Recruitment and retention are a consistent challenge for EMS agencies across the U.S. The recruitment cycle can take 3-4 months to advertise, recruit, induct and clear a new employee to operate on the street. As leaders rate recruitment and retention chief amongst their concerns in the EMS Trend Report, we look towards agencies with unique solutions, such as EMS recruitment videos.
Delivering your recruitment message through a video gives you the ability to combine sights and sounds, action and information, and faces and voices in a format that may keep someone’s attention longer than a flyer or written pitch. But coming up with ideas for a video and understanding how to put one together can be challenging. If you’ve never produced a recruitment video before, you may not know where to start.
Below are six EMS recruitment videos — from paid and volunteer, public and private, and fire-EMS organizations — demonstrating a range of strategies to consider for your own EMS recruitment video and inspire your creative process.
1. Georgia MedPort EMS: “Truly making a difference”
While it may sound cliché, as even this video points out, making a difference and helping others is what drives the best EMS providers to their career path. Driving home that point with perspectives from current members and a brief history of the mission that started the company in the first place is how Georgia MedPort EMS, a private ambulance service in Gainesville, Georgia, delivers its recruitment message.
The video also emphasizes the difference the organization makes in its members’ lives, through continuing education opportunities and relationships with colleagues that “don’t end when we clock out at the end of the day,” and is honest about the ups and downs of a career in EMS; “Storms come; we’re dealing with a world right now that’s turned upside down but you know every morning when you get up you may be able to make that difference.”
2. Mineola Volunteer Ambulance Corps: “Giving back to the community”
Mineola (N.Y.) Volunteer Ambulance Corps’ members come from all walks of life, and their recruitment video features members including a Marine veteran, a secretary, an ED technician and two students who joined the organization as a way to further give back to their community. The video breaks down what prospective members can expect during the application process and during a call if they were to join, and invites community members without EMS experience to be sponsored for EMS certification and training. The video also highlights the community events the organization participates in and the additional benefits of being a volunteer, such as tax breaks.
“I’m a teacher; I’m a waitress; I’m a babysitter; I’m a communications engineer … but I’m also an EMT.”
3. McGregor Memorial EMS: “You feel like you’re not alone”
McGregor Memorial EMS’ recruitment video was created through a partnership with the University of New Hampshire and is geared toward students, stressing the benefits of seeing the familiar faces of your EMS brothers and sister on campus, and featuring student members who gained confidence in their abilities while growing up from “probies” to more experienced members of their organization. Brotherhood/sisterhood and camaraderie, like the desire to help others and make a difference, is one of those more universal aspects of EMS that will naturally be a common theme in recruitment videos, and the sense of having a community with shared passions can be especially meaningful for students transitioning to into their adult and professional lives.
4. Lancaster EMS: “Skilled, professional, compassionate”
Interview-style testimonials from current members are also a common theme in EMS recruitment videos, and they are a great way to showcase the experience and personality of the workforce a prospective recruit can look forward to joining. Lancaster (Pennsylvania) EMS, a private non-profit agency, features members who were in the shoes of a new recruit once and are relatable to a range of potential candidates – one joined shortly after high school, one moved to EMS from another career field and one started in EMS to learn first aid when his nephew was born. These interviews not only show the types of people a prospective recruit will be able to work with, but the type of person they can become at the organization through opportunities provided, such as continuing education, training and community connections.
“I’ve become a much better person personally and professionally.”
https://www.facebook.com/LancasterEMS/videos/356711182148172
5. Waldorf Volunteer Fire Department: “I live, breathe and sleep it”
Like Lancaster EMS, the Waldorf (Maryland) Volunteer Fire Department lets its members speak for themselves and tell potential recruits what volunteering has been like for them. In this case, the entire video is made up of these personal anecdotes and testimonials, interspersed with clips from the firehouse and on the job. If you’re in doubt about how to focus your recruitment video, start by getting your members talking about what they love about volunteering, running calls or being a part of the EMS/fire family. The passionate volunteers on your team can become effortless, effective recruiters without doing much more than speaking their truth.
6. American Ambulance: “The best little city in the USA”
American Ambulance in Fresno, California, a private EMS organization that serves a community of more than 1 million people in the Fresno-Kings County area, takes a unique approach in the second half of its recruitment video, highlighting the benefits of living and working in the area. Clips of members visiting a water park, aquarium and zoo with their children show how the location of the agency benefits both members and their families, and the agency also cites the short distances from Fresno to various landmarks and attractions, and the low costs of living compared to other California cities. This type of messaging can be useful for agencies who want to expand their potential candidate pool beyond their local area.
American Ambulance also highlights the tools and technology available to members, emphasizing the standard of excellence recruits can expect to see in their workplace.
https://www.facebook.com/AmericanAmbulanceFresnoKings/videos/171286160972358
Does your agency have a recruitment video? What strategies have you used to get people interested in joining your organization? Feel free to share them with us at editor@ems1.com or in the comments below!
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