BY RICHARD MARINUCCI
As the fire chief or the head of a division, you are responsible for all the services provided within your domain even though you may not directly provide them. What do you do when a key staff member leaves his position in the department and you do not have a replacement readily available? This vacant position can be anyone (and all staff are key, or you wouldn’t need them!) in any division (fire prevention, training, finance and budgeting, special projects, and secretarial or clerical personnel). That is the topic of this month’s discussion. I have selected one position, but the issues are relevant to any vacancy.
THE SCENARIO
Your training officer just left the department to pursue other interests. Because of circumstances beyond your control, you cannot immediately fill the position. The training in your department must continue without interruption. We all know how important it is to the overall performance of your organization. The rest of your staff has a full workload (at least one would hope so, or you would need to question their value to the department). The position is considered a promotion and requires testing in accordance with the labor contract. At the conclusion of the testing process, no internal candidates were successful. The labor agreement allows one of two options-a retest or an open promotion to outside candidates. Either option will take time. You have a few issues. How will you fill the vacancy? How will you continue the training? What will be the impact on the budget? Do you have the final say, or do you recommend a course of action to someone else? What will you do?
Initial actions. The initial reaction may be to open the position to candidates outside the organization. After all, you gave the internal candidates an opportunity. However, you may want to consider a compromise. You can open the promotion up and still allow internal candidates to compete. Even further, you may want to consider expanding your selection criteria for internal candidates to include an extra rank or two. This accomplishes a couple of things.
Often, promotion from within is good for the organization, the morale of the employees, and the continuity of services. Giving people a second chance can often turn out to be a good thing. Second, the internal candidate now competes with those outside your department. It is a way to benchmark the development of your personnel. Perhaps the first time around was not the right time. Also, there is no guarantee that the folks from outside who do apply are any more prepared than your membership. You won’t know until you compare the results. You still have the option to select the best candidate.
Regardless of what you decide, your choice should be based on what is good for the community, what is good for the department, and what is good for your membership-in that order.
Filling the work void. The next component of your concerns is to keep the operation running by providing the essential services. Initially, you need to meet with the outgoing officer to get a baseline of what has been done and what is currently being planned and offered. It is important to the department to continue and finish what has been started. Next, perform an evaluation of department personnel to determine who may have the skills, knowledge, and ability to carry on. A word of caution here: On occasion, it can be interpreted that you have selected the “chosen one” to fill the position and the temporary assignment gives an unfair advantage. In most cases, that is just the way it is, and so be it. However, check your rules, labor agreements, or other appropriate documents to make sure you are playing by the rules.
In your search, you may be lucky enough to find multiple people to pick up the slack. If this is the case, good for you-you can spread out the workload among multiple people, which will allow them to maintain their regular work assignments, at least partially. You do not want to take someone off an assignment and create another situation in which not just the training is suffering but other projects and programs are as well. If you have the ability to authorize overtime and the players are willing, this will give you a chance to keep the system working. You will need to designate one person as the key point of contact and the person in charge so the work can be properly coordinated. That coordinator may even be you!
The length of time that you have the vacancy will affect your operation to varying degrees. Obviously, the longer the position is vacant, the more potential you have to fall behind not only in the area of training but in the places where personnel are sharing the workload. If it appears that you will need someone for a significant amount of time, consider promoting a member from the line to an acting position. It is sometimes easier to backfill (with overtime) a line position than a staff position.
Whoever takes the responsibilities will have the challenges of picking up the pieces and establishing his own method of doing things. It may take longer to find things in the file or research necessary information. You must be patient with this process. Further, you must be willing to commit some of your time and energies to offer support and assistance. There is no way around this; you are going to have to work a bit more.
This may not seem like it would be a big deal, but it really is if you intend to keep things going. Think what happens when someone takes two weeks of vacation. Much of the work piles up and is waiting when the individual returns. But, on occasion, something arises that must be handled immediately. How long does it take you to figure out what to do? Is the information you need readily available? The citizens, elected officials, and others do not want to wait until the vacation is over.
Some things may be easier than others, but we often become so focused on what we do that we don’t realize the importance of what everyone else does. The problem here is that every job is important and there is someone in your organization who does it better than everyone else. Yet, no one is irreplaceable. What we are discussing is being able to minimize the impact of someone’s leaving.
Prevention, the best avenue. The last point to make is that, like so many of our issues, prevention is the best avenue. What are you doing to build redundancy in your system and prepare personnel for promotion? Although most people do not have the luxury of having multiple people in similar staff positions, consider cross-training personnel so there is some basic familiarity. Do not allow your system to develop to the point where a single individual controls a critical function. The cross-training is not designed to create equal capabilities or provide similar experiences. It is designed to allow you to cover when necessary. On a final note, standardize your record keeping. Often, the records are most difficult to find or duplicate, regardless of the staff position. Occasionally, individuals have within their realm the “institutional memory” necessary to progress. Information must be out in the open and understood by many.
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Replacing key personnel is never easy. They are a huge part of your organization. The length of time they have been with your department will determine the extent of your dependency on their performance. Remember this, and prepare today for the inevitable. No one will last forever! ■
■ RICHARD MARINUCCI has been chief of the Farmington Hills (MI) Fire Department since 1984. He was president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs in 1997-98 and chair of the Commission on Chief Fire Officer Designation. In 1999, he served as senior advisor to Director James Lee Witt of FEMA and acting chief operating officer of the United States Fire Administration for seven months as part of a loan program between the City of Farmington Hills and FEMA. He received the Outstanding Public Service Award from the director for his efforts. Marinucci has three B.S. degrees: in secondary education from Western Michigan University, in fire science from Madonna College, and in fire administration from the University of Cincinnati. He was the first graduate of the Open Learning Fire Service Program at the University of Cincinnati (summa cum laude) and was named a Distinguished Alumnus in 1995.
