By Sam Altawil
Through years of corporate business success, many organizations, including fire departments, are examining business concepts — specifically in the areas of organizational development.
Organizational development encompasses recruitment, training, performance appraisals, and measuring success. Many argue that these fundamental categories, if performed properly, are the key to any organizational success.
In the first part of this series, I will cover the areas of organizational differences and recruitment, while part two will focus on training, performance appraisals and measuring success.
To keep up with the demands of today — including growing populations and the ever-expanding role of the firefighter — cities all over the United States decided to increase the size of many fire departments and increase their level of responsibilities.
However, this task was not simple and obviously it took some planning. Like any organization, there had to be structure and adequate management. But unlike business management, fire department managers are themselves firefighters who were, in most cases, promoted through the ranks.
Many believe and have argued that the best managers for the fire departments are those who are firefighters, simply because they have a clear understanding of the daily challenges that face each member.
However, like many business organizations, another view says while managers who have excellent technical skills are necessary and certainly encouraged, it is not enough in order to be a good manager. Managers must be able to lead, communicate well, organize and, above all, strategize.
Leadership training has been the hot topic for the past 10 years in business and is the reason why many companies hire top recruiters to find good leaders. Most people agree that good leaders in any organization, whether it be in business or the fire service, are essential to its success.
However, some may argue that fire departments are a different organization than businesses and require different principles to manage them. But is that really true in today’s world? Can corporate business principles only apply to business?
Organizational differences
So what are the differences and similarities between fire organizations and corporate business organization? Fundamentally speaking, they both have a goal/purpose and need key individuals to operate it.
The purpose of a business is to make money, while a fire department provides services to the public. For a business to operate effectively, business structure is divided in several areas such as finance, marketing, human resources (HR), informational technology (IT), operations, etc. And in each department, specially trained individuals are needed to carry out the duties of each position.
Well, that is similar to the operations for a fire department. They require specially trained individuals to carry out the duties of the job in each division, and of course such individuals and departments must be adequately managed similar to that of a standard business.
However, fire department structure and its operations are slightly different from that of business, beginning with the organizational structure. Generally speaking, fire departments are smaller in size from that of the typical corporate business structure. They obviously require fewer employees, especially at the leadership level.
Unfortunately being small in size means smaller budgets, and the leaders of the fire department are forced to take on such tasks as budgeting, staffing, organizational development, training, and general management of administration, etc., which under the business structure are completed by individuals who are skilled in these areas.
In theory fire department leaders can accomplish these tasks successfully, for the obvious fact that they are smaller in size and do not require a specialist in each area. However, for the fire department leader to be successful, he/she must have knowledge in these areas, or have the potential to learn them.
Recruitment
Successful business organizations are consistently looking at current and future success. To do so, they create and implement a “succession plan,” which is a process for identifying and developing internal personnel with the potential to fill key or critical organizational positions.
Succession planning ensures the availability of experienced and capable employees that are prepared to assume these roles as they become available. A critical part of succession planning is strategic recruitment, which is having a clear understanding of the company’s current and future goals and finding key individuals that will assist in fulfilling these goals.
This process has proven to be successful for small and large organizations, and yet there are still many organizations that have not considered this simple strategy such as some metropolitan fire departments in large cities.
Their process is and has been as follows:
When a person obtains his/her Emergency Medical Training (EMT) and/or Paramedic training, he/she will place an application with the city or county human resources department. The HR department will coordinate the written test on a designated date and in some cities they may also coordinate the physical agility test, and for those who are ranked high on both exams they will be invited to an interview process.
This process is systematic in nature and while it is consistent, it is inflexible and lengthy. Many who were hired have waited for months (if lucky), but most took years. During this time, many candidates who prospectively fit the department well are lost to other agencies and most likely to other cities.
On the other hand, in the business environment, the hiring process is more flexible. Depending on the position, if an experienced and/or educated person applies for the position, he/she will submit a resume. Then he/she may or will receive several interviews, from a minimum of two interviews to a maximum of five.
If the candidate is hired, he/she will go through background checks, etc. This process usually takes weeks, rather than months or years. Moreover, while this process does not guarantee absolute success, it is has been proven to be very effective and efficient. Corporations for years have sought out key individuals through their recruitment process because they knew that such individuals will bring value to their business and in many cases, they were accurate.
Sam Altawil is a Human Resource leader with experience in human resources, legal compliance and financial responsibilities. He works closely with organizational leaders to improve personnel and business efficiency by mapping and executing strategic campaigns. He currently works at Professional Employment Resolutions in Sacramento, which helps clients focus on their core business by providing HR support for their organization while helping reduce costs and administrative redundancies. You can contact Sam at leadership_hrlegal@yahoo.com.