We failed and it shows. When it comes to marketing the fire service, we failed. It’s starting to show in the recruitment numbers nationwide. When many consider getting a job as a firefighter comparable to winning the lotto, why is no one buying the tickets? I have a few thoughts to share on this and how we can get our way out of it.
September 11, 2001 we watched as those towers fell. In that moment we lost 343 brothers in a selfless act to save as many as possible. As the dust settled at ground zero, a generation found a calling to fill positions in the fire service. At that moment the world saw our value in the job. As much as it was a tragedy to all of those lost it was the best marketing for the fire service jobs. As my generation took those roles we exclaimed “We shall not forget those 343 fallen brothers.”
We may not have forgotten those we lost but we lost the momentum their memory created. The fire service had a surge of fame and gratitude. Their memory not only created the assist firefighter grant on the national level but local support as well. That tide has settled. Now after 20 years we have transitioned from the biggest marketing promotion ever created to a vacuum.
This year marks a giant pivot in firefighter recruitment. The generation that we are trying to entice was not even born when the towers fell. We should have seen this coming. We should could have a strategy for when this time arrived and we didn’t.
Many departments have decided the lateral transfer route of taking other current firefighters might be the only means of increasing the ranks. Taking from the ranks of other departments will not solve the staffing shortage, but it will encourage short term employment. Many articles already address the concerns of reduced time an employee stays at a current employer. Are local jobs going to support the wage and benefit increases needed within this paradigm?
How could we have done better you ask? I have a few ideas that may help us moving forward. For starters, it starts with marketing. We didn’t market the job. With our own arrogance, we didn’t actively communicate with the up and coming generation. It’s a shame after all, we are great marketers. We have marketed lots of great things from radio straps, tee shirts, sandwiches and coffee. We have fallen short when it comes to marketing the job that got us here.
We greatly underestimated the new means of communication in 21st century. Many of us didn’t even have a cell phone until years after September 11, 2001 and somehow this new reality 20 years later has snuck up. Free advertising is everywhere but it’s considered by some a slippery slope. Its social media marketing. With the new generation plugged in, we have embrace it in order to survive. In my next article I’ll be talking about needed strategy to grow in awareness of the fire service.