Combating The 911 Staffing Crisis

Over the last few years, the emergency dispatch profession has been impacted by an overwhelming trend to leave the occupation. The empty chairs at the console are a sobering struggle, especially for those overwhelmed and overworked stalwarts continuing forward without enough human resources to do so.

According to a 2023 survey conducted in the United States by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch^® (IAED^™) and the National Association of State 9-1-1 Administrators (NASNA), 36% of the 774 participating comm. centers reported vacancy rates that exceeded 30% of staffing levels, with 166 of those centers reporting rates above 40%.¹

Some consider this nationwide loss of emergency dispatchers to be a byproduct of a notable movement that began near the end of the Covid-19 pandemic (2021–2022), coined “The Great Resignation,” which marked a sudden spike in workers leaving their jobs in the United States. The timing of this movement seemed to indicate a connection to pandemic struggles, though it’s unclear whether potential burnout, health concerns, childcare issues, and/or changing attitudes toward work were the cause.²

Perhaps more critical than determining the original cause of this staffing issue is mitigating the effect of emergency dispatchers walking away from answering the public’s call for help.

“When there are more incoming demands on the 911 center than there are trained, qualified personnel to respond, public safety is put at risk,” said Ty Wooten, IAED Director of Governmental Affairs.³

More demand heaved onto the shoulders of a smaller staff means longer wait times for answering emergency calls, delaying assistance during timely life-and-death circumstances, and injuring the public’s trust in the promise of help on the way.

Unfortunately, a staffing problem of this size and consequence is not easily solved. An overworked staff taking on the additional load of continually training new hires can lead to a disastrous cycle of more burnout.

This article provides ideas to disrupt this cycle and help invest in a full staff of the next generation of emergency dispatchers.

Community as a source of recruitment

Alyshia Johnson at Charleston County Consolidated Emergency Communications Center (South Carolina, USA) has found rewarding results with a different approach to inspire interest in the emergency dispatch profession. As Student Leadership and Intern Program Administrator of their Student Leadership and Internship Program (SLIP), she has spent the last three summers introducing a group of 12–14 incoming high school seniors on 911 calltaking and basic skills for entrance into the workforce.

Interested students from nearby high schools submit their school transcripts and resume, take a typing test, and interview for 30 minutes to be considered for the paid internship. Generally, they aim to accept all qualified applicants.

After their interns are selected, parents and families are invited to Orientation Day with the SLIP leadership to present the experiences the interns will encounter. Their peer support coordinator helps present the deeper, heavier sides of the professions the interns are exploring, though most interns feel prepared to see the real-world aspects.

During the four- to six-week course, Johnson teaches practical skills such as workplace dependability, simple budgeting, and adult life skills. More specifically, she provides exposure to EMS (controlling bleeding, reading vital signs, CPR certification), training with the fire department (putting on turnout gear and using fire equipment), and ETC (Emergency Telecommunicator) certification. The interns use their training to begin answering alarm company calls with a headset, operating in the backup center, using CAD, and going on ride-alongs with police, fire, and EMS professionals (a favorite aspect for most interns).

Interns are also encouraged to participate in service projects like Habitat for Humanity and making blankets for a children’s hospital, fulfilling an overarching goal of giving back to the community.

Internship impact

Already, Charleston County has celebrated the successful hire of their first employee to graduate from the internship program: Mi’Anna Anderson recently completed her first year as a full-time Emergency Dispatcher, a role she honestly enjoys.

“It was amazing to see her personal growth and confidence,” Johnson said. “I was blown away. It has been a fulfilling aspect to see these students grow into adults.”

Obviously, it is a benefit if the SLIP interns are successfully onboarded as full-time employees in the comm. center after graduation. However, Johnson feels there are other fulfilling ways to measure their impact on the community in terms of building confidence and exposure to 911 in the rising generation.

“There is already a tension or disconnect from public safety with the general population,” Johnson said. “We want to bridge that gap and give them positive exposure.”

Many of the SLIP interns plan to follow a collegiate pathway, some planning to practice medicine. One student attended the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, USA) and found that the internship on her college application resulted in the nearby dispatch center reaching out to see if she was interested in a job to help pay for her schooling. One student went into the EMT program after graduation and joined Charleston County EMS. Another student completed the Firefighting Academy and joined the Charleston City Fire Department.

“It warms my heart to see our interns be successful, whether they end up in public safety or not,” Johnson said. “I never thought about 911 as a career option when I was growing up, but this gives graduating students the chance to explore that field, understand it, and bring that back to their own community.”

