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Knoxville Fire Department Recruiting & Academy
Standards of Practice

City of Knoxville

A step-by-step guide to all processes included in the KFD Recruiting and Academy Programs.

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About

The pages above are extracts from the overall Standard Operating Procedures document I drafted based on the recruiting program and academy plan I designed and implemented. This document was created to both document all steps of the process both from a compliance standpoint (government processes must be fully documented) as well as to ensure consistency in application from one recruiting class to the next. Finally, this served as a training document for the HR employee who took over the program after my departure from the City of Knoxville.

Challenge

It was paramount to include copies of each step of all processes to ensure nothing was missed or handled out-of-order. Due to the type of work involved, Fire recruits are required to through many assessments, including background checks, physical exams, physical exertion tests, and psychological profiling to ensure their safety and the safety of others. Working through these assessments in the incorrect order may lead to claims of bias and legal liability as well as public relations concerns, as these are public sector positions. All processes and communications must be standardized. 

Action

When I came to the City of Knoxville, the Fire department had not had a recruit class in over a year due to the pandemic and quarantine restrictions. For this reason, the recruiting program and academy design needed to be restructured. As I both designed and implemented the new process -- in collaboration with Fire department personnel, the Knoxville Police Department (for background checks and psychological profiling), the City's health clinic (for physical exams), and the Civil Service department (to schedule and conduct the physical exertion tests) -- I collected my process notes from each phase as well as the communications I had developed and aggregated all materials into this procedural guide. Finally, I included a final page notes that included "helpful hints" and a contact list for each assessment and planning step.  

Result

  • There is now an updated and complete exhaustive process in place for future recruit classes.

  • This guide can act as a tool for legal defensibility, if it is ever needed. 

  • Provides a training guide for future HR employees who run the program.

  • My program design reduced recruit processing time from 5 months to 2 months.

    • It also received a 95% approval rating from stakeholders and a 93% approval rating from recruits.

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