Personnel Board of Jefferson County Hardwired to Fight

Personnel Board of Jefferson County Hard-wired to Fight Fire: An Alternate Approach to Firefighter Selection James T. Tornabene, MA Personnel Board of Jefferson County FCW Consulting 1

Personnel Board of Jefferson County • Firefighter for 20 years • Fire Chief for 5 years • MA in I/O Psychology + 50 hrs. toward Ph. D • Personnel Board of Jefferson County since 2013 • Research interests in firefighter stress & person-job fit 2

Personnel Board of Jefferson County How do you sift through all of the applicants…… 3

Personnel Board of Jefferson County …to select the employees that want a career rather than just a paycheck and benefits? 4

Personnel Board of Jefferson County The answer is Person-Job Fit Person – Job (PJ) Fit is well documented in the research literature as having a beneficial impact on the organization. 5

Personnel Board of Jefferson County A majority of 3 – 6 year olds may want to be firefighters, but a only a small minority of adults are interested in this career choice. Only a percentage of firefighters have what it takes to become paramedics. I want to help you identify this rare group of people out of the hundreds of firefighter applicants that you receive every year. 6

Personnel Board of Jefferson County Most efforts to identify a firefighter personality have focused on common traits among all firefighters. 7

Personnel Board of Jefferson County Individual Differences among firefighters/applicants • Resilience – (Maddi & Kobasa) • Parapathic Emotions – (Apter) • Rescuer Personality – (Tornabene & Igou) • Mindset – (Tornabene) 8

Personnel Board of Jefferson County These individuals may look different to administration as compared to other firefighters. 9

Personnel Board of Jefferson County Resilience or Hardiness A pattern of personality characteristics that allows one to remain healthy during stressful life events. 10

Personnel Board of Jefferson County Parapathic Emotions Concept from Dr. Michael Apter’s book. The Dangerous Edge Anxiety and Excitement are the extremes of one emotional continuum within the context of our current frame of safety. 11

Personnel Board of Jefferson County Rescuer Personality • Personality construct that finds extreme fulfillment helping others • Willing to risk severe injury or death to do so • These people feel a calling similar to teachers and nurses • Many career firefighters work or volunteer as firefighters on their days off 12

Personnel Board of Jefferson County Mindset • Thrill Seeking • Brave • Above average morbid curiosity/fascination • Protective/Nurturing • Professionalism about training and care of equipment 13

Personnel Board of Jefferson County Study Participants • 689 firefighter applicants filled out surveys • 619 males, 58 females, 12 undisclosed • 378 White, 261 Black, 10 Hispanic, 4 Asian, 1 Indian, 35 U/O 14

Personnel Board of Jefferson County Adverse Impact (AI) Results Using the mean as the cut score; • The AI for Females was. 759; (. 80 = no AI) • The AI for Blacks was 1. 111. AI for Whites was. 905 15

Personnel Board of Jefferson County Correlation to the current initial hurdle test • 16

Personnel Board of Jefferson County Divergent Validity with a sample of law enforcement applicants • 59 law enforcement applicants filled out surveys 17

Personnel Board of Jefferson County Longitudinal Results • 1 yr. after survey 18

Personnel Board of Jefferson County Questions or Comments? 19

Personnel Board of Jefferson County FCW Consulting www. firechiefwhisperer. com 205 -230 -8130 James T. Tornabene 20