Improving firefighters' work evaluation and personnel management system: A case study of Korean fire brigade organization. This study examined the work evaluation system and promotion system currently implemented by the fire service organization.
Introduction & Research Objectives
In the next chapter 2, a literature review of existing emergency services and firefighting organizations and a review of performance management will be done together to improve the job evaluation that is the basis of the personnel system. In particular, it will analyze the promotion system and suggest improvement through case studies of firefighting organizations in the United States, Japan and Hong Kong.
Literature Review
Emergency Services and Fire Organization
In addition to the size of the firefighter recruitment, deployment and operation issues are attracting attention. What can be seen in the figure below is the typical structure of the fire headquarters.
Performence Management
They made us understand the importance of specific and measurable indicators of the so-called SMART principle. Does the indicator measure only one variable or aspect of a program, project, objective, outcome, or product?
Methodology
Work Evaluation System
Also, the items to be digitized in the Work Performance Evaluation Table in Form 1 of the same regulation were identified. In the case of general public officials, it is required to describe the particular work of the person assessed as the main priority. In addition, he examined the case of the United States, where firefighters are not public officials.
Unlike Korea, where the principle of non-disclosure applies, it is characterized by the evaluator's comment being described for each item. The government of Hong Special Administrative Region and published official documents are listed in the following sections.
Personnel Management System
Furthermore, the statistics of the Fire and Disaster Management Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan and the Fire Service Department, The. At the beginning of the analysis, the number of comments on criticism of the. It was expected that organization would increase due to the increase in the number of younger generations over the years, but the actual analysis results were reversed. In the case of pay and working conditions, they did not show any significant trends because they were given according to the information and regulations made public.
What is the main reason for wanting to be promoted? ex) expansion of the organization, more authority, more salary, pride, etc. vi). Briefly summarizing the above, the method mainly used in this study is shown in the table below.
Korean Firefighting Organizaion Review
Characteristics of Organization
Being an organization that needs to make quick decisions within a limited time and resources in an emergency situation, firefighting organizations have a strict ranking system as their characteristics (Heo, B., Park, J., & Heo, W., 2018 ). The fire commissioner is in charge of the National Fire Agency and all Korean firefighting organizations. The fire station to which public people generally have access has jurisdiction over one area and the person in charge is the fifth rank, the fire chief.
Trial promotion takes place once a year, and the highest rank that can be promoted is fire lieutenant. The special promotion is intended for a small number of people who saved the lives of their colleagues or achieved special achievements in the field.
Historical Development
A large number of new recruits have been created to address chronic manpower shortages and around 65,000 people are currently working for the fire service. The change can be seen by looking at figure 1.2 below and there was little change in the number of beneficiaries of the fire service during the period when. Although it cannot be said in a few words, because each country has its own characteristics, this number of people responsible for firefighting is estimated to be close to the level of developed countries (Yoon, J. H., & Lee, K. J., 2021).
Current Status
The number of low ones is large, and the number of high ones is small. In Korea, 66% of dispatches were EMS-related as of 2019, and in Hong Kong and Japan, the number of EMS-related calls increased significantly compared to traditional firefighting. Japan has been steadily increasing the number of rescue teams for more than 20 years, and Hong Kong's firefighting organization consists of two systems: firefighting and EMS.
The number of paramedic teams affects the number of paramedics, and the organization's expansion means a greater opportunity for firefighters to be promoted in their field. The field manpower associated with EMS under the fire station identified in Table 1.1 already accounts for 28% of the total.
Findings of the Work Evaluation System
Current System
Second, the authority of the second reviewer is too strong compared to that of the first reviewer. For example, for personnel below fire lieutenant in the fire station, the first evaluator is the head of a department and the second evaluator is the head of a fire station. The personnel evaluation and appointment of the center manager is under the authority of the fire chief, and the first evaluator cannot check the assessment of the second evaluator.
Ultimately, the system is operated in a form that has no choice but to look at the fire chief at the fire station. At the fire headquarters level, the chief of fire headquarters performs the same role.
Case Study
In the case of the police, as previously discussed in Table 3.3, the first, second and third evaluators conduct job evaluation. This developed form of narrative evaluation is stronger in the United States, not in public service organizations. The figure above is a job evaluation form used by the Orange County Fire Department in the United States, which consists of eight pages.
The evaluation criteria of the workload is 'How much work is the handling of?' such as Table 5.2, and this is something that can be replaced with fully digitized data, at least for firefighters working in the field. It is also questionable whether it is possible to measure accuracy and speed in the field.
Policy Proposal
It can be seen that the problem of the people who work and the organizational culture is bigger than the system. The hours and number of tasks according to the dispatcher-command system are reflected in the assessment of the field worker. This is more important for office workers than for field workers, and Table 3.3 shows that in the case of general civil servants, the job description, which is the objective of the evaluation, takes precedence.
After the first evaluation reflects the opinions of a number of managers, it is difficult for the fire chief of the fire station to arbitrarily change them in the second evaluation. Most importantly, this method can gain the trust of the evaluation target even if the evaluation results remain private.
Findings of the Personnel Management System
Current System
Therefore, the contents of the personnel system, which will be implemented in the future, will be aimed at promotion. Since the results of job evaluation are also reflected in promotion, it is closely related to this. In short, promotion is a key factor in personnel management of civil servants, including firefighters, and is the strongest motivation regardless of gender or age.
It takes six years for a Fire Sergeant to be promoted to Fire Lieutenant, a key position in the field by promotion based on continuous service. Therefore, efforts to find improvements in the current personnel system, especially in the promotion system, should focus on reviving the increasingly lost motivation of employees and directing their passion in a direction that suits the organization's values.
Case Study
If you look at the actual score that each element can receive, you can see that the actual level of reflection of the extra points that you can get based on your abilities is very low. This part has another problem as there is no discrimination regarding the level of demand for each language. As shown in the table below, the English standard is too easy and the other languages too difficult.
Word processing and spreadsheet and database capabilities would have been a specialty area in the past, but are currently close to the basic knowledge of civil servants. The above bonus points apply only to promotion to the relevant grade obtained under the regulations.
Policy Proposal
First, above all, it is necessary to restore confidence in the assessment of work, which occupies the largest part. In addition to what was proposed in the previous chapter, it is time for active participation of external members and serious discussions are needed on the division of promotions by field, gender and task. Second, the percentage of career scores that make up an absolute proportion should be reduced and the remaining points should be distributed as additional points.
Under the current system, it is difficult for employees who do not have the experience to get a high position on the promotion list, no matter how hard they try. Additional points for each field limited to a maximum of 0.5 points should be raised, the types of qualifications for additional points should be expanded and awarding of points should be revised.
Conclusion and Future Research
Specialized fire management organization involving local contexts - An AHP analysis of Chungnam fire management. Cooperative Measures for Optimizing Fire Service Resources by the Wide-Area Fire Management System-Focused on the 'Nara Wide-Area Fire Extinguishing Corporation' in Japan. Retrieved January 5, 2023, from https://orangecountyva.gov/DocumentCenter/View/633/238-Fire-and-EMS-Evaluation--- Company_Officer_Eval_v2013?bidId=.
An analysis of the importance in the work of fire stations and the step-by-step transformation of disaster management.
