BY STEVEN A. SAVIA, CMC
I am an adjunct faculty mem-ber in the fire technology associate’s degree program at an area community college. One of the courses I teach is “Supervision of Fire Service Personnel.” It’s based on standard public administration supervisory theory and practices and covers some specific examples and differences related to the fire and rescue service.
Most students in this class are volunteer firefighters. All are hoping to have careers in the fire and rescue services; some have already started their careers. Recently, students brought up an interesting question: Wouldn’t it be a good idea to require volunteers to take a course in supervision? I must admit that, as a teacher, I was impressed that they were thinking of applications beyond what was in the class material. They had an excellent point: Just because volunteer fire departments and rescue squads are, well, volunteer, doesn’t mean that they have to operate less effectively.
Frankly, the days when most volunteers are local blue collar workers and tradesmen who rely on their years of experience in fighting the kinds of fires one can expect in a mostly rural environment are gone. Among the points made were that the suburbs have increasingly encroached on areas that were once wooded rural or farmland; urban areas now exist where there were once suburbs; and while paid municipal departments have taken over a number of volunteer departments, many volunteer organizations have survived to operate side by side with their municipal counterparts.
ATTRACTING RECRUITS
Attracting and recruiting white collar professionals are issues facing volunteer departments. Some people say that it is not possible. I disagree. First, there are a lot of college graduates working as accountants, attorneys, physicians, and high-tech engineers who were volunteer firefighters back in high school or college. Not all the college members of the College Park (MD) Fire Department became fire protection engineers, nor did most of the college members of the Williamsburg (VA) Fire Department. I can cite many examples of people who were members of volunteer departments in their youth, moved away, started families, and work in a variety of professions. They avoid volunteering today because of frustration with the way things are done in a volunteer department, and they don’t necessarily mean fire scene management.
It doesn’t have to be that way. I talked to one man at a Fire Prevention Week open house who said that he doesn’t want to get into an organization that operates the way his old department did. As a midlevel manager in a respected company, he has an expectation of the way an organization should run.
“JUST VOLUNTEERS”?
So why can’t a volunteer fire department operate in the same way? I heard one volunteer firefighter not long ago say, “We can’t have too high expectations of our people; they’re just volunteers.” Interestingly, I’ve heard the same comment about paid firefighters. Rubbish! We can set the same high standards we would expect in a government or business organization: Meet your commitments, and do your job. More on that later.
One of the missing pieces is the issue of supervision. The topic for the class in which the above question was raised was the “Attributes of a Successful Supervisor.” A successful supervisor empowers his employees, makes work rewarding and enjoyable, and sets goals consistent with the organization’s goals, but in a way that furthers the individual’s goals, too.
So, can the old chief, who has been around since who knows when, operate in a way consistent with these tenets? If he is willing to open his mind to new ideas, recognizing that officer training has to go beyond technical, hands-on firefighting training, there is every reason to believe he can. Not every volunteer officer has to have a college degree and be a manager in a major corporation (although that is not a bad thing, either). It is time to look at some of the training and education that a volunteer officer receives, particularly regarding supervision.
Many of the same issues that face the supervisor of career employees face the supervisor of volunteers, whether in a fire department, hospital, library, or any other organization that relies on volunteers to meet its organizational goals. Workers want to know what is expected of them, and having specific parameters helps. They want feedback as to how they are doing and positive reinforcement when they make a contribution. They don’t want to be belittled when they make a mistake, especially when they are learning. They expect that their time won’t be wasted because of the attitude that “they’re just volunteers.”
TRAINING FLEXIBILITY
For example, how many volunteer chiefs or training officers have their training plans laid out on an annual, semiannual, or quarterly basis? Unfortunately, very few. Most are lucky to figure out what they’re going to do next week, and many have little or no expectations about member participation. What about scheduling for members? Not just in terms of calls or duty assignments but even for training. One of the things that should distinguish a volunteer department should be a flexible training program that allows members to obtain the training they want and need within the context of their personal schedules. Setting a “training night” may not meet everyone’s schedules, so do we just eliminate from the potential pool of members anyone not available on that particular night?
Supervision skills include understanding what motivates people, how to coach employees, and when to counsel them regarding problems. They also include basic communication skills. I challenge someone to tell me those are not skills that are badly needed in the volunteer service.
As I have asked many times: Why should we put people in positions of authority and responsibility who are not equipped to effectively carry them out? We should not.
We should expect that volunteer officers understand motivation, active listening, coaching and counseling techniques, what is appropriate, and even what is legal. We should require that people who are supposed to lead understand the basics of leadership. We should expect that supervisors are not throwbacks to a time when they expected subordinates to do what they were told because the boss said so. We should expect that they know how to plan and ensure that their team, shift, company, or department carries out those plans.
How does this happen? I encourage each department, whether combination, paid, or all-volunteer, to have its officers complete a course in supervision. This can be a business administration/public administration continuing education course through a university or a community college, or an on-line or distance learning course. The latter is offered from a variety of Internet sources as well as through the National Fire Academy. The International City and County Management Association also has a text and course for effective supervision.
No matter how it gets accomplished, we can improve the volunteer fire service and, frankly, the fire service as a whole by applying effective and recognized supervision techniques when working with those who serve.
STEVEN A. SAVIA, CMC, is a founding principal of The Sage Group, a professional management consulting and public policy research firm specializing in serving local government organizations, and is a member of the Bay Leaf Volunteer Fire Department in Wake County, North Carolina. He teaches a variety of firefighting strategy/tactics and administration/management subjects. Savia has a B.A. from George Mason University and an M.A. from Florida Atlantic University and has pursued doctoral study in public policy at the University of North Carolina. He is a past national chairman of the Institute of Management Consultants.
