On October 22-24 more than 200 attendees from public safety communications gathered for APCO’s 9-1-1 Staffing Crisis Summit in Fort Worth, Texas. Session topics varied from lessons learned from ECC leaders who have implemented retention strategies to how to prepare your ECC for the next generation 9-1-1 professional.
Tina Buneta, the director of Aurora911, started the first day by setting the stage for the two-and-a-half-day summit. She covered the progression of the dialog and perception of public safety telecommunicators. Tina said, “Early in my career, I was told by a manager that my role in public safety was to ‘be the pipe’. Information flows in from callers, and it flows out to responders, and my only job was never clogging the pipe with my decision-making or opinions. Looking back, it’s clear that this mindset was not only flawed but limiting. But the truth is, our work is far greater than that. The first and most important mindset we must unlearn is the belief that we are secondary or limited to being an extension of someone else’s mission”.
Next, a panel of ECC leaders discussed their successes and lessons learned from implementing retention strategies in their centers. On creating and shaping an agency’s culture, one panelist said, “We encourage GED and high school graduates to come work for us. This is the first adult job they will have and who is modeling adult behavior for them? If we are going to invite them in, we owe them the duty of teaching them to be professional adults in a professional setting.” The panel agreed that ECC directors need to make their employees’ lives easier so they want to come to work. That means more technology and eliminating outdated policies regarding ‘telecommunicators’ appearances.
JaCorey Claude of Omni Public Safety Group presented next on creating a culture of accountability within the ECC. His session explored how accountability is the cornerstone of a high-performing ECC team, how to identify the root causes of negative behavior and more. JaCorey stressed the importance of getting to the bottom of the staffing crisis in 9-1-1, “All industries are experiencing a staffing crisis. A fast-food staffing shortage ‘isn’t detrimental to society. ‘It’s not life-changing like it is in our industry”. He took questions from the audience throughout his presentation and fostered a collaborative environment.
Jennifer Schwartz, MLS, CPM, vice president of partner success at Versaterm Public Safety, closed the summit’s first day with a four-hour training session on how to build a resilient workforce through emotional dynamics. Her presentation highlighted the neuroscience behind emotional dynamics, which she attributes as the real cause of employee disengagement, burnout and attrition. She gave several tips for maintaining emotional and mental well-being but made it clear that “you ‘can’t be emotionally healthy if you ‘aren’t physically healthy.” Jennifer summed up the training by saying, “’We’re here to talk about staffing. ‘We’re here to talk about how people can have healthy, happy, survivable careers in public safety”.
Day two of the 9-1-1 Staffing Crisis Summit opened with a panel of leaders who have partnered with high school, post-secondary and other recruitment pathways into the 9-1-1 industry. Each panelist discussed how their ECC is working with schools and provided several great ideas for audience members to take back to their centers. A common thread among the panelists was preparing students for the workforce through a variety of methods, including sitting with call takers on the floor, taking a watered-down version of pre-employment testing so students know what to expect, mock interviews, simulated calls, teaching them how to do a resume and how to fill out an application and more. One panelist said, “Our program is more about exposure to 9-1-1 than recruitment. We are showing young people that this job exists”.
John Brady, the director of the APCO Institute, presented next on ‘APCO’s Career Instructor Program. He provided an overview of this new initiative, which is designed to help address the nationwide staffing shortages facing ECCs. The ‘program’s overarching goal is to provide prospective public safety telecommunicators with an industry-recognized credential to support their transition from the educational pipeline to the workforce.
Next, a panel discussed how to create a culture of belonging in ECCs. The panelists discussed the difference between just inviting diverse people to the table and embracing diversity and togetherness. Some strategies discussed were creating culture committees to raise awareness of different holidays, conducting surveys to learn more about the center staff and identify what was important to them, and making an effort to get to know new staff as soon as they are hired. The panelists also discussed holding employees accountable to the ECC culture, noting the importance of documentation and being equitable in holding employees accountable. The heart of the discussion was this message, “You can’t change people – you can only change the policies that enabled them to act that way.”
The day closed with an interactive presentation from Dr. Kimberly Miller, a licensed police & public safety psychologist. She provided insight into the real reasons 9-1-1 centers have been struggling for years and helped attendees see ways they can take their teams from “surviving” to “thriving”. She led the audience through several group activities and broke out each table to answer four questions:
- What are the biggest issues in your center?
- Why are these issues/behaviors happening?
- Why ‘haven’t these been fixed?
- How will you ensure it is fixed this time?
Following the tabletop discussions, attendees shared what they had discussed. Kimberly asked audience members to explain their personal challenges and addressed them as a group. Other audience members provided feedback on each ‘person’s challenges. Kimberly noted that “underlying every conflict is an unmet need”. She urged leaders to reframe their thinking, “’It’s not ‘this is how they are’, it’s ‘this is how I’m letting them be’.”
The third and final day of the 9-1-1 Staffing Crisis Summit began with a panel to discuss the challenges of leading successful culture change, the tactics used to prevent and navigate resistance, and how to prepare to lead your center successfully into a new age without fear. Questions posed to the panel included the strategies each leader uses to implement changes and those they have taken to intervene when people in their centers are change-resistant. One panelist said, “Over-communicate everything. It sounds like common sense, but ‘it’s not. We test out changes on people we call ‘early adopters,” then those people help us build policies around the change and communicate those policies to their peers”.
Next, APCO’s senior technology strategist, Megan Bixler, discussed the APCO resources available to address staffing shortages in ECCs, including various APCO standards, RETAINS toolkit, ‘APCO’s Agency Training Program Certification and resources available on the APCO website, which can be found at apcointl.org/services/staffing-retention/.
The event closed with a panel focused on the 9-1-1 professional of the future. This session talked about the changing skillsets and requirements of the next generation 9-1-1 professional. Regarding preparing staff for changes coming in the future, the panelists discussed how to address the fears often associated with change, whether that’s policy changes or technology changes. Some of the strategies discussed were bringing everyone to the table well in advance, continuing to provide updates throughout the change process, and leveraging the existing skills of people in the center such as finding leaders who can advocate for changes in a positive way.
APCO President Stephen Martini closed the event, saying, “’You’ve heard a lot of strategies this week, and it will keep you busy for ten years. I challenge you to pick two things ‘you’ve heard this week and focus on those.”
Thank you to those who joined us at the 9-1-1 Staffing Summit and to our event sponsors. We hope the presentations and conversations provided relevant and practical ideas to implement in your agencies.
