NEW DFB RECRUITMENT CAMPAIGN

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at Centre of Message for Potential New DFB Members

An eye-catching recruitment campaign to attract potential new recruits to the Dublin Fire Brigade took place over three weeks from 28 October.

Aiming to not just increase the numbers within DFB, but to increase the diversity within those numbers, the campaign led with the slogan of “hiring a diverse team for a diverse job”.

It also conveyed the message that “it takes more than physical strength to be a re ghter/ paramedic” to highlight the many attributes that the organisation is looking for, including “compassion, communication and teamwork”.

Assistant Chief Fire O cer Greg O’Dwyer tells me that the emphasis on diversity was something DFB has been working towards for several years.

“While we would never condone any kind of positive discrimination, we certainly want to enhance the diversity of our workforce,” he explains, “and we are trying to reach out to minority groups, and in particular to females, to allow people to know that they are eligible and have the attributes to apply.

“We have a public sector duty in DFB as part of Dublin City Council, to do that. DCC was the rst local authority to apply the Public Sector Duty charter, and DFB was the rst section of DCC to take it on, and what that means is that we had to put in place an implementation plan to improve diversity, equality and inclusion across our organisation.”

Message

As part of this three-year implementation plan, one recommendation was to hold workshops at re stations, as well as forums, and surveys to discover the perceived barriers to people from minorities applying for positions in DFB.

“At one of these workshops,” A/C/F/O O’Dwyer says, “I was talking to a female re ghter who said she was part of an athletics club and when she applied for DFB and got in, her friends expressed surprise and said: ‘Oh, we never knew we could apply for that, would we be able to do that job?’ and we found that we needed to get the message across that yes, of course they can do the job, and that the biggest barrier to, for example, females joining DFB is a misconception that they wouldn’t be able for it, and therefore didn’t apply.

“Of course, anybody who applied still has to pass all the same tests – aptitude, physical and medical tests, requirements for driving license, etc – applications all have the same requirements and people need to prove a certain level of ability, but we aimed to get rid of the false impression that you have to be 6/2 and 15 stone to join DFB because there are certain aspects of the job that require other assets and abilities, such as skill, teamwork, communication and compassion.

“Normally we only get a 5% rate of female applicants, and we only have about 5% in each class of recruits and 5% in the job generally, but that would align with the percentage of females who are applying,” A/C/F/O O’Dwyer adds. “We are trying to increase the percentage of females applying, which in turn could increase the percentage of females in the job, but it must be emphasised that this wasn’t just a campaign to get more females in the job, it was to get as many eligible candidates to apply as possible by getting the message across that the job is not just for a certain pre-conceived type of person, whether male or female.

“So far, it looks like this campaign was a success in this regard, with a 20% application by female candidates this time, four times the normal application ratio. We wish them all well in the rest of the recruitment process and hope this feeds into more successful female recruits joining our ranks.”

Equality

e message of equality was equally strong, and was founded on engagement with community groups for minorities who similarly may have felt they were not eligible to apply.

“ rough working with the South Dublin City Partnership and various groups, we emphasised the fact that minorities are part of the community, and our re stations are part of the same community, so we would like them to be a part of it and to show their interest in joining,” A/C/F/O O’Dwyer tells me.

Career days were held for these groups to educate people about the job, with the partnerships working to identify candidates who show an interest and try to help them with the application process and test preparation.

e recruitment campaign itself saw DFB spreading their message of attracting a diverse group of new recruits via newspaper and radio ads, bus shelter billboards and a very active social media campaign, and this was supplemented by an Instagram-based “Ask Me Anything” session and an event hosted by former Lord Mayor Alison Gilliland in which three female re ghters explained their roles and how the job was very much open to females and other minority groups within DFB.

Campaign

e campaign features three operational re ghters – Aleric Collier, Adam McNally, and Laurie Baxter - and one retired member –Liam ‘Nobby’ Clarke – who all volunteered to take part. “ e advertising company wanted to use actors, but I felt it was important to have our own personnel as the faces of the campaign,” A/C/F/O O’Dwyer tells me.

e results of the recruitment process –which has almost 5,000 applicants, will be the acceptance of approximately 200 new recruits who will join a panel lasting two years.

“ e exact number depends on the quality of the applicants,” A/C/F/O O’Dwyer explains, “and with that panel, we will have two classes a year for the next two years to train up and join our ranks.” e top 700 applicants will have taken an in-person supervised test in December, with the top 500 interviewed in the new year before that is whittled down to the target gure of 200.

“We will also be doing a recruitment campaign for Emergency Service Controllers next year,” A/C/F/O adds, “and we will take a similar approach in terms of the message and the platforms we use, so that will also help increase the diversity we are looking for.”