What Do Your People Expect?
Where will the fire service’s next generation of employees and members come from? The focus for many years has been recruiting women and minorities to reflect the community that a department serves. Today the challenge is how to attract and keep people from the newest pool of potential employees or volunteers: the members of Generation Y.
Haven‘t heard of Generation Y? They are the children of Generation X and the grandchildren of baby boomers, and they‘re the source of much research and discussion in management and human resources circles. There are many good sources of research and information on the emerging generational issues and potential conflicts within our organizations and the proactive Fire & EMS leaders will assimilate this information into their knowledge bank.
The majority of leadership and management positions in many fire service organizations today are filled by baby boomers, born 1946–1964, and even some from the Schwarzkopf generation (born before 1946). Yet the majority of employees and members are from Generation X (1965–1977) and increasingly from Generation Y (1978–1990). This is where the different expectations of the different generations come into play, especially true considering that the Schwarzkopf generation and the baby boomers have run the business for the past 20-plus years.
Where are the conflicts happening today, and where will they keep on happening in the future? The policies, procedures, work practices and organizational cultures of our departments are where we must reconcile these differing expectations. Many members of generations X and Y have differing views on work, the work environment, compensation, development, advancement opportunities and more, views that differ from the two previous generations who developed the policies and procedures. This conflict between differences in expectations will manifest itself in:
- Work schedules and attendance requirements.
- Leave policies.
- Leadership and management.
- Training and personal development.
- Work personal satisfaction.
- Seniority systems.
Fire and EMS leaders and managers need to become generational savvy, if they have not done so already, and they start having dialogue with those members of their organizations who constitute the other “tectonic plate” in their departments. Otherwise, they should not be surprised by the earthquake that will occur when those plates run into each other.
September 21st, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Is developing “generational savvy” a form of catering to the values of the “y generation?” I certainly have encountered some of these “e” (entitled) generation attitudes, but do not see them as universal. The fire service in action still remains a task oriented profession despite the changes that have evolved at the tactical and strategic levels. I believe that, irrespective of the generation, recruitment and retention of personnel with a passion for the fire service will ultimately preserve what it should be all about. I’m not certain how “who has a passion and who does not” can be objectively determined at the time of hiring, but it certainly becomes obvious after a very short period of “on the job” time.
Leave a Comment