State of Emergency

Bob Smith of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials about the staffing crisis in the emergency response industry and how recognition could help to turn the tide.

“The public safety communications industry is experiencing a 19 percent turnover rate”
-Bob Smith

Some of the most significant challenges we’re currently facing in the public safety communication industry aren’t technological, but human. The biggest thing right now is bodies in seats. We have a tremendous staffing and retention crisis in public safety communications. In the United States, the shortage of nurses and teachers is fairly well known. That we don’t have enough nurses and teachers to go around is a national crisis that just about everyone’s familiar with. Ironically enough, this shortage is factoring in about 15 to 17 percent turnover rate. By contrast, the public safety communications industry is experiencing a 19 percent turnover rate. We are in an even greater crisis, but fewer people know about it. The problem with that is that there are Public Safety Answering Point’s (PSAP) across the country and around the world training people that may not stay with them more than a year or two. A tremendous amount of time and money can be invested in this person just to see them turn around and leave. But more importantly, the greater impact is you’ll have PSAP’s that have an entire staff with less than two to three years’ experience in their position.

There are many reasons why these staffing problems are happening. Obviously you have the typical shift work issues, working midnight shifts, weekends, holidays, being away from your family, and all of the things that come with shift work. But situation of understaffing makes these problems even worse. You have a tremendous amount of overtime because the fewer people on staff, the greater the need for overtime. You have people that working a tremendous amount of overtime to compensate for the fact that they are so shorthanded, so it’s a pretty vicious cycle. Everyone is short staffed so the people they do have start to burn out faster. And then they leave.

There’s also the inherent nature of the job, There is a huge amount of stress that comes with dealing with people for up to 12 hours a day, who are in life or death situations and knowing that a single number key pushed wrong or one simple word misstated on the radio could potentially be an error that could cost someone their life. There’s a high amount of stress involved in that, and there’s stress just from answering the phone. Nobody ever calls 911 because they’re having a good day.

There are also issues with the industry overall. Public safety communications personnel are typically very low paid. The salaries are not commensurate with the workload. They are not very well respected in the public safety industry because for years the telecommunicators were simply secretaries, answering the phone, taking messages and passing it on.

We’re starting to overcome that prejudice with certain levels of certifications and standards and professionalism within the industry, but there’s still a hint of that around, Beyond that, 911, 999, 112, wherever you are in the world, the problem behind it is that the public safety communications component of public safety is transparent to the end user. We don’t have the big red fire trucks and the flashing blue lights. We don’t have the medical bags and the kits. You never see us. You talk to us, but the people that actually come out help you are the people you identify with. We’re completely transparent, so there’s obviously a public education campaign there as well. All of that factors into a high turnover rate, the inability to get those highly effective people and to keep those people once you’ve got them.

There are a few things that we can do to improve the situation. The easiest is just raising salary levels, but that’s not always feasible, especially in the current economic climate, but there are a lot of things that are much simpler and some that are relatively cost effective and some that are even free. For example, little things like employee recognition. Every year in April, we run National Public Safety Telecommunications Week. This event is recognized by most states and has received presidential and congressional declarations. It’s just about taking time to appreciate public safety telecommunicators. As well as making people in the job feel respected, it publicizes that there this entire industry of highly dedicated, professional public safety communications personnel who are there day in, day out, to protect you whether you’re calling them with an emergency or you’re a police officer making a traffic stop. Things like that cost next to nothing but they can have a big impact on morale.

Beyond that, it’s reaching out and explaining to people exactly what the 911 telecommunicator does so that it becomes a more attractive career option. You would be hard pressed to find a kid anywhere in the country that says, “When I grow up I want to be a 911 dispatcher.” Educating them to what we do and how we do it is really important. Then we get more qualified candidates applying for these positions so that we can rely on them to make it through training, become an effective part of the staff and ultimately stay with us for a decent amount of time.

Bob Smith is Director of Strategic Development for the Association of Public Safety Communication Officials.

APCO International is the world's largest organization dedicated to public safety communications. Founded in 1935 APCO now has more than 15,000 members who rely on APCO for their professional needs - from examining standards and issues to providing education, products and services. APCO is a member driven association of communications professionals that provides leadership; influences public safety communications decisions of government and industry; promotes professional development; and, fosters the development and use of technology for the benefit of the public.

You just keep me hanging on
In contrast to the public safety communication industry, some employers are managing to hold onto their staff.

Company  |  Turnover rate (%)
S.C. Johnson & Son  |  2
Herman Miller  |  3
Alcon Laboratories  |  3
Cisco Systems  |  4
Southern Ohio Medical Center  |  4
General Mills  |  4
Devon Energy  |  4
SAS Institute  |  5
W. L. Gore & Associates  |  5
AstraZeneca  |  5