Understand Your Culture and Its Relationship to Staff

 

It is critical for us to understand why we are losing members, or cannot get new members, before we begin any recruitment or retention process. Like any organization people drive a culture and that culture becomes something members are content with and can work within, or cannot work within it and decide to leave or join another organization.

This concept of cultural impact was assessed during research into fire service volunteerism over the last decade. The concept was reinforced in the symbolism found in two texts, Collapse and Bowling Alone. In Collapse, by Dr. Jared Diamond, he relates five components to collapse or failure of a culture, including:

• Climate change (such as relationship with elected officials or the community)
• Hostile neighbors (such as other fire departments or groups seeking members or funds)
• Trade patterns, (such as how service is delivered, consolidations, mergers, etc.)
• Environmental problems (such as politics in the community, labor-management conflicts, and external strife), and
• Society’s response to environmental problems (such as positive or negative support to fire and EMS agencies).

Each society and the volunteer fire and EMS system will choose to succeed or will choose to fail.

In Bowling Alone, Dr. Robert Putnam warns our stock of social capital, the very fabric of our connections with each other, has plummeted impoverishing our lives and communities. More Americans are bowling than ever before, but they are not bowling in leagues. Putnam shows the corollary of how changes in work, family structure, age, suburban life, television, computers, women’s roles and other factors have contributed to the decline of social capital; which affect volunteers in general and specific to firefighting.

Recruitment and Retention Tip of the Month #5 of 50

Developing an “Everyone Get One” Program

 

Multiple research projects have identified that one of the most common and effective methods used to recruit members is by ”word of mouth”. This technique has long been used successfully in a variety of organizational initiatives to grow the membership ranks. Each fire/EMS agencies can use such a program to have each member or a percentage of its membership reach out to friends, neighbors, family, co-workers, and the general public to join the local fire/EMS agency.

 

Key Steps to implementing such a program include:

1. Appoint a project or committee chairperson – Such a program can increase your membership. It takes leadership and a plan, with one individual constantly promoting such a program. A non-firefighter, (business person, spouse, parent, community leader) can easily be used in this role.
2. Set a realistic goal – This way you can monitor success, but avoid being too aggressive in your expectations. If you are conducting this type of program for the first time, under-estimate your potential success so that everyone can share in the sense of accomplishment when it is achieved.
3. Keep the campaign period short – In this way you can concentrate members efforts and avoid burnout. You may want to also strategically analyze the time of year that will maximize participation and related success. Don’t conflict with major initiatives or typically busy persids of the organization.
4. Use incentives – Introduce some value and competition to the process by rewarding individuals for their recruiting efforts and to incent those joining the organizations. Determine the most appropriate incentives by asking the individuals that will be involved in the program, what would motivate them to be aggressive in the activity.
5. Keep the program as simple as possible – This will encourage participation and minimize workload of the staff. Do not use any special applications or forms. Simply have the referring member sign their name at the top of the application being submitted.
6. Constantly communicate the program’s goals and success – Create an engaging and meaningful theme and keep it in the forefront of the members.

 

These steps can be used to develop, update and revitalize your “Everyone Get One” membership recruitment drive.

 

It is with deep regret the the Firemen’s Association of the State of Pennsylvania announces the cancellation of the scheduled 2020 Conference, October 22-24, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions in place in the Commonwealth of PA.  The decision was made by those members who participated in the virtual meeting held on this date.  The safety and well-being of our members and their families is our primary consideration.  

 

A virtual meeting will be planned at a later date and more information will be given as things unfold.  Please be safe!

 

Larry Baughman, Secretary

 

Assigning Responsibility and Accountability

for a Recruitment and Retention Plan

 

Like any other task, the function of recruiting and retaining members has to have someone leading the charge. Unlike some functions though, the leader of the recruitment and retention program should not be a current senior officer. This is a demanding challenge and as a result requires commitment, which means time and some experience. As will be seen throughout this series, recruitment and retention is not just an add on job for the Chief, President, Chairman of the Board, etc. In fact you may want to reach out to the community and look for someone with human resource expertise, or someone who helps people find employment.

In today’s world, we cannot rely on previous recruiting and retaining techniques by relatives and friends joining to help their neighbors. While this may work in some smaller communities or rural areas, it is not sustainable in suburban communities. Therefore the first task of the Recruitment and Retention Coordinator is to determine

• What skill sets and knowledge sets does the organization need?
• Where can I find individuals who have or want to obtain those skills and knowledge?
• What will it take to incent those individuals to join?
• What will it take to keep those individuals engaged once they join the organization?

These critical questions serve as the basis for developing your plan and requires engagement with officers, members, and the community. As can be seen very quickly, this can be time consuming and complicated and thus cannot be another task of current leadership, but requires a leader in its own right.

In addition, recruiting is different today than it was a generation ago. What motivates people is different. How people are communicated with is different. The image and mission of the fire department may be different. How will we market the fire department?

 

These all require work efforts that are focused and meaningful. This requires the organization to Assigning Responsibility and Accountability for a Recruitment and Retention Plan

We are sorry to inform you that due to the Corona Pandemic we will not be having our in-person meeting at Boalsburg FD on July 17 and 18.

We will, however be holding a virtual meeting on Saturday morning, July 18 via Zoom.

More details will be provided when the meeting is established and connection information is available.

Sorry about this but we must “practice what we preach” regarding person…