Enhancing Mental Wellness, Morale, and Retention in the ECC through Evaluation, Feedback and Training

The challenges facing 911 centers today are significant, marked by high turnover rates, burnout, and declining mental health among our emergency telecommunicators. With an ever-increasing workload, exacerbated by the staffing crisis, maintaining staff morale and well-being has become more critical than ever. ECC leaders across the country recognize this extreme situation and are doing everything within their power (and often pushing things outside of their power)to help their teams.

Traditional quality assurance methods, which typically involve reviewing only a small percentage of calls, usually cannot provide a comprehensive understanding of performance and do little to address the underlying issues contributing to poor mental health and job dissatisfaction. An automated evaluation and training system can serve as a game-changer, offering not only operational benefits but also promoting mental wellness, enhancing morale, and improving retention within our centers.

A Comprehensive Approach to Performance and Wellness

Evaluating 80, 90, even 100 percent of calls and radio dispatches provide a holistic view of an agency’s, a shift’s and an individual’s performance. This continuous monitoring allows supervisors to identify trends ,both positive and negative, across all shifts and personnel. However, the most significant value of such a system lies beyond mere performance metrics. By providing detailed feedback and insights, these systems enable targeted coaching and personalized training, which can alleviate stressors associated with uncertainty and lack of direction in one's role. When employees are aware of their strengths and areas for improvement, it fosters a culture of growth and development rather than fear and punishment, thereby positively impacting their mental health.

One of the critical issues affecting morale in 911 centers is the perceived unfairness in performance evaluations. Traditional methods often suffer from selection bias, where only a fraction of calls is reviewed, and their viewed calls may not accurately represent an employee’s overall performance. An AI-based system that evaluates every call removes this bias, ensuring fairness and transparency. Employees gain confidence knowing that their work is being assessed comprehensively, rather than based on a potentially unrepresentative sample. This transparency helps build trust between staff and management, leading to a more positive and engaged workforce.

Read more....

Download the full paper here:
https://hubs.ly/Q02PVBk40