Fire Service Administration - Report Example

Fire service administration Introduction For any organization to determine whether their goals have been fulfilled and to set ahead a clear road to success there has to be a strategy of measuring their performance. For the effectiveness of this strategy, performance measurement should be an exercise that is carried out right from the top to the bottom and not only concentrate on those employees who are on higher ranks. Merkenzie describes performance management as a process that is meant in establishing a common understanding about what and how something should be achieved (pg. 200). Its main aim is to attract success by managing people. Supervisors as well as employees need to have continuous discussions about their behaviors, skills as well as abilities in order to succeed. There are five behaviors that have been found to have an impact on performance which are observed to cut across all organizations. These behaviors include; customer service, problem-solving, observing work hours, leadership and performance. These strategies can be used in evaluating performance, Oregon Fire department not being an exception. Description and analysis Narrowing my analysis to Oregon fire department, performance measures are normally organized and measured in common evaluation term groupings. Wilkerson states that the fire department has four response types; fire calls, EMS calls, service calls and also Hazmat calls. The department uses these calls in order to evaluate the performance and success in comparison to other departments. For effective performance management, the department has set apart three sectors that work together in improving performance as well as analyzing it. The performance management process consists of the process of planning, training/coaching and reviews. In panning, the supervisor normally explains to the employees what performance management process entails in order for them to have a good understanding of it. He/she also discusses job requirements and roles as well as answering the questions that the employees may be having. The supervisor here also works to come up with consensus on setting up of performance standards. This process also entails the supervisor filling a form that is unique to their fire department which is later on used as a basis for their evaluation. In this stage, accountabilities are also set which need to be SMART. This is to say that they are specific in nature, measurable, attainable, relevant and also time-bound. Training: the department also has a full-time training officer. In the training process they have in-service training that is responsible for training on new techniques and ongoing training that is done in order to meet the requirements of the state and also the federal agencies. It has part-time fire fighters living in each neighborhood and responding from home, work or leisure. During the training session, the supervisor helps the employees to improve their performance. Coaching is carried out on an ongoing basis in order to meet the standards and also to make goals that were set during the planning phase to be pursued. The supervisor tries to get feedback from the employees in order to reinforce what was discussed. The employees are also given a forum to raise any problems early so that they are tackled. As part of the management process, the management also has review people around who are responsible in looking back and determining which goals have been achieved and which ones have not basing it on their performance standards. The department conducts mid-year reviews that normally come in the middle of the year as well as end year reviews. Here, the supervisor and the Oregon employees look back at their behaviors and accountabilities to see how well the job was done. Final evaluation is also done by both parties completing the performance management form. The main reason for doing reviews is to evaluate success, failures as well as the obstacle that the fire department has faced. The end-year review involves recording of ratings which again takes the cycle back to the planning stage. Why use performance evaluation According to the Oregon department, it began to use evaluation because of the many fires that were reported and due to the claims from the community that there was slow response to the fires that emerged in the state (pg. 253). The purpose of measuring performance was due to the need to improve on these areas as well as to achieve its goals. There was also the need of evaluating, motivating employees through appraisals, promoting, control and learning. Its aim was to give credit where it was due and also to help those employees who were not performing well to raise u the ladder through various motivations. It uses goal statement in evaluating performance. The goal statement is qualitative in nature and is meant to generalize the intended outcome. The department then identifies the actions to take in order to achieve a certain goal. It uses fire and emergency self-assessment manual which provides a way of assessment. In performance evaluation, the department also compares itself with other departments majorly on the issue of the size. They also use other factors such as the types of hazards in the area, geography of the land, budget constrains in the city and the demographics of the people living there. It normally uses benchmarking which is normally concerned with comparing performance to a standard performance. The department uses the national fire incident reporting system by the United States fire administration. They use their databases for the sake of maintaining incident records and analyzing their own performance. Various factors such as how quick the fire was reported, presence of alarms in a building that has been caught by fire and the time that the staff was engaged and how they controlled the fire are also very vital in establishing performance. The department does not involve itself in noting a fire but how quick someone saw the fire and reported it. It uses performance standards through various ratings such as quality and change in behavior which is customized. In my research, I realized that there is training that is given to those people who evaluate the whole process though on a minimal basis. The employees view the whole process with mixed feelings. Some view it as a way that ties them down and makes them lack some sort of freedom claiming that the process is normally applied to those people in the lower ranks while those in the higher rank go free even when they do not meet the required performance. However, other employees view it as a process that is necessary and very neutral in terms of who is to be given promotion and who is not. There some weakness in that other employees view that process to have flaws whereby there is no equality. That there is no equality in the performance appraisals in that few employees get rewarded while others who seem to have improved in their performance do not get rewarded. In my analysis, I also can conclude that the goals, strategies and objectives were not well communicated down the hierarchy. Supervisors had no consistencies in working with the employees and setting clear and definite goals ahead of them. Another weakness that I discovered was that training on an ongoing basis was done in order to meet the standards that were set by the state and not those that rose from within. it also has one training officer which is an hindrance to effective training. It could have been effective in managing people and obtaining goals if training was incorporated into the mission statement and not arise from outside. In the whole process however we can see the process having a lot of strengths that subdue the weaknesses I that it contained the main components that were necessary. It also tended to involve employees even if not all of them were involved in the process of management appraisal. Conclusion In conclusion, it is the mission of the fire service to help the public in protection of life and also property through minimizing the impact that fire brings with it, medical emergencies other disasters that may cause harm to the community. It is therefore a necessity that there is proper planning, preparedness, training and evaluation in order to curb the effect of fire and related hazards. With performance management and evaluation, services given to the community are improved which leads to the overall attaining of the set goals. Works cited Fire program. Salem, Oregon Dept. of Forestry, 2006. Print. Fire safety in Oregon schools. Salem, Ore.: R. Putnam, Superintendent of Public Instruction, 2010. Print. MacKenzie, Iain S.. Performance appraisal systems for organizational success. Emmitsburg, MD: National Fire Academy, 2000. Print. Wilkerson, John L. History of the Salem, Oregon Fire Department: the volunteer era, 1857 to 1893. Salem, Ore.: Old Time Bottle Pub. Co.,2005. Print. Read More