In Summary: 

• Staffing and hiring struggles have plagued public safety agencies for years and the situation is worsening

• High personnel churn and attrition rates contribute to the shortage

• Workforce optimization is the right approach for 911 officials looking to resolving 911 staffing struggles instead of simply focusing on recruitment

Staffing 911 centers has become a huge concern in the public safety communications community. In this report, we explore the concept of workforce optimization, of which training is one of four key pillars, with recruitment, hiring and retention being the others. 

These are challenging times for public safety answering points (PSAPs) across the United States. Many are dealing with funding shortfalls. Others are wondering where they will find the money to implement Next Generation 911 technology and migrate from a voice-centric environment to a data driven one. Still, others are weighing the potential advantages and disadvantages of the public safety broadband, with their short- and long-term decisions promising to have profound implications. All of these are enough to keep PSAP officials up at night. But staffing is the challenge that is arguably the most worrisome, and its one that has always been an issue for the 911 community.

When trying to resolve staffing struggles, many PSAP leaders tend to focus on what needs to be done to 'put people in seats.' In contrast, the focus should be about putting people in the right seats and keeping them there for the long haul. This whitepaper discusses the concept of workforce optimization and examines new strategies for PSAP managers to resolve this challenge once and for all.

Reading this whitepaper, you'll learn:

• External and internal factors affecting 911 hiring
• New skills that will be required for telecommunicators
• Ideas for new screening tactics
• How recruiting will change
• Best practices for hiring
• The evolution of telecommunicator training regimens

Download the whitepaper.