Preserving Your Volunteer Fire & Rescue
Department
A Recipe for Success
 By
Rick Dacri, Dacri & Associates LLC
Published in Maine Municipal Association’s The Townsman
What do you do when you are faced with losing a significant number of
fire and rescue call personnel? How can you guarantee public safety
when you are unsure how many, if any, of your volunteers will respond
to a call? These are the problems faced by many communities in Maine
and throughout the United States. With the rapid decline in the number
of volunteers, more and more towns are forced to consider employing
full-time staff—a decision that could run havoc with the financial well
being of any community. The National Fire Protection Association
reported that the number of volunteers has dropped by 8% while the
number of emergency calls continues to climb. The demands of family
life, more volunteers working outside their home community coupled with
employers unsympathetic to the need of the community, and the
escalating training requirements areal factors contributing to the
decline of volunteers. Absent radical change, this deterioration within
the ranks will continue.
When Nathan Poore became the new town manager in Falmouth in 2006, he
was faced with the challenge of preserving his fire and rescue
department. Having worked in several communities, he appreciated the
value and contribution volunteers provided. Volunteers are the fabric
of the community. To lose them would tear away at its culture and feel
of the community.
In 2006, the Falmouth Fire and Rescue experienced declining volunteer
participation, few new recruits, and low morale. Two years later, there
has been a complete reversal of fortune. Today it is a vibrant, growing
professional force. How is Falmouth bucking the trend of every other
volunteer fire department?
The Town of Falmouth is located just north of Portland, on the coast of
southern Maine. They have a population of 11,000, draped over 32 square
miles. Today they have a fire and rescue department with four stations,
3 full-time staff and 95 call firefighters and emergency medical
technicians and 12 part-time paramedics. They respond to 1600
emergencies per year.
The Town Manager knew that Falmouth found itself in a unique position.
It was a large community by Maine standards and it abutted Maine’s
largest city, Portland. Portland had a full-time fire and rescue
department. More and more suburban communities, some of them smaller
than Falmouth, were abandoning their volunteer departments and becoming
full-time departments. With such a large population, the pressure would
be for Falmouth to move in the direction of a full time or mixed
full-time volunteer department. For the Town Manager, these were not
acceptable options. He was committed to a volunteer department.
To save its volunteer department, Poore, upon his arrival, needed to
understand how his department was operating and why it was bleeding so
badly. He learned that some calls were not being answered. He knew that
morale was low.
Poore embarked on an ambitious plan to independently evaluate his
department, while assessing its leadership and its member’s morale. He
recognized that getting an objective evaluation of the department would
require outside expertise. An outsider could assure anonymity. He would
be unencumbered by agendas and personal relations and it would be
easier for him to build trust with whomever he spoke. To fully
understand how the department was operating, input was needed from its
leadership and membership. Beyond those inside, feedback was solicited
from those who worked closely with fire and rescue, including Falmouth
department heads, police and communications. A candid appraisal from
its mutual aid partners was also needed. Finally, Town Council support
was required both for their support of this initiative and because they
had the pulse of the community.
An undertaking of this magnitude requires a significant amount of
communication. Stakeholders need to understand what the town manager
planned to do, why he was going to do it, how the initiative was going
to be conducted and by whom, and how it was going to impact them.
Without everyone’s buy-in and support, any hopes of making change
within the department would fail.
The town manager met with the department leadership initially and then
with all members to express his concern about the state of the
department and to seek their help to save it. He stated his goal of
preserving the volunteer concept, but also threw out the challenge to
raise the performance bar and make Falmouth the premier fire and rescue
department in the area.
To achieve this, an outside consultant developed a diagnostic process
that provided the town manager with a complete picture of the
department, its staff and its operations. To get input from the staff,
a member satisfaction/engagement survey was developed and given to all
the volunteers. Understanding the operations and what the members were
thinking was critical. The members would be a great source of
information. They were closest to the operation. They provided the
service and interfaced directly with residents. They saw the problems
first, heard about issues earlier, and had ideas that could improve the
department’s overall performance. At the same time, in many situations,
the members would never bring the information to management unless they
were asked for it.
Satisfaction/engagement surveys are questionnaires where members can
respond anonymously on a variety of issues. These surveys, in fact, are
probably one of the best tools managers have for taking a barometer of
what is happening in the workplace at any given point.
Prior to developing the survey, the consultant sought input directly
from the members. By soliciting their ideas on the issues to address in
the survey, he received valuable information, buy-in from the group,
added trust to the process and advocates within their ranks. The survey
addressed 26 different elements including leadership, command
structure, training, cooperation, safety, morale and communications.
The survey was given to the members over two nights. Over 75%
participated.
In addition to a look inward, input was sought from all of Falmouth’s
department heads, key employees in police and communications, members
of the Town Council, and Falmouth’s mutual aid partners. This was done
through a series of individual interviews.
Falmouth managers and employees provided valuable insights. They worked
hand in hand with fire and rescue during emergencies. A close, positive
working relationship with police and communications had to be seamless.
Mistakes could be fatal.
Relationships with the mutual aid partners had been severely strained
over the years. An attitude of “going it alone” permeated the
department and the partners were well aware of it. When reaching out
for their input there was a concern that they would rebuff the plea.
