Cal-JAC recruitment team of LaSauna Pakeman and Jeanette Plascencia host Tracy Fire Eng. Laura Hernandez and L.A. Firefighter-Paramedic Alicia Castro for online "Candid Conversation" on mentoring.
Recruiting the Next Generation with Next Generation Tools
The California fire service is facing unprecedented staffing shortages at stations across the state. These challenges have been exacerbated by the last few years of lockdowns and a lack of in-person recruitment events.
With these and other challenges, recruitment efforts for the next generation of firefighters are more essential than ever.
Rising to the occasion, the California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee (Cal-JAC) is leading fire service recruitment into the digital age.
“Recruitment is no longer just a matter of posting an opening and waiting for the line of applicants,” said Yvonne de la Peña, Cal-JAC Executive Director. “Getting the candidates to fire departments requires an approach that is more connected and targets individuals that may not have considered the career.”
Key to implementing more expansive, robust and targeted recruitment has been engaging candidates on social media. Already a strong area of focus before the pandemic, social media has become a lifeline for drawing individuals into the profession.
The Cal-JAC and FCTC's Becoming a Firefighter collaboration (@BecomingaFF), uses innovative strategies to provide candidates with information and inspiration at all stages of their journey into the fire service.
For @BecomingaFF, this includes tips, resources, hiring announcements, and live online video content broadcast on multiple platforms for candidates to interact with firefighters and departments across the state.
By utilizing social media for recruitment, friends, family and mentors easily promote opportunities into the fire service by sharing hiring announcements with interested candidates using direct messaging or tagging each other in the comment sections.
Behind-the-scenes shot of “Recruitment in the Spotlight” live episode with Vacaville Fire Department. Because of staffing shortages, this was a rare “Recruitment on the Road” episode for Firestar and Cal-JAC.
Nowadays, word-of-mouth recruitment has moved online via Instagram graphics, Tweets, YouTube videos, TikToks, and Facebook posts. Each platform’s unique algorithm helps this mission by showing the content to potentially interested users. Developing high-quality content requires a keen understanding of the target audiences, and is made possible by the creative work of CPF’s Firefighters Print & Design and Cal-JAC’s Firestar Studios.
Firestar Studios produces videos for @BecomingaFF, including “Recruitment in the Spotlight,” an online talk show that allows department personnel to highlight their agency’s unique culture, answer candidate questions, share their experiences and encourage viewers to join the fire service.
'Recruitment in the Spotlight’ has proven amazingly valuable as a tool for departments to tell their story to an interested, motivated audience,” said de la Peña.
At the same time, CPF’s Firefighters Print & Design creates innovative graphics for FCTC and Cal-JAC departments during their recruitment cycles. High-performing hiring graphics reached nearly 10,000 accounts on Facebook and was shared hundreds of times across Instagram and Facebook. The “Now Hiring” link on @BecomingaFF’s Instagram page has been clicked nearly 5,000 times.
The integrated and sophisticated approach has also widened access to recruitment among groups underrepresented in the fire service. “The recruitment content on social media has helped us make real progress in connecting with underrepresented communities,” said de la Peña.
To see more of Cal-JAC’s recruitment work on the web, follow @BecomingaFF on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and subscribe on YouTube at youtube.com/becomingafirefighter. Help spread the word and support recruitment by sharing posts on your local’s social media pages and to anyone you know looking to enter the fire service.
“Now Hiring” graphic made by Firefighters Print and Design for Ventura City Fire Department. This graphic reached thousands of accounts across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
“Roadmap to Becoming a Firefighter” graphic designed by Firefighters Print and Design. Firestar Studios also developed a video series breaking down each step in detail.
A recruitment graphic for the 2023 Cal-JAC EMT Academy aims to recruit underrepresented candidates by featuring diverse, friendly faces.
Cal-JAC Career Expos
In-Person Recruiting is Back
As as it embraces the future of recruitment, Cal-JAC is leaning back into in-person recruitment to help agencies find their future firefighters.
For the first time in three years, Cal-JAC is holding Career Expos this fall at the FCTC Testing Centers in Livermore and South El Monte.
The well-received Career Expos (suspended for two years because of the pandemic) give anyone thinking about a fire service career a chance to see what the process is like, what they need to succeed and a chance to connect face-to-face with fire agencies from around the state.
For departments, it’s a chance to promote their agency as a place for promising young people to consider starting their fire service career.
The Career Expos also give candidates hands-on time with the Candidate Physical Ability Test (CPAT) – the essential firefighter physical ability test. They’ll also be able to get insight on written testing and learn from experienced frontline firefighters.
The Expos are scheduled for October 22nd in South El Monte and October 29th in Livermore. For more information, go to FCTConline.org.