Retention and Recruitment for the Volunteer Emergency Services

Retention & Recruitment for the Volunteer Emergency Services: Challenges & Solutions
There are many departments today that now have members with various types of
disabilities; however, some departments have expressed concerns about retaining mentally
challenged members due to the department’s liability exposure, especially if a member’s
disability impairs judgment or the ability to identify hazards. A serious incident can occur
with members who cannot read warning labels and instructions or have diminished
reasoning power. Not only could they make judgment errors that may make the department
liable, but they could hurt themselves and others. In considering whether to recruit or
retain these members, departments must also consider that the American with Disabilities
Act (ADA) requires that reasonable accommodations be made for employees with illnesses
or disabilities.
Some departments have addressed the liability concerns by assigning a firefighter to be a
mentor to watch over those who need more assistance. Perhaps the best course of action is
for the whole department to make sure that a disadvantaged member does not get in over
his or her head. Unfortunately, in some cases it may be necessary to encourage those who
have poor judgment (mentally challenged or not) to no longer volunteer.
People today are very conscious of discrimination against those with health disabilities,
but modern society is also very litigious. As a result, volunteer departments need to discuss
the issue of using disabled personnel with their insurance company and/or department
attorney and be sensitive to both sides of the issue.
consolidation
There has been a growing trend towards the consolidation of volunteer fire departments
into regional or county departments. Pennsylvania completed two studies during
2005 that address consolidation. The studies concluded that various forms of fire service
regionalization, including consolidations and mergers, are feasible and represent a logical
approach to addressing many of the challenges currently facing volunteer organizations.
Regionalization, however, cannot be mandated and cannot occur in isolation. Rather, the
promotion of regionalization efforts is just one of several steps that need to be taken in
order to preserve and enhance the volunteer services. When consolidating/regionalizing
resources, personnel are better deployed, more effectively trained, and used more
efficiently than in multiple fire companies.
Consolidation reduces funding and other competition between adjacent departments,
improves cost and operational effectiveness, and may increase the pool for recruiting. This
is an important move especially for rural fire departments that lack the necessary funds
to run an efficient operation. For example, several small departments joined together can
employ unified purchasing that is less expensive and time consuming.