Master Plan Nashua Fire Rescue, NH
ESCI’s surveys and interviews with Nashua Fire Rescue members revealed that two of the biggest concerns
within the organization are morale and a desire for consistent accountability. Morale was identified as a
problem in every one of the interviews that were conducted by ESCI. Members overwhelmingly believe that
communication (or a lack thereof) is the biggest contributor to the department's poor morale. Members also
very directly stated a desire for consistent accountability within Nashua Fire Rescue. They went so far as to
request that chief officers hold the members accountable from the top down while the union holds the
members accountable from the bottom up. There were repeated concerns voiced that not everyone was
being held equally accountable.
The members of the Nashua Fire Administration were acutely aware of the morale and accountability issues.
The members of the administration also agreed that communication was an integral key to fixing these
issues. Challenges exist regarding the current organizational model that allows the Deputy Chiefs to manage
their shifts with very different expectations, management styles, and ways of communication. The Chief and
the Assistant Chief reported regularly coming to work with a list of projects to accomplish for the day, only
to have an entirely new set of immediate issues arise and spend the entire day doing work other than what
they had planned to do. The competing demands of the fire department and city hall, coupled with the
workload and limited staffing of the Administrative Division, are creating a perfect storm that is directly
contributing to the communication challenges, the perception of inconsistent accountability, and the overall
poor morale.
ESCI recommends that Nashua Fire Rescue re-institute the second Assistant Chief Position that was
eliminated some years ago. This Assistant Chief should be charged with the oversight of Uniform
Professional Standards.
Nashua Fire Rescue should evaluate the potential benefits of restructuring the Administrative Division to
include an Assistant Chief of Uniform Professional Standards. This Assistant Chief would report to the Chief
of Department but be tasked with:
= Investigating all internal affairs type activities, thus removing this work from the Chief and
existing Assistant Chief. The single point of contact within the fire department as well as close
collaboration with Human Resources will better position Nashua Fire Rescue to address these types
of issues more consistently and to hold members accountable as appropriate.
= Develop and manage a communications plan for regular and consistent communications with
the Operations Division. Communication has been a critical weakness within Nashua Fire Rescue
for decades that is getting progressively worse. This problem will continue to fester, thus further
negatively impacting morale and the operations of the fire department until such a time that there
are focused resources dedicated to improving this deficiency.
« Manage the recruitment of new firefighters, thus removing this work from the Training and
Safety Division. Training was repeatedly identified as a major weakness within Nashua Fire Rescue.
The reassignment of recruitment duties to the Assistant Chief of Uniform Professional Standards will
allow the Training and Safety Division to focus their efforts on improving the Nashua Fire Rescue
Training Program.
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