12/30/2023
Wake up folks, it's not a volunteer shortage, it's a shortage of stations/departments/memberships willing to adapt and change.
I saw this article being passed through social media in recent days: https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/facing-volunteer-shortage-maryland-fire-departments-adjust-recruitment-strategies?fbclid=IwAR2euRiIOh7K0AYMP5ifRgi1WVfMELD4ihwJdosLGqP2daVl2Bv-deQm0gI #
But here is my take...
So you're going to look at revamping your recruitment and retention strategy? That should have happened years ago and now you are behind. Here are a few points to consider moving forward.
Volunteers come in all demographics, from all backgrounds, experiences, talents and education. You cannot categorize what you want your volunteer to be or where you want them to come from, and just wait for them to show up. You have to launch aggressive recruitment campaigns based on your specific department needs and have an understanding of what the modern volunteer is composed of. You have to consider the societal shifts and influences on our applicants today.
In the legacy years of the volunteer fire service, the war years, people were different. 18-year-olds were willing to sign death sentences in the United States armed forces, to leave their families for years on end, knowing that there's a possibility that they may not come home. Our legacy members joined the department to be a part of something, to serve, to give, to provide opportunity to others. But in the modern day the members join for quite the opposite , the volunteers are looking for something to be a part of them. There is something that they are craving, they seek fulfillment from their service to help define their purpose in this world. The consistency is how rewarding volunteering can be. How that reward is applied is what seemed to have changed over time. If fulfillment cannot be found or captured? They will move on until they find something that is.
We live in a fast paced world, in a society of short attention spans. Let's face it before you read this, you were probably scrolling through post, reels, or TikToks. spending hours a week on 30 second video clips of targeted "Content" that may catch your interest and then in the next 30 seconds, move on to a completely unrelated topic. Yet somehow you're still expecting a young adult to come into your organization and to patiently wait for training opportunities, for the administration to process their applications, and for them to be accepted as part of the group. If any applicant has to wait, you have already lost them and if any applicant has to prove themselves to you can bet they will have moved on before you realize they are gone. There is truth to the rule of 3's and here are some of the basics.
You have 3 minutes to respond to an inquiry about membership, 3 days to get them to the station for the first time, 3 weeks to get oriented/enrolled in training, 3 months to reach self fulfillment for the effort that they have committed, and a 3 year plan for advancement and development.
My point is, today's volunteer does not fit the same mold as the volunteer of yesteryears. They are completely different from 30 years ago.
Departments should have been adapting to this all along but they became complacent. They were comfortable and thought the members that they had would stick with them forever, that they were untouchable and strong with egos muttering "It's the way we have always done it". Well we used to put out fires with buckets too but we've come a long way since then. Recruitment and retention should be no different.
What is perceived as a decline in volunteers is actually a decline of the number organizations willing to adapt to attract and retain volunteers. Meanwhile, call volume increases, staffing decreases, and everyone is "blindsided" and didn't see it coming. The truth is You didn't want to see it coming, you refused to change, and now you're just passing the blame.
