Introduction

In developing this Recruitment Hub, we recognise that some of the key problems relating to the recruitment and selection of a Wholetime Firefighter will require a local resolution to be effective. With this in mind, we have developed this Recruitment Hub for you to use as a resource for ideas and best practice. We understand that not all fire and rescue services have the same resources available to them, and so a range of case studies and examples have been provided to reflect this.

Templates, case studies, guidance documents, processes, policies, and other resources have all been provided to help you as you develop your own approach, confident that it will be based on national good practice from across the sector.

We hope and anticipate that longer-term, the benefits of our Recruitment Hub will:

Provide support to fire and rescue services who are resource-constrained and do not have the resources to develop their own tools.
Promote and facilitate a culture of sharing ideas from across the sector to support the ongoing development and maintenance of the resources in the Recruitment Hub.
Support good practice in how and where to apply reasonable adjustments.
Support the elimination of bias and discrimination in any recruitment and selection processes.
Reduce workloads for fire and rescue services in their selection and recruitment practices.
Reduce any duplication of work/effort/costs for recruitment and selection across the fire and rescue service sector.
Support regional and joined-up recruitment between fire and rescue services.
Help address the diversity issues identified, particularly within operational staffing.
Facilitate the collective commissioning of new tools to save costs through economies of scale, and maximise effectiveness through shared learning.
Supporting a consistency of approach across the sector for all candidates applying to a fire and rescue service.

The focus of the Recruitment Hub is for the recruitment of Wholetime Firefighters and the Recruitment Hub structure includes an Introduction, four steps and an Index. Where appropriate we have also included some content that is specific to other roles such as Control, Green Book or On-call which can easily be located in the Recruitment Hub by using the Index.

The four steps are as follows:

• Step One – Prepare to recruit
• Step Two – Application and candidate review
• Step Three – The selection process
• Step Four – Hiring

Links: Each step will contain links to website content and/or documents. These may include PDFs or modifiable documents/templates for your own use,  case studies etc.  Where possible, we have also provided links with our other NFCC products online.

Index: We have provided an Index for you to facilitate the easy location of resources in the Recruitment Hub for specific topic areas.

The Recruitment Hub has been designed to work alongside our other NFCC products, and links to these resources are provided throughout.

The Recruitment Hub content itself is underpinned by the NFCC Leadership Framework to recognise the importance of commencing a firefighter’s career pathway based on these fundamental principles. A Firefighter will, therefore, be able to begin, develop, and progress through their career, from a firm foundation of these behaviours and values, whilst developing their skills, knowledge and behaviours. It is hoped that this will result in a cohesive and beneficial experience throughout their career.

In adopting this approach, the Recruitment Hub will support the six key areas for improvement in the NFCC’s People Strategy:

• Strengthen leadership and line management to support organisational change and improved community outcomes
• Develop cultural values and behaviours which make the fire and rescue service a great place to work for all our people
• Develop ways of working that can respond to service needs
• Provide excellent training and education to ensure continuous improvement of services to the public
• Continue to support the health and well-being of all our people
• Strengthen our ability to provide good service by diversifying our staff and creating a fair and equal place to work

Some resources, such as the interview question spreadsheet provided later in the Recruitment Hub, have been provided in an Excel format so that they can be filtered on the Leadership Framework quadrants for interviewing.

To further embed ‘Leading Yourself’, we have created a PDF that takes this section from each of the four quadrants and combines them into one document for potential new recruits or when commencing their career with you.

• NFCC Leadership Framework
• Firefighter – Leading Yourself

As a good starting point to assist you in identifying any areas for change, please take a look at the NFCC Maturity Models and Workforce Good Practice Framework which was developed in conjunction with fire and rescue services, and based on the principles of the Deloitte methodology.

The models and framework will help you to assess your current practice, using the self-assessment tool to determine your current maturity level against Recruitment. The other areas of the model are Leadership Development, Learning Organisation, Blended Learning, Performance Management, Employee Recognition, Talent Management, EDI, Wellbeing and HR Analytics.

• NFCC Maturity Models and Workforce Good Practice Framework