What Are the Key Drivers of Firefighter Engagement?

When firefighters fully engage in their work, you see it in their attitude and behavior. They are focused on doing their best and are difficult to distract, because they are committed and invested in their job. They take the initiative to ensure that things go well, because they genuinely care and dedicate much energy to their duties without the job feeling like an obligation. They persist when faced with obstacles, because being a firefighter is integral to their self-identity, expression and community role.

 

How do you help firefighters to become genuinely engaged and, most importantly, remain engaged? Three key psychological factors drive firefighter engagement: feeling uniquely valued, feeling safe and secure, and feeling supported.

 

People see engagement in others by their high motivation levels, involvement and mindfulness. In “The Attitudinal, Behavioral, and Performance Outcomes of Work Engagement: A Comparative Meta-Analysis Across the Public, Semipublic, and Private Sector” (Review of Public Personnel Administration, Dec. 2020), Rick Borst and his co-authors wrote that engagement best predicts employee high performance and translates into attitude and behavior, while merely being satisfied results in simple contentment with one’s job.

 

Engaged firefighters are absorbed in their duties and mindful of their actions with their team members and want to strive for excellence. They invest their heart, mind and physical energy in their work, because they are prideful and identify with their career. They feel energized to report for duty and don’t get discouraged by obstacles; in fact, challenges motivate them more. They can be passionate, because their work conditions make them feel psychologically valued, psychologically safe and psychologically supported.

 

Disengagement is the opposite of what is desired of firefighters. Outside of the reasons that stem from bullying and discrimination, disengagement is when firefighters physically, emotionally and mentally check out from their work. Like engagement, disengagement is easy to recognize. Disengaged firefighters tend to be unmotivated, detached and withdrawn, waiting for their shift to end. They might hide their true identity and go through the motions, meeting only the standards. They tend to avoid building relationships, to appear disconnected and to become annoyed when team members or, worse, the community, ask for help, even though it’s their duty. Disengaged firefighters hurt the whole team, the mission and public relations.

 

This factor concerns whether employees believe that they are appreciated for their uniqueness, skill or expertise that sets them apart from others. Individuality is important, because employees like to know that they add value and offer something uniquely significant that the department depends on and would miss if they no longer were employed.

 

When firefighters feel uniquely valued on duty, it helps to motivate them to become fully engaged at work. It also makes them feel challenged to contribute meaningfully with their passion or interest. Firefighters who have unique values include strong public speakers, writers, mathematicians, rope gurus, rescue divers, academics, teachers, skill experts, data geeks, fire science nerds, hazmat wizards, building construction specialists, chefs who prepare healthful meals, expert artists, fitness buffs, and those who are great communicating with children and the community.

 

To identify the team’s unique value, company officers can ask each member at the kitchen table to write their exceptional skill, gift or passion on a notecard without discussion, fold it and give it to the officer. Before they look at what the members wrote, company officers should write down on a notepad what they believe each member’s unique contributing value is. Hopefully, what the company officer believes that each team member’s exceptional value is and what the members wrote down aligns. If not, the company officer must build a stronger relationship and get to know the firefighter(s) better.

 

If team members can’t think of something that uniquely sets them apart, company officers should help them to develop a passion.

 

Company officers should have team members teach the team about their unique values and encourage them to help the department with their expertise.

 

Company officers also must ensure that each firefighter becomes formally recognized, appreciated and utilized by the department for an individual’s unique value. This exercise drives firefighter engagement and builds tighter interpersonal bonds.

 

This factor concerns whether employees feel secure and free to engage instead of constantly thinking about protecting their psychological well-being or being afraid of doing something that falls outside of the norm.

 

In my August 2022 Firehouse column, “Building Psychological Safety for Inclusive Firehouses,” I emphasized that not feeling psychologically safe can make firefighters disengage, not express ideas and not contribute their unique values. It also stifles excellence, because people will be afraid of stretching themselves to learn something new out of fear of punishment if a mishap occurs. Feeling psychologically safe at work improves overall mental health.

 

An exercise that company officers can do to identify whether team members don’t feel psychologically safe is, first, to have a heartfelt discussion and, second, collect an anonymous survey that asks whether people feel free to be themselves, feel apprehensive about taking risks and feel secure about career development. Company officers might learn something about the climate of the team/station/department. The exercise also gives minority firefighters a safe space to voice concerns.

 

When fire administrations aren’t fair with their employees and don’t have a consistent, progressive-warning disciplinary system, it sends a message to team members to disengage, to be content with good enough and to not step outside of their comfort zone. Members must know that the administration will be fair, transparent and equal, so they don’t have to waste time and energy worrying about being abruptly fired and losing their hard-earned career. Trust contributes to psychological safety, and company officers (and fire chiefs) who are harsh and noncaring can prompt decreased firefighter engagement.

 

Psychological support pertains to whether firefighters’ circumstances give them full availability to do their job well and to whether they have the correct support system to engage in their duties effectively.

 

Do the firefighters have a mental and physical support system from the department so that they can be fully engaged? What resources can administrations provide to firefighters so that those people can have the opportunity to renew and relieve outside stress?

 

When firefighters experience too much strain on the job or from outside factors, burnout can result. Burnout can influence how much firefighters become engaged at the firehouse. Therefore, administrations must help to provide support to relieve stress and constraints.

 

To be engaged in their job duties, firefighters must feel confident that when they invest themselves in achieving more, their administration will invest in supporting them. Some supportive examples are mentorships, affinity groups, employee resource groups, allowing time to study for courses, flexibility with shift-swapping, leadership training for promotions, an empathic listening ear and removing the stigma of employee assistance programs.

 

Providing psychological support to firefighters gives them more availability to engage at work and boosts their confidence that department leadership truly cares about their well-being.

 

An exercise that company officers can do with their team members is to ask them whether they would like to email or privately discuss any stress factors or constraints that might contribute to them disengaging. Firefighters might be willing to divulge things to their officer. These can include distress over finding a mentor; a lack of interpersonal connection; school scheduling conflicts; having no time to study; despair over lack of advancement; childcare strain; caring for elderly or sick parents; a death in the family; injuries; illness; addiction; PTSD; a partner breakup; or an impending divorce. All of these contribute to psychologically low availability, which leads to a lack of engagement. The administration and company officers might be able to help to relieve some stress and constraints with city support and to offer solutions, so members can be fully engaged.

 

Firefighters must be psychologically valued, psychologically safe and psychologically supported in their department to be fully engaged and invested in their careers. As Borst and his co-authors noted, engagement significantly predicts performance, which translates into attitude and behavior, while satisfaction with one’s work only results in contentment.

 

Departments that have fully engaged firefighters will provide excellence in public service, and everyone will notice it.