Staffing, Recruiting, and Retaining Volunteer Firefighters: Best-Practice Recommendations for the City of Victoria's Volunteer Fire Department

Abstract

This project was completed as part of a year-long partnership between Carver County and the University of Minnesota’s Resilient Communities Project (http://www.rcp.umn.edu). Victoria, a city in Carver County, has seen steady population growth over the past few years and is projected to continue to grow rapidly over the next several decades. To ensure resources and capacity can accommodate future growth, the City wanted to determine the long-term sustainability of its current paid on-call (volunteer) fire-fighter model and strategies for recruiting and retaining firefighters. In collaboration with project lead Laurie Hokkanen from the City of Victoria, a group of students in PSY 5707: Personnel Psychology, reviewed the City of Victoria’s firefighter staffing model and identified various options for meeting increased service needs brought on by population growth, including stronger recruitment and retention strategies. A final report and poster from the project are available.