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2002 Mid Year Report

Staffing articles from Public Safety Communications/APCO BULLETIN

9-1-1 Issues | Project (40) RETAINS

APCO Project (40) RETAINS - Working Conditions / Retirement

Responsive Efforts To Address
Integral Needs in Staffing

Working Conditions

Considering the inherently highly stressful and extremely demanding environment of a 9-1-1/PSCC, it is vitally important that the working conditions and policies of a communications center promote as positive a work environment as possible. To achieve the best working conditions possible requires that communications centers -

• Adopt appropriate staffing methodologies

• Allow for employee breaks

• Allow for employees to eat away from their workstation.

• Provide adequate initial and ongoing in-service training

• Utilize work schedules that consider agency and employee personal and family needs.

• Provide employees options for special assignments/other duties.

• Show sensitivity to the need for employees to take leave.

Retirement

Many 9-1-1/PSCC personnel leave the job after only a few years of service often because the realize that given the stressful and demanding nature of the job they can not reasonably expect to stay in the job long enough to retire from the job. To address his dimension of the staffing recruitment and retention issue requires that -

• Length of service time for retirement be reviewed in relation to the physical and emotional demands of work in a 9-1-1/PSCC.

• Retirement benefits should provide direct incentives to the recruitment and retention of communications center personnel.

• Retirement benefits should not substantially differ from that of Law Enforcement, Fire/Rescue and EMS personnel.

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