The holidays are a stressful time of year regardless of your occupation but they can be especially stressful for 911 employees. Emergency communication centers generally require shift work, overtime, holiday, and weekend work. Working during the holiday season can often lead to burnout. You’ll notice your employees are starting to get burnt out by the presence of indicators such as anger, anxiety, stress, and exhaustion.

A 911 dispatcher’s job is very different today than it was years ago. A 911 dispatcher must be the ultimate multi-tasker. This becomes even more apparent during the holiday season when 911 calls are at an annual high. Help your 911 employees avoid holiday burnout by recognizing the signs of burnout and providing the necessary resources to help them avoid burnout before it starts.

Keep Spirits High

Employee turnover is high during the holiday season when there’s an abundance of seasonal jobs available. When turnover is high, it often affects the morale of employees when they realize they are going to have to work more to pick up the slack left behind by employees who are no longer with your call center. Help retain staff and improve employee productivity by being a positive role model.

The attitude of an organization starts at the top. Try to remain positive in the face of employee turnover to help keep your remaining employees’ spirits high. Remind employees that the short-staffing situation is only temporary. Try offering incentives like increased pay or bonuses over and above the regular overtime rates for employees who are able to take on additional shifts to help out. Communicating with staff on a regular basis is also key to keeping spirits high. Employees don’t like to be kept in the dark so letting them know about the current situation and what’s being done to improve it will go a long way to keeping employees’ spirits high.

Offer Encouragement

This is another example of how you can stay positive to keep employees in a good frame of mind during the holiday season. Nobody likes to hear about the negative all the time. Make sure you offer positive reinforcement to your employees for a job well done. Letting them know that you see how hard they are working and that you appreciate it will go a long way to helping you retain those employees. It will help your employees feel good about what they are accomplishing rather than focusing on all the long hours they’ve been working.

Other ways for 911 employees to avoid holiday burnout include holiday de-stressing activities like performing random acts of kindness, going out with a friend or spouse, or spending some time outside in the sunlight. At KOVA Corp we understand the value of enabling 911 call centers to function as efficiently as possible in order to remove some of the burden that is inevitably placed on staff. Our Verint Media Recorder Public Safety Software integrates multi-channel recording with critical functionality to improve the performance and efficiency of your 911 call center. Contact us today to learn more.