There is also a trickle-down effect of inspiring younger siblings of interns, feeding a pool of prospective students who may (and sometimes do) follow the same path. No one can know where that interest may lead, but it is a source of a growing community.

Data-driven hiring and training revolution

Training at Sacramento (California, USA) Regional Fire/EMS Communications Center (SRFECC) was experiencing the same challenges as many other centers, putting forth a larger input of resources than the resulting output of needed staff. Trainers were burning out, recruit retention was low, and call answering times were affected. Supervisor Casey Quintard could see they needed a change.

Quintard was inspired by the adage “if the plan doesn’t work, change the plan, not the goal,” as he examined some of the issues that were contributing to the lackluster results of their current training program. The SRFECC team adopted a new hiring strategy of offering conditional job offers in bulk (to six to 10 people at a time) and training multiple recruits in a pod setting.

Dispatch Training Supervisor Yvonne Vazquez explained how these methods aren’t seen positively by everyone in the industry, and that’s OK. She understands that trying a new process takes a leap of faith, as well as buy-in. “You have to listen to your trainers and be honest with what is working and what is not working,” Vazquez said. “People didn’t want to train anymore. They were exhausted; something had to change.”

After doing it one way for many years and yielding the same results, they were willing to try a new method and let data drive the decision of whether it was successful.

The first task was to set up a “bullpen,” an area off the main dispatch floor where multiple recruits could sit and observe real-time calls on a large TV screen while working with the same trainer. This concept not only provided equal exposure for the pod members but also allowed them to ask questions and collaborate to enhance their understanding.

Interestingly, pod training helped reveal individuals who couldn’t keep up with their peers when given the same opportunities, which made the process easier by establishing that it wasn’t the right fit for them. The main benefit, however, was building a cohort that improved the culture, where trainees could rely on a support group to compare notes, create relationships, and bond, even outside the workplace.

When launching this new training system, SRFECC offered a higher pay incentive to pod trainers to opt in, though no one was mandated to train. Perhaps the best part of using pod training was that one trainer could teach three to four people, allowing other staff members to take a break from continual training and feel refreshed.

“We want people to be excited about training and collaborate with other trainers to see what is working,” Vazquez said. “We try to acknowledge and improve the culture from different angles. For instance, we cannot lower the expectations our trainees need to meet, but we can give them more time to grow, provide additional training, and grant more opportunities for success, which benefits everyone.”

Understanding trainees

Sometimes small tweaks in the hiring process can also be beneficial. “We found that we were losing people because background checks were taking so long to come back,” Quintard said. “Now we rely on a preliminary check and allow our recruits to get settled into learning our system in a classroom environment while the longer background check is underway. We show we are invested in them sooner.”

The balance of work and personal life is also important to the younger generation of workers who want to maintain a healthy mindset. “We want to send the message that we’re glad you’re here,” Vazquez said. “We changed how we wrote job titles when we placed an ad, where we posted them, and how we looked at new hires and the interview process for selecting them, being open to change our culture and encourage their success.”

They didn’t want to exclude applicants based off arbitrary qualifiers. “Great employees come with backgrounds as coffee shop baristas, teachers, stay-at-home moms, and caretakers,” Vazquez said. “They don’t have to have certain jobs to qualify to do this job.”

After implementing their new bulk-hiring, pod-training methods, retention for Emergency Dispatchers after one year increased from 36.29% to 58.25%. After two years, the percentage jumped from 28.07% to 55.5%.

Though they don’t feel they’ve found the “secret sauce” of training and retention, Quintard feels continual improvements are steps in the right direction, backed up with increased staff and improved call answering times.

“We want to encourage and motivate all PSAPs to invest in their people,” Quintard said. “We’re all in this together.”

The effects of culture on staffing

Between them, Priority Dispatch®(PDC™) Quality Performance Review (QPR) Project Administrators Robin Chamberlain and Leslie Janzen have over 50 years of experience in the comm. center, filling various roles in training and supervising. Their connections run deep from nearly the beginning of their professional journeys, so when it comes to 911 dispatch, they’ve seen it all.

While traveling as a contractor with PDC in implementations, Janzen started to notice stark differences between centers that were half staffed versus those that were fully staffed. Her previous comm. center only had about a 7% employee loss, which made her contemplate that remarkable staffing success. Obviously, every dispatch position still has high stress levels, a high potential for burnout, and shift work (including holidays and weekends), so what keeps people at the console? The answer was clear for her: culture.

