DISPATCHER TRAINING
Looking Toward 2001: The Face of the Future
by Connie De Yoe
| Connie De Yoe, is owner and operator of CD Communications in Salem, Oregon, providing training and training aids for emergency service agencies. It promotes motivational, healthy, and positive programs in the pursuit of excellence and teamwork. The company provides training for citizens academies, pre-employment, new-hire, continued education and promotional opportunities. Contact 800-249-9179. |
| Illustrations: (select thumbnail to view detail image) |
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This article can be found on
page 44 of the Sept/Oct 1997
issue of 9-1-1 Magazine.
Forecasting the future is an exciting game of pretend, of "what if." But, if time has taught us anything, it's that we are working with less to provide for more, and it's rather doubtful communications agencies will be showered with unlimited cash reserves in the near future; therefore, there will be a need for creative, critical thinking and pro-active training.
Qualified Workforce
With a strong economy, the hiring pool appears to be drying up for qualified candidates of employment. Agencies are going to have to market to high school seniors, local community colleges, and head-hunt other professional fields.
It is essential for agencies to train new hires by identifying their learning styles. Trainers will need to focus on why learning stops, and how to help students re-open the door to learning.
Trainers need to be taught how to recognize their students' cognitive abilities; listening skills, memory, how the student processes information. Then diagnose the areas of concern; articulate how to make changes; provide objective performance evaluations, and always get feedback.
Agencies may want to monitor burnout and look into options to provide incentives for employees to stay. Incentives, in the long run, could be less costly than having to rehire and go through the retraining phase again.
Demographic Profile Of Your Community
People today expect to be catered to and understood, regardless of their infirmities, race, ethnicity, gender and age.
Baby Boomers are moving America's population age base. The oldest of the Boomer age just turned 50; therefore, by the year 2007 there will be more people over the age 60 than are in their teens. With an aging population, there will be more need to consider medical issues. Agencies may want to review their medical protocol, policies and procedures. Consider options for non-emergency transports. Dispatchers may be using their pre-arrival medical cards more often. Training may need to be reviewed to ensure the appropriate response conditions meet the needs of the community.
Minority Population has been migrating to more livable and economic based communities. Cultural awareness/sensitivity training may need to be reviewed. Language banks may be used more frequently, so training for handling interpretive calls may be in order. Becoming bilingual will probably be a requirement in future hiring.
New Crimes/Criminal Activity
As technology advances, so does the criminal mind. There are new types of crimes being committed with computers and dispatchers will have to become familiar with new laws and remedies for crimes. As legislation ends, new laws go on the books and it is important for dispatchers to keep abreast of the changes.
More Teamwork Participation
As communications centers have evolved from Jurassic systems of massive mainframe operations to P/C application CAD programs, it has taken the work to a higher level of sophistication. The need to establish a team concept has become apparent for a more efficient operation. There is also an urgency to develop resource management training to hone collaborative skills.
The focus is to develop teamwork in training, understanding the inherent limitations of human performance, cognitive and organizational psychology and focus on how people interact with machines.
Management can no longer look at employees as a Pandora's Box, afraid to hear them. We need to see their value, their skills and knowledge. Management should take a new look at their employees with fresh eyes, shake off that obsolete view of losing control. We need to empower employees to have ownership in their work, allow them to participate in the decision making process. They are professionals, and they want to continue to provide good service to their community.
One might inquire: before we sink money, time and efforts into this type of program; should we ask whether the training achieves it's stated goals of reducing errors and improving effectiveness? Results have shown there has been an increase in willingness to cooperate with team mates; and after a while there were less errors made.
Training Equipment In The New Millennia
What's in our future as training materials move from the Jurassic Age to The Techno-Trends of the 2000's?
Training simulators will offer Virtual Reality training on specific equipment. Everyday dispatch scenarios can be enhanced with three-dimensional screens allowing dispatchers to view fire equipment rolling up to the scene of a structure fire, or police responding to a hostage call, while they dispatch the simulated event.
TDD text-to-speech capabilities may provide communication with people who have been silenced in the past.
Increasingly powerful and integrated PSAP equipment will require increasing training in its operation for veterans as well as new-hires. Retraining long-time dispatchers in utilizing new equipment may offer its own challenges.
Team-Oriented Training
To establish a controlled setting and help develop a successful team program, here are a few considerations:
Conduct organizational analysis to identity procedures that might impede training. Make surveys, questionnaires, observation of work behavior. (This is a proactive program; to be successful, people will have to buy into it.)
Be aware of group dynamics. Select teams based on personality, knowledge, skills, seniority. Insure each person has an equal part in the team sharing.
Training should help each team member communicate concerns more clearly. Impress upon the group that computers and similar equipment are only as good as they have been programmed or installed. Human beings may need to override the system occasionally. We have not yielded our decision-making power to machines.
Design role-playing activities that would require team participation; i.e., natural disaster drills, hostage, hazmat calls, etc. Follow them with role-playing/simulator debriefing and critique.
Provide emotional support to help team members through overwhelming stressful times.
Communication and Decision-Making: Determine how each team communicates with one another; how effective are they in conveying their concern and/or point of view.
Conflict Resolution: where there is disagreement in a process, how effective is the team in getting problems resolved and getting back on track to problem-solving?
In all areas - promote a team atmosphere. Motivate one another and support each other.
