighting in the factory was changed; production improved again when the lighting was returned to its original state, indicating that it was the attention focused on the workers, not the lighting itself, that affected the workers’ performance.
JOHN R. DUNCAN has been in the fire service for more than 15 years, the last nine of which he has served with Reedy Creek Emergency Services, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, which provides emergency services for the Walt Disney World Company. He has a master’s degree in human resource management; is professional human resources-certified; and is a consultant for Wilton and Chester, which specializes in performance audits and risk management analysis.
