By Jon Musgrave
What are the optimal requirements to be a fire chief? On the surface, selection criteria would seem to be a straightforward matter, but as we all know, this is not the case, particularly given the complexity of fire service – career vs. volunteer, personnel numbers, budget size, and beyond. Interestingly, these are not the primary issues creating complexity.
Note: The following chart highlights selection processes from the What Firefighters Want in 2024 survey
A review of fire chief job postings shows that many of the requirements listed fail to accurately reflect the duties of a fire chief and use exclusionary language seemingly to prevent “outside” candidates from applying for the job. Using such limited job criteria ultimately slows the advancement of the fire service by creating localized silos where only insiders can advance, and the bigger picture mission of the organization is secondary to fortifying the silo’s walls.
Matching the qualifications listed in the job posting to the responsibilities and qualifications for a fire chief is a critical first step in addressing the many issues currently inhibiting organizational advancement – staffing, recruitment, stress and leadership distrust, to name a few.
Misaligned job duties and job realities
In a perfect world, the posted job description would reflect the actual duties of the fire chief and allow for the selection of the best candidate for the position. However, when reviewing fire chief jobs posted on various sites, it became apparent that many ads used boilerplate language taken from other ads or listed the duties in very generic terms.
Given the salaries for the positions reviewed, which ranged from $75,000 to $175,000, I would have expected to find a more organization-specific list of selection criteria aligned with the department’s mission, vision and organizational goals. Unfortunately, it also appeared that no consideration was given to detailing the department’s structure and the vast differences among how paid, volunteer, combination, rural and metropolitan departments operate. Considering the complexity of fire service organizations, generic requirements fail to aid the hiring process.
Another issue of concern was the lack of higher education requirements. Most ads listed a high school diploma or GED. The degrees above this level focused on fire science or tactical operations at the associate level. Very few required a bachelor’s degree (or higher) focused on public administration or a business-related discipline, despite the fact that the departments’ budgets ranged from $1 million to $50 million annually, and the number of personnel supervised ranged from 50 to 300 employees.
These education requirements come in stark contrast to those found in the job listings for CEO positions from private industry, where a master’s in business administration (MBA) was often required, and the lowest observed educational requirement was a bachelor’s degree in a discipline like public administration, management, finance or accounting. Perhaps even more perplexing is that the National Fire Academy requires a minimum of a bachelor’s degree for entry into the Fire Officer program, and the FESHI National Professional Development Model calls for a master’s degree for Fire Officer III and above.
Exclusionary chief officer hiring criteria
Another intriguing aspect of the job postings was that many requirements were found to be misaligned with the actual job duties, with superfluous criteria that seemed to be exclusionary. It would be easy to argue that such requirements – like those focused on discreet tactical certifications that have little impact on how one would perform in the position – were added to prevent certain individuals from applying for the job.
One example was a fire chief job post with a listed salary of $150,000 and 300 members in the department. Job requirements include an EMT certification, state-specific driver certification, and a state-specific instructor course that could have only been obtained if the candidate had spent years in the state. Furthermore, the ads indicated that the fire chief candidate should have an advanced understanding of personnel management, strategic planning, budgets, and the Fair Labor Standards Act and its application to fire service personnel.
Such misalignment between the actual duties and the listed requirements was documented multiple times during the job ad review, and the department’s size or scope did not seem to matter. Career departments were as likely, if not more likely, to include language in the requirements that severely limited participation in the selection process. Such exclusionary language stood in stark contrast to private sector ads for CEOs. No observed ad required a private sector CEO to have a basic operational certification (e.g., a forklift operator certification to be CEO of a construction company).
Adding these superfluous requirements that do not reflect the position’s duties narrows the field of potential candidates to the point that many individuals with the requisite knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) cannot apply. Specifically, the added requirements seemed to exclude retired fire service personnel, out-of-state fire service personnel, and, in general, anyone who seemed qualified but was not from the locality advertising the positions, and any potential outside private applicants were almost always ruled out.
Final thoughts
How do these factors – exclusionary language and misaligned job descriptions – impact the issues of morale, recruitment, retention and budgets facing so many fire departments? As stated by others multiple times, you do not know what you do not know. So, how can the fire service change or gain the needed KSAs to address the issues if it continues to impose superfluous requirements that prevent qualified individuals from being allowed in the process? The misalignment of job duties and the requirements for the positions reviewed would seem to stifle the power of the outside voice and allow the fire service to continue down the path of futility. Such misalignment of duties and requirements is perpetuated by the exclusionary hiring verbiage, ultimately preventing a hiring process that allows for a fair and equitable fire chief search. If the criteria were better aligned, department leadership could find more candidates with the KSAs to address the organization’s administrative, budgetary and personnel issues.
Many of the ads reviewed were misaligned with the duties to the extent that, in the future, it could even become a legal issue. Furthermore, the language in most ads is exclusionary to the point that many active fire service personnel with the qualifications to perform the primary duties listed cannot apply for the positions. Adding exclusionary language is harmful in multiple ways and on various levels, from individual applicants to departments and the fire service as a whole. By narrowing the pool of applicants, we severely limit the opportunity to find innovative individuals and embrace the power of the outside voice to transform sometimes overly insular organizations. In its current state, we are only fortifying the walls of the silos in which we operate and are doomed to repeat the process.
Additional Insights from the What Firefighters Want in 2024 Survey
About the author
Jon Musgrave, Ph.D., is a retired firefighter with more than 25 years of service. He has a doctoral degree from the University of Texas at Tyler and currently teaches at Morehead State University in Kentucky.
