Fact #2:
Many fire service organizations have not developed their people to replace others who are retiring.

Fact #3:
Many fire officer assessment centers don't include validated methods to assess the people skills competencies ("soft skills") that are required for a person to be an effective leader.

Effective performance management, leadership development and succession planning require awareness and measurement of soft skills job competencies. Technical competencies, or hard skills, like fire suppression and rendering aid are easier to assess because they are objective and measurable (quantitative). Interpersonal competencies, or soft skills, are more difficult to assess because they are subjective (qualitative). They are based upon observation and outcomes, positive or negative, of human interactions.

Growing demands for "effective" leaders in the fire service and emphasis on emotional intelligence factors in fire departments suggest, even mandate for some, a method to assess the emotional effectiveness required for the fire officer job. Data collected from such a process can be included in job descriptions, performance reviews, 360-degree assessments and employee performance coaching. Our Five Steps to Fire Officer Development™ process helps fire service organizations create job competency benchmarks, test individuals against the benchmarks, implement performance management standards and create succession planning models.  Our Five Steps™ program helps fire service organizations:

1. Identify the specific competencies (benchmarks) that your agency wants for each job from Firefighter through Chief (includes our Competency Based Position Analysis)
2. Each program participant completes an online self-assessment to determine their level of competency mastery and their individual skills development needs (includes our Personal Soft Skills Indicator and our Team Feedback Report™)
3. Career Planning and Commitment
4. Creating a Soft Skill Development Plan 
5. Evaluating and Measuring Development

Competency Based Position Analysis 

Several people in your department or district access our website with unique passwords and answer a comprehensive competency questionnaire about a specific job.  Their answers are electronically aggregated and scored across a field of 23 soft skills competencies which are reported in descending order.  Each competency is defined, and the observable behaviors that make up each competency are detailed. Included are behaviorally-anchored structured interview questions correlated to each of the top competencies. Click here to see a sample report.

The Personal Soft Skills Indicator

The Personal Soft Skills Indicator is a self-assessment designed to assess an individual's mastery of the 23 soft skills. The Personal Soft Skills Indicator is recommended for Employee Development and Performance Management. Click here to see a sample report.

The Team Feedback Report™

Developing individuals and those preparing for assessment centers need to know how their actions are perceived by others in their work environment.  The Team Feedback Report™ provides valuable insights about the developing individual's soft skill strengths and areas where opportunities for further development may be indicated.  Data is collected from the developing Individual, his/her immediate supervisor, and anonymously from his/her peers and, if any, anonymously from his/her direct reports. This is a 360° feedback assessment.

Our Competency Based Performance Management Model

Our Five Steps to Fire Officer Development™ performance management model is a fully integrated process designed to define competency benchmarks for jobs in your organization, then assess and compare individual soft skills to those benchmarks to identify and implement a personal soft skill development strategy.  We invite your inquiry.

Become a Five Steps Certified Facilitator