The Business of the Fire Service: Employee Satisfaction

(Photo by Tony Greco)

由迈克尔·迪斯塔诺（Michael Destefano）

We have all heard the classic quote from every politician and uninformed citizen: “Why don’t you run the fire department like a business?” The truth is, if the fire service were run like a business, it would have been shut down decades ago.

The fire service was created to have a supply of able-bodied individuals to call upon in an emergency to fight fire. It has since grown into a professional service that is frequently staffed by full-time paid消防员。资格已经提高，以满足紧急呼叫性质的需求。现在，每次都可以想到的紧急情况要求曾经召集曾经只要求火灾的服务。消防部门从危险物质到医疗紧急情况到轰炸威胁。

Not all of these calls will provide revenue for the fire service, therefore taxes are relied upon to provide the essential service. From a business standpoint, any station that ran less than 10 calls a shift would be seen as a loss. The reality is that we provide service to all citizens and cannot justify three stations in the two-square-mile urban area of a city and only one station in the 20-square-mile area of the suburban city simply based on call volume. This would create an unacceptable response time to those living in less urban areas of the city and reduce protection to them. I agree with the thought process of not running a fire department like a business. However, I do believe we should learn lessons from the private sector and incorporate certain aspects into the fire service, specifically the satisfaction of our human resources.

OUR MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE: FIREFIGHTERS

我们的人力资源是消防服务中最重要的方面。在现场的消防员是为公民提供照顾的消防员。这些人多次是公民与消防服务的唯一联系。客户有紧急情况，电话911，消防部门出现以减轻上述紧急情况。就像私营部门在当地一家超市购物时一样，他们看到了现场人员的同等学历：熟食店工作人员，收银员，袋子男孩等。客户没有与主管，经理，首席执行官或金融员工联系。现场人员及其对待方式是客户对商店或消防部门的印象。公共部门和私营部门之间的这种相似性就是为什么对我们人力资源的投资如此重要的原因。

现在，我们已经确定了人力资源的相似性和重要性，让我们研究私营部门如何通过提高员工满意度来帮助消防服务来创造更好的员工。员工满意度可以在增长的三个简单方面涵盖：员工在适当的成长，员工通过晋升以及通过赔偿的增长而增长。创造员工在所有三个方面成长的能力都可以使员工满意度。

员工的发展立场是十分活泼ortant from the time of hire all the way to retirement. A person wants to enter into a position (say, as firefighter) with the thought that they can progress and become not only proficient but also a master of the position. A firefighter or any employee for that matter does not enter into a job with the idea that what they bring to the table on day one should remain the same on year 10. To allow a person to grow in position, we have to create avenues for growth. How does a body physical grow? We feed it. Position growth is the same–we must provide food for the employee to eat. Technical classes, mentoring, and education must be available to the employee. Additionally, for a firefighter to grow in position it is extremely beneficial to specialize in specific disciplines, such as tech rescue teams, dive team, truck certifications, etc. Having a goal for a firefighter to work for allows the satisfaction of growth in their position.

Growth in promotion is the next step. Now that the firefighter has accomplished growth within their position, they need to have the opportunity to promote and lead others. I have personally seen departments have very few promotional opportunities and positions, which leads to high turnover due to employees feeling like there is no where to go within their career. Having a firefighter who promotes straight to lieutenant and then straight to chief creates minimal chances for employees to lead others in small steps. Instead, there are few promotional opportunities and the employee is pushed into higher levels of management without having the stepping stones that one needs to understand the complexity of the next position.

This may also create a problem for employees that want to lead others but not at the level that is available. For instance, a firefighter may want to lead others from the driver/engineer position without being the company officer. Without the growth through promotion, the only option they may see is to jump to lieutenant or stay a firefighter. Another aspect to look at is stagnation. Similar to the growth in position, if an employee feels that they have been in a single rank for too long while awaiting opportunity to advance in rank, they may become stagnant and lose motivation to excel within the department. The growth of the department is directly linked to growth in promotion.

最终增长是补偿的增长。步骤计划是消防部门中非常普遍的薪酬计划。它旨在根据任期的提高来奖励员工的薪水增加。这可以减轻主管中偏爱的潜力，或者在同一年内向不同主管的雇员向不同的主管移动。步骤计划是吸引员工进入您部门的绝佳工具。潜在的消防员可以查看步骤计划，并查看他们每年被雇用多少，但是很少会导致员工成长的动力增加。如果消防员参加课程并获得认证，那么仅仅出现的消防员就没有任何回报。

A way to provide growth in compensation is the creation of incentives. Incentives can create financial motivation for employees to gain additional skills within the fire department. These incentives can directly tie in with the growth in positional aspect. For example, a tech rescue incentive that requires class A, B, and C provides an increase of $1,000 a year. Another example is education-based incentives such as rewarding $500 for an associate’s degree and $1,000 for a bachelor’s degree. An additional way of increasing growth in compensation is the creation of a merit-based increase policy along with the step plan. If a step plan provides a 2 percent increase per year, having a merit policy that provide an additional 1-3 percent a year based on evaluations can also create financial motivation for the employee.

Without growth in position, growth in promotion, and growth in compensation, the employee themselves may not have satisfaction in their department. This lack of satisfaction will lead to high turnover rates or, worse, disgruntled employees. There are some very important lessons that can be learned from the private sector and used by the public sector, and the growth of our human resources—namely, our firefighters–is one such example.

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迈克尔·迪斯塔诺（Michael Destefano）is a lieutenant and currently assigned to the training division with Brevard County (FL) Fire Rescue. He began his career in 2004 at a small three-station paid department in Winter Springs, Florida, as a firefighter/EMT-B. In 2005, he moved to Brevard County, taking on the role of firefighter/paramedic in 2006. He has an associate’s degree from Eastern Florida State College in fire science and a bachelor’s degree from Barry University in public administration.