Recruiting 911 Emergency Dispatchers in today’s economy can seem more like an impossible task despite repeated hiring cycles, 911 Centers continue to face staffing shortages. But the real question is what can we do differently to overcome our shortfall? Is it a system issue, a personnel issue, a cultural issue, or something else? All these things can attribute to the need of recruiting and hiring personnel.
Here are three things to think about when evaluating your recruitment efforts.
Evaluate why there are few applicants
There can be many factors that attribute to less applicants in our hiring pools. Some things to look at are:
- Wages – Is your wage competitive for your area? If an administration position is open for one dollar less than the dispatcher position, candidates may apply for the Monday through Friday position, rather the 24/7 position. A wage increase may be needed to encourage applicants to apply.
- Unemployment Rate – What is the unemployment rate where the agency is located? If it is low, you will need to be aggressive in recruitment efforts. Being passive, will not get you the number of applicants you desire.
- Linked to Law Enforcement – Unfortunately, 911 Emergency Services is linked to our law enforcement partners whether we fall under their leadership or not. The attack on law enforcement can and has spilled over to dispatch services.
Evaluate the Process of Recruiting
Recruiting in today’s economy is based on how you choose to recruit suitable applicants. No longer can we post an opening on our website and get hundreds of applications. Those days are gone in today’s economy. We need to evaluate our current efforts and evaluate to see if they are effective. There is no sense continue what we have always been doing hoping for different results. That in itself is the definition of insanity. The recruitment process must be multifaceted like a diamond. It will require effort in multiple areas to garner more applications from qualified candidates.
I applaud seeing Facebook postings on agency Facebook pages and in groups but are you tracking the data on where applicants are seeing your recruitment efforts. If you are not, then you could be wasting time and perhaps money in your efforts on a platform or platforms that are not increasing your applicant pool. For example, I see postings on a variety of 911 Emergency Dispatcher Facebook Groups. I wonder to myself how effective it is. The posting is going out to 911 Emergency Dispatcher all over the United States. While the starting wage or even a sign-up bonus may look good, the 911 Emergency Dispatcher now has to decide how tasty that new wage or bonus is going to be against relocation costs, cost of living in the new area, etc. While I am not saying to stop fishing in this pool. This can not be the only pool to fish in.
Be Cautious About Robotic Screening Processes
With technological advancement, automated screening systems have made it easy to pick qualified candidates on the basis of a set algorithm. But there’s a potential of great candidates being screened out. For example, if the algorithm is set to eliminate candidates based on passed or skipped fields, you could be missing a great candidate because of an input error. While I realize accuracy in what we do is important, do we really want to eliminate a candidate based on that missed field?
According to a study evaluated by Harvard Business school: almost half of the employers have rejected candidates using an automatic screening process without measuring their potential. Ouch!
Does it mean you need to go back to the practice of traditional recruiting strategies where you have to go through piles of resumes or applications? No, just be cognizant of the screening process set up in the artificial intelligence of the software you are using to ensure candidates are not being screened out for small miscues or omissions.
Final Thoughts!
To every hiring hurdle, there’s a top-notch solution. Lurn911’s “911 Recruiting, Hiring, and Training Program” will help you focus on the right people to add to your applicant pool so you can find qualified employees and ultimately increase your staffing numbers.
To find out more how we can help, click here to schedule a conference call.