Career pathways in Fire Engineering

The war for talent is leading to over-promotion in Fire Engineering and the lack of a commonly accepted career pathway guide is exacerbating issues around competency. Engineers rising to a level of incompetence as depicted in the visual above is not the answer. Best practice is within our grasp!

IDEA IN BRIEF

SKILLS GAP

Fire safety competencies are very desirable at present and suitably trained, qualified persons with knowledge and practical experience, are in high demand. There are a number of specialist independent and multi-disciplinary firms that have a pedigree in fire and do this well. They have developed their own career pathways, career development programs and means to ensure that technical experts exercise reasonable skill, the care and diligence to be expected from a competent consultant. However...

There are non-specialist companies with aspirations to offer fire services, employing who they can, and people happy to accept roles they cannot do.

These firms simply don't appreciate the fire specialism, and it's niches within niches. This is creating a situation whereby Engineers will rise to the level of their incompetence.

OVERPROMOTION

Before I start I must make it clear that this article is not about reward and recognition. It is not about pay. That is commercial decision for employers to make. This is about competency, and professionalism. It is about roles, responsibilities. standards and the importance of maintaining public trust. Public trust is what all professions rely on.

In recent years we have seen someone without an undergraduate degree and 18 months experience become a Senior Fire Engineer, an entry level engineer become a Principle and someone with less than a year in consulting be promoted to Head of Fire Consulting. This week I interviewed someone from a multi-disciplinary firm with a Senior Fire Engineer role that could not explain the basic principles of fire safety design, nor list some important national guidance documents that anyone in the profession would be using daily.

In the past six months I have lost count of the number of recruiters that have called me to explain they are specialists in Fire Engineering, yet cannot list the firms in this space, nor can they provide a CV for someone with bone-fide experience gained in a professional service firm that actually does Fire Engineering. I've seen new Fire Engineering Consultancies emerge with relatively inexperienced, unchartered professionals at helm. Finally I often see on Linkedin someone calling themselves a Fire Engineer simply because they have obtained MIFireE, and yet they have never worked in Fire Engineering from a quick scan of their profile, they are in a related profession, but not actually responsible for fire design let alone engineering. They obtain MIFireE and then purport to be a Fire Engineer.

In Fire Engineering and for that matter other niche built environment professions there is a heightened level of competition for staff due to the renewed focus on fire safety post Grenfell and the global cladding crisis.

Over promotion is not the answer, it's irresponsible and dangerous.

Our statutory and common law duties require us as consultants to use reasonable skill and care as expected of an experienced member of this profession. Capacity in the Professional Indemnity Insurance market is limited and our advice to underwriters is to give due consideration to the experience of those delivering the service, and the organisations internal career pathways, competency matrix and quality control measures.

The next challenge is a lack of understanding as to how the profession is changing, from being design focused, through to the heightened need for construction technology knowledge, building pathology knowledge and the niche experience required to undertake fire risk assessments or modelling and visualization. These days Fire Engineering teams are far more diverse in their skill sets and in many ways Fire Engineering is becoming more like a specialism comprised of a multi-disciplined team. Hiring the right skills and capabilities in this profession is not just challenging, it's downright hard and complex. You have to know the sector to know what you are hiring.

A skills gap and talent shortage is fueling this problem, however the immaturity of the profession is what makes it dangerous.

SOLUTIONS

We could choose to shrug our shoulders and let it pan out or we could come together as a profession and provide the solution. I recognise that career structures within each firm may have commercial sensitivities but an industry standard would set the bar and solve this issue.

KEY QUESTIONS FOR THE PROFESSION

• Approximately how many years experience should a Graduate have before progressing to main grade Fire Engineer?
• Approximately how many years experience should a Senior Fire Engineer have what do we expect from this role?
• Should anyone at Associate or above be Chartered or aiming for Chartered Engineer status, and can we agree it profession wide?
• What's the difference in the level of responsibility and accountability between a Associate, Senior Associate or Principle Engineer?
• Would a career pathway guide for Fire Engineers work for Fire Surveyors, or Fire Risk Assessors, or Fire Systems Engineers?

This is a matter that goes to the very heart of what is means to be a profession, a professional and a professional service firm.

At BB7 we have a career pathway guide, competency matrix and clear expectations for the necessary skills and capabilities expected for each grade of Engineer. However many firms have different approaches to this. I am not inferring ours is perfect. It's a guide and like any guidance, should be applied with an understanding of the underlying intent.

When thinking about liability, and the criminal, contractual and tort liabilities we carry as fire engineers if a consultant can show he acted in accordance with the usual practice and professional standards current at the time the work was carried out he should not be liable. It is important that we as a profession come together and agree what level of knowledge would be expected of different levels and grades of Engineers because one so-called Fire Engineer in the headlines affect us all, and there are plenty of people on the periphery of the profession with something to say on the matter.

LOOKING AHEAD AT THE FUTURE OF FIRE

Our battle plan in this war for talent has always been to lead with our culture of coaching, invest in careers, be clear about progression pathways and by gaining and maintaining a reputation for quality, encourage talent to select us. We will increase the investment in the resources that exist within our current workforce. This is a build versus buy strategy, with greater emphasis placed on training to develop skills in-house to meet the organisation’s current and future needs.

To our peers in Fire Engineering, I hope this article is thought provoking and that it stimulates some positive action. Our profession lacks coherent, consistent leadership. If the Fire Engineering profession doesn't make an effort to put it's house in order, then others with an interest in the space will step in and do so. I think the FIA Fire Engineering Council in partnership with the Institution of Fire Engineers are the most appropriate bodies to lead this. They have an MoU in place and between these two bodies and between them they can, through engagement, by communication, agree a consensus. We must not allow a situation whereby individuals can rise to the level of their incompetence, because this could have disastrous consequences for reputations and lives.

This initiative will improve the conduct of companies and provide clarification of career pathways for individual professionals. This is a simple idea to secure the professions future.

What do you think?

Ben Bradford - Chief Executive @ BB7