Recruitment & Retention Social Media Considerations

 

We have been discussing the expanded use of social media techniques to recruit and retain fire and EMS personnel, but with any social media platform, there are a number of benefits and challenges and it is important to know them as you select a media platform for your efforts.

This starts with understanding why you need an official social media presence regardless of the size or location of your organization. There are a number of reasons to have this on-line presence that includes the following.

• The facilitating of improved open communication with your community, and building your credibility, reputation and base of contacts.
• Your members can post news, engage the public with questions to respond to, and ask them if they will join, what might engage them to join, etc.
• Your organization can broaden it visibility with the business community and enhance their role in your recruitment, retention and operations.
• You can target a broader audience, even neighboring organizations, possibly embracing regionalization of recruitment, retention and operations.
• Expanding your opportunity to engage the public and business community for non-recruitment/retention efforts such as public events, fundraising and fire/injury prevention programming.

There are some challenges as well, starting with security, legal liability and those who are not fans of your organization. Don’t be frightened or use this as an excuse. Key to the challenges include the following.

• Making sure that security is in place on the site to limit fraud, spam and virus attacks.
• Making sure there is monitoring to limit data and identity theft or compromise.
• Making sure members do not use the site to distribute illegal, objectionable, offensive materials.

Knowing these values and challenges will help you understand the effectiveness of having on on-line presence and what to include

credit: “Managing and Leveraging Workplace Use of Social Media”, SHRM website

The Value in Exploiting Social Media Opportunities

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to unprecedented expansion of electronic communication. The tools available include facebook, twitter, yelp, flickr, linkedin, pinterest, youtube, snapchat, Instagram and more. Each gives you an opportunity to send a message that can help recruit a member or retain a member.

Think about this, social media builds engagement. If you have 100 facebook followers, and those 100 share a post to 100 followers, you have reached 10,000 people. If you message a simple one of “we need members, if interested call”..with a photo of training, meeting, fundraising, etc.. you have 10,000 potential candidates.

Look at it another way. Using the same 100=10,000 contacts as above; you post that Fireman Smith is your firefighter of the year and why he or she has earned that distinction. His or her interest, value, and influence in the community has risen. He or she feels empowered and ready to work harder.

By using these techniques, you are also continuing to build relevance and social capital in the community, while supporting your existing members and recruiting new ones.

You may already have a facebook page, website, twitter or other account, but you need to be active and maintain the account – keep it current and post often.

While it is important to capitalize on the opportunity provided by social media, we must be able to control the information communicated on the site. Social Media policies that are effectively developed and approved by department officers, communicated properly to members, and require sign-offs by all members to assure understanding, will enable the organization to monitor and manage the site for proper utilization.

In today’s emergency service community, social media can be a powerful tool (or a missed opportunity). Social media and the example above provide the potential to help emergency service agencies with everything from recruitment to employment engagement to communications.

One aspect of the move to social media communication is the interest the public has in the fire department and emergency medical service operations. People are naturally inquisitive about happenings in their community and the fire and EMS system provides news and information. But, let’s fact facts; most people “follow” fire and EMS social media, because they want to know “what’s going on”?

So, let’s capitalize on this aspect!

When you have an incident, provide a brief description including photos if possible and permitted. Between incidents, send afire or injury/illness prevention message……..OR

Focus on a member’s activity. Recognizing volunteers for their service is a significant motivator for people who donate their time. This is a great opportunity to recognize and thank that member, while asking the public if they have an interest, how they, too, can become part of a community organization

These are the times where you can accomplish two key personnel management objectives:

1. Acknowledge the good performance of the members of the organization and give credit to the members who did the good work.
2. Recruit new members by constantly asking individuals to join your organization.

An effective way to accomplish this it to develop a standardized message for recruiting. The message should always have an ask – “PLEASE JOIN THE MYTOWN FIRE AND EMS DEPARMENT”. This can be accomplished via a simple tag line to place at the end of the social media post or any in conjunction with any printed document you prepare and distribute.

This constant and consistent approach to messaging with help you accomplish both retention and

recruitment at the same time.

The Firemen’s Association of the State of Pennsylvania’s SAFER Grant to enhance recruitment for Pennsylvania’s fire and EMS community was renewed. As a part of this program, a local grant opportunity is being provided. The Fireman’s Association of the State of Pennsylvania (FASP) is offering recruitment grants to fire and EMS agencies in Pennsylvania as part of a comprehensive SAFER Grant. The grant request must be in the hands of the Grant Review Committee by March 31, 2021. The Grants will be awarded by April 15,2021.

 

The grant must be for recruitment only and submitted on line at www.becomeapafirefighter.com

                                                                                      Recruiting Veterans

 

Each year over 200,000 individuals leave military service and return to the community, most from where they were born and raised. These are very talented individuals who have worked within a organized structure to achieve objectives in sometimes difficult and life threatening situations.

Learning from our forefathers, those in the military make good fire and EMS personnel, many times coming with the skills and knowledge already needed to fight fires, rescue people and perform medical services. This is a very talented pool of job seekers looking for military-like or military friendly organization to become a part of for a career or to volunteer. So, the question becomes – how do I attract them? Here are some steps:

1. Develop a recruitment strategy for veterans. Find out who is returning home, when they are returning home, etc. If there are local groups such as the VFW or American Legion (from whom you probably already have members), work them to recruit.
2. If you do have connections to current members of the armed forces (their parents, relatives or friends) advise them the fire company is a way for the returning service member to get engaged with civilians and the community, make new friends, etc.
3. Do the marketing thing. Work with local military recruiters when individuals leave the service to route them to you for engagement. Provide promotional items if necessary, to peak their interest.
4. If there are existing veteran websites in your area, they may be willing to allow you to advertise your organization.
5. Be able to translate the current military activities, language and engagement into your organization. Current members with prior military experience can help achieve this.

These are just a few tips, but here is the big one….Veterans can play a big part in your organization. Recruit them, engage them, make them welcome and they will help make your organization successful.