How can fire departments create meaningful career paths while preparing the next generation of leaders?
Danville, Virginia rebuilt its promotion ladder over two years and reclassified 81 of its 114 firefighters.
Deputy Chief Brandyn Smith and Battalion Chief Will Smotherman on how they built it and got city hall to fund it.
Danville runs a 114-person department in a city of about 44,000, and it spent 21 to 24 months building a career progression plan. Smith and Smotherman walk through the fire department succession planning behind it: the pay equity problem buried in flat ride-up pay, the new steps between firefighter and company officer, the specialty tracks that finally created interest in hazmat, and how a ten-person task team pre-sold city hall before the council presentation.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
- Why flat ride-up pay is not equal pay
- How to add real steps between firefighter and officer
- What a specialty track does for hazmat recruiting
- How to pre-sell city hall before the council vote
- What a task book is worth once money is attached
- How to spot a retirement cliff before it hits
TOPICS COVERED
- Two years and 300 hours to build the plan
- Flat ride-up pay and who it shortchanged
- Giving the younger generation a roadmap
- Task books with no incentive attached
- Building the plan for all 114 firefighters
- Cutting the six-month path to the driver’s seat
- The new steps from probationary to engineer
- Asking firefighters to declare a major
- Engineers no longer riding up on day one
- The scheduling cost of slowing promotions down
- Why nobody wanted the hazmat team
- Pre-selling payroll and city hall
- Twelve emails about college on day one
- 27 of 114 eligible to retire this year
