Pat Morrison said there’s something wrong if fire departments lack diversity and fail to represent the community they serve.
Often diversity stats are acquired during the recruitment process by individual fire departments — not by federal agencies. But the lack of federal statistics doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be a top priority for fire chiefs, said Pat Morrison, assistant to the general president for education and training at the International Association of Fire Fighters. In fact, Morrison said there’s something wrong if fire departments lack diversity and fail to represent the community they serve.
“The people in your community want to see the fire department match the community they are serving,” he said.
Therefore, recruitment of qualified candidates within a diverse community should be a chief’s priority, Morrison said. Unfortunately, few are making it so even though a “diverse fire department that represents the community they are working in is the most effective fire department you can have,” he said.
Part of the problem is the misconception that the fire service isn’t women-friendly or they don’t know how their skills match up with the job.
“Some don’t know that this job exists, and it can exist for them,” Morrison said.
Physical requirements are another concern for women, specifically the candidate physical ability test (CPAT). The IAFF was active in the development of the test, Morrison said. To help women pass, many departments offer women fitness training, coaching and mentoring by seasoned women firefighters.
“We have seen it in many jurisdictions that if you do it right, you can be very successful getting people to pass the test,” he said.
In the past, physical entrance tests were lowered to pass women. Morrison said such practices were unfair to women because they felt that the standard was lowered for them to get on the job — which hurt their standing with males on the force who had to go through more vigorous testing.
“With CPAT, when women pass it, no one can say this person can’t physically do the job,” he said. “It’s not why we did it, but now everyone has an even playing ground so when they do show up, every person in that firehouse knows that this person had to go through that test. There’s no question they have the ability to do the job and weren’t given the job just because of their gender.”
Another issue with women is retention. Once they are hired, firehouse considerations and lack of promotions can deter them from making it a lifelong career. This includes the makeup of the fire station — as far as sleeping quarters — to equipment, like proper boot sizes for women, Morrison said.
Departments also have to consider women’s roles when they decide to start a family and often are forced to choose fire service or children. Morrison said chiefs need to keep in check how the department views and treats these women, as well as consider their value.
“Do they look at … ways they can accommodate those people going through the childbearing time period,” he asked. “Most of these women don’t want to leave, but are forced to make a decision.”
Recruitment of other minorities also should be a priority, Morrison said. To reach out to different groups, in addition to running an ad in a local newspaper, chiefs should develop high-school programs and firefighting camps to reach out to young people to get them interested in the occupation and ask church leaders to speak on the issue during sermons.
Chiefs also should tap into the diversity of the military, which has people of different genders, races, sexual orientations and religions, whom already have the skill set to serve.
“It’s not just a one-stop approach, it is a la carte,” he said. “You have to find out what your community makeup is and figure out where you need to go to recruit qualified candidates. Across the board, we are trying to do a better community-based hiring and working with the taxpayers to make sure all of them have a fair shot at the job.”
When it comes to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, the fire service needs to ensure they are making them feel welcomed and accepted.
“And I think that is an area we still have some challenges,” he said. “It should be the the approach of senior staff to ensure there is zero tolerance in the fire department. People have to feel they can be accepted for who they are and not be unaccepted because they have a label placed on them.”
Morrison believes the IAFF has taken the lead on diversity and would like to see more chiefs — and their organizations — make it part of their discussion.
“Labor would say this is a management issue, because they are the ones that hire,” he said. “But why are we focused on it more than them?”
Specifically, Morrison said if diversity isn’t addressed correctly, it may cause dissention within the work force. Fire-service management must ensure they are providing the necessary resources in their departments to complete a comprehensive recruitment process, not only by hiring minorities but by hiring the right firefighters.
“Why hire someone who already has a bias,” he asked. “It’s difficult to weed it out during the hiring process. But everyone has to know when they are hired that at the fire department that there is zero tolerance for bias.
Learn more about diversity in the fire service in the February print edition.
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