They did not. They used it as an opportunity to be frank and candid
about the partnership and about the strengths and weaknesses of the
department. Their straightforward appraisals exposed some significant
safety issues which might have remained uncorrected without the
partner’s input.
The member survey results and subsequent follow-up focus groups, along
with the interviews with individuals outside the department, provided a
comprehensive evaluation of the fire and rescue department. The picture
was not pretty. While the members liked volunteering and maintained a
sense of pride in their work, morale had hit rock bottom. Communication
was poor; leadership was questioned; traditions were ignored; and
members felt the full-time Fire Chief did not understand the needs of
the volunteers. The mutual aid partners projected a similar picture. As
one Fire Chief stated: “Falmouth is a good neighbor, but we have plenty
of better ones.”
Successful volunteer departments depend on pride in the organization, a
family atmosphere, loyalty, and a tradition based on generational
contributions to the community. This was lost. The members were not
engaged.
It just makes sense from an economic standpoint that every Town Manager
should make fostering an engaged volunteer staff a high priority, where
people care about what they do and want to be there. Yet many do not,
often because they don’t know how. In a national survey conducted by
The Gallup Organization, Gallup found that 75% of the American
workforce is either disengaged or actively disengaged-- and we can
expect that these same findings would also apply to volunteers. In
other words, these people are not committed to either their work or
their organization. They simply don’t want to be there and their
unhappiness and dissatisfaction infects the entire organization. The
only difference between these workers and volunteers is that volunteers
do not have to be there. There is not a weekly paycheck holding them
and they can express their discontent with their feet.
A fully engaged volunteer staff responds to calls and attends
trainings. They are productive, make few mistakes, and rarely get
injured at work. They want to be there and their positive attitude is
contagious.
So how can you tell if your volunteers are engaged? A disengaged
volunteer call staff has fewer staff answering calls or attending
trainings; volunteers who are simply going through the motions; and at
the extremes, individuals who are out right negative or hostile. It is
clear that a town manager must take immediate steps to turn things
around in these organizations—they must re-engage their volunteers or
suffer the consequences.
The good news is that these situations are not hopeless. Leadership can
take control and the first thing they can do is find out why their
volunteers are turned off by their organization. The simple act of
asking an employee “How are things going?”, if sincerely done, can
often be the first step in the re-engagement process. Volunteers want
to know that their Town Manager and Chief care about them.
When an organization has a fully engaged staff, whether it is made up
of volunteers or fully paid employees, they enjoy higher staff
retention rates, more productivity, better safety records, increased
numbers of recruits, and minimal grievances. People want to be there
because they like what they do, they believe in the mission, and they
want to contribute. It’s a place people want to work. Achieving this
level of commitment does not have to be difficult. In fact, the process
is quite simple. Put managers in charge who cares about their people
and who set clear expectations and accountabilities. In addition, seek
your staff’s input, listen to their ideas and act on them; develop
their skills; provide them the tools to do their job; and at the end of
the day, sincerely thank them for their efforts—simple and
uncomplicated and it works.
During any kind of change initiative, expect the unexpected. Just prior
to our administering the survey, both the Fire Chief and Rescue Deputy
left the department. Seizing upon this, all members were asked to
assist in profiling “an ideal chief.” This would be used in the
recruitment of the new chief. In addition, key members of the
department were asked to participate in the employment interviews. The
members provided the town manager with valuable input and by including
them the Town Manager reinforced his commitment to the importance of
the volunteer staff.
Falmouth’s recovery began with the reporting of the findings to the
members. No one was shocked by the results, but all were committed to
turning it around. Over the next 18 months a new, vibrant volunteer
department was established. The new Fire Chief, Howard Rice, Jr., was
hired with the assistance of the members and their mutual aid partners.
The survey results were used as a baseline from which to build and
survey negatives were turned to positives. Member focus groups, which
began during the planning of the survey, were institutionalized to
foster open communications. The members were becoming engaged.
Rice began an ambitious plan to reengage his members. He regularly met
with the focus groups. He held one-on-one meetings with every member.
He hired a new assistant chief for rescue and an administrator. He took
the burdensome administrative task off the shoulders of the members,
allowing them to do what they did best: fight fires and rescue.
Two years later, Falmouth has a growing, vibrant Fire and Rescue
Department. Membership recruitment is up 28%; leadership is strong and
respected; a second member satisfaction/engagement survey showed morale
was high; a family atmosphere was restored. More importantly,
sufficient, well trained staff is responding to fire and rescue calls;
members are attending training programs; equipment has been upgraded;
and relationships with their mutual aid partners have improved.
Falmouth’s formula for success was simple: install strong leadership;
listen to its members and partners; respond to their needs; and always
strive to improve. Much was accomplished. The message is clear:
volunteer fire and rescue departments can remain viable saving tax
payers millions of dollars each year while maintaining a long held
tradition of service to the community.
Rick
Dacri is a human resource consultant, featured speaker at regional and
national conferences, and author of the book “Uncomplicating
Management: Focus On Your Stars & Your Company Will Soar.”
Since 1995 his firm, Dacri & Associates has helped
organizations improve individual and organizational performance. Rick
connects with people in a positive and challenging way to offer
practical solutions. He can be reached at 207-967-0837, or via email at
rick@dacri.com
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