Professional Recognition

The Benefits of Professional Recognition
6/3/2013

By Alan E Perry

Any organization -Fire or EMS -career, paid or combination should value the life experiences, training and professional experience of its members if the organization is to get the most from them and foster a healthy work environment. Most other professionals within the medical community and other major occupations engage in the practice of professional recognition, a principle that acknowledges the qualifications and experience of the individual regardless of where these assets were aquired. This recognition carries across all regional, state and governmental boundaries allowing the employee greater choice and mobility in pursuing their career goals, and permitting the organization to find the best candidate for its vacancies. Fire and EMS organizations appear to ignore the obvious benefits of this practice and compel their members to start all over every time they begin a new job, senior officer positions in large departments are one possible exception.

As an example; consider an electrician, a physician, or a lawyer. Any one of these occupations can simply leave one job, go to the next and expect to be fully recognized and compensated for their experience and training. A firefighter, EMT or Paramedic on the other hand can expect to be treated like a new employee, repeat basic training programs and start all-over again at the bottom of the organization. Experience, training and qualifications are frequently disregarded.

If we are going to progress as public safety professionals we need to adopt the concept of professional recognition. The practice of granting opportunity based on time-in-service instead of qualifications is self-defeating. It denies professionals access to good jobs they are qualified for and it can prevent the organization from putting the most qualified individual in a position. Progressive organizations will make all of their opportunities competitive, based on the right combination of experience, training, education and competence regardless of where these assets are obtained.

How many unhappy employees do we retain by locking them into seniority based systems where they know that they cannot leave without fear of losing everything, even though they may have grown to dislike the job? What does this do to morale, our performance and public perception? Does our seniority based system truly produce the most qualified and appropriate filling of vacancies? Would a more mobile workforce create organizations with better dynamics and performance? Just a few questions we need to think about.

I know this flies in the face of the organizational culture predominate in our industry for the last century. I see hints of change everywhere, especially in small and new fire departments that do not have the impediment of tradition to hold them down. Time will of course eventually bring about change. I only question why we have to wait.

Be Safe,

Alan