“One of the easy things we can focus on is helping Emergency Dispatchers feel valued,” Janzen said. “It doesn’t have to be monetary. We can celebrate certifications, send out congratulations for high-compliance calls, and publish commendations on social media for our Emergency Dispatchers to share with their friends and family.”

Simple rewards like dress-down days and recognition certificates posted on a bulletin board can lift spirits as well. “People who are often disgruntled may get an extra bounce in their step when they have a highlight posted on the board,” Chamberlain said. “It makes a difference, and it costs nothing but the paper it was printed on.”

The role of supervisors is essential to watch and mitigate conflict and help work out difficulties outside of the control room. “Negativity will chase your new people out the door,” Chamberlain said. “It creates an uncomfortable workplace.”

The environment can be a heavy factor in deciding to come to work tomorrow to begin another shift. “Sometimes we don’t want to look at the source of attrition and face the mirror,” Janzen said. “Back when I was a new trainee myself, I remember seeing staff members arguing toe-to-toe and thinking, ‘I don’t want to work here.’”

Not only can a supervisor or trainer be impactful in setting the tone, but they also serve as a foundational strength for their trainees. Janzen recalled a time when she missed a felony warrant on a person description because she was stuck on a phonetic spelling. “I just kept missing it,” she said. “I looked at the trainer with his feet up on the console reading the newspaper, and I knew he wouldn’t back me up. So, who would?” Her experience proves people leave the manager, not the job.

It's only fair to consider that personality traits of trainers can make a huge difference on the success of the program. “Not everyone is built to be a trainer,” Chamberlain said. “Not everyone can guide and correct without yelling at or belittling their trainees.”

Attracting and considering applicants

Another place where attitude matters is when you select the staff members who go out to high school career days and job fairs. “Don’t just let management handpick their favorites,” Chamberlain said. “Think about the approach of those handing out papers. Are they personable? Do they encourage questions and follow up with the people who take their card? It’s about making a connection from the start.”

Employing an out-of-the-box approach to recruiting is another way to revitalize the applicant pool. Recruiting can happen anywhere from talking to parents at community trunk-or-treats or striking up a conversation and thanking a professional for providing excellent customer service while taking your order at a restaurant.

Though every center may be looking for something different in an applicant, it’s healthy to consider the listed qualifications and expectations for interested individuals. Could an applicant be disqualified if they have the majority of the expected skills, but they just need a brush-up on typing? “If so, you could help them brush up on keyboarding rather than kick them out the door,” Chamberlain said. “Sometimes our process is a detriment.”

The impact of culture is inherent in each step of the process. “We’ve seen this where we train so many applicants through our programs that our existing staff doesn’t want to bother to get to know them anymore,” Janzen said. “They have a ‘You won’t last’ mentality that we must nip in the bud and stop eating our own young.”

Seeing new trainees fall through the cracks is hard on their trainers as well; they question what they are doing wrong. “Sometimes management doesn’t see the toll it takes on the trainers as they run people through,” Chamberlain said. “We had one trainer really internalize her lost trainees as a personal failure. There’s an effect for that on the floor.”

Though culture may be one of the less-defined elements of a dispatch center, it may be the most felt.

Conclusion

When facing the difficulty of staffing shortages and a never-ending workload, discouragement is an unavoidable factor to overcome in transforming the cycle of burnout and turnover. However, new and creative methods of recruitment can revitalize the pool of applicants, and investing in your community can foster interest and trust in the 911 profession. Letting data drive new decisions can open new avenues for training and retention, and focusing on culture can cost nothing and change everything.

Ultimately, emergency dispatchers who desire to serve the public deserve an opportunity for a work-life balance, recognition, and a positive outlook for the future. Though there is no one-size-fits-all approach, the goal to recruit and retain emergency dispatchers can restore confidence in the service they provide.

Sources

1. "The Hidden Emergency Crisis: 9-1-1 Staffing Is a Challenge in Many Communities.” International Academies of Emergency Dispatch. 2023; June 20. https://www.emergencydispatch.org/in-the-news/press-releases/963b3265-c780-447d-a040-053cd7c51958 (accessed Mar. 31, 2025).

2. Gittleman, M. "The ‘Great Resignation’ in perspective," Monthly Labor Review, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2022; July. https://doi.org/10.21916/mlr.2022.20 (accessed Mar. 31, 2025).

3. See note 1.