WENATCHEE - At the Wenatchee Convention Center, Misty Viebrock waits in anticipation for one person to show up to her booth at the Wenatchee Job Fair. She looks at the crowd, in search of potential dispatchers to help fill her chronically understaffed Rivercom 911 Call Center.
"We did get to talk to, I would range, probably 15-20 people that stopped by that were interested," Viebrock confided. "Hopefully that results in maybe a few people applying, definitely was not a wasted day in my opinion."
In 2019, Rivercom processed nearly 48,385 calls with only 30 telecommunicators at the time. With the pandemic severely limiting the general applicant pool, Rivercom's understaffing problem becomes even more extreme.
"Many 911 centers, not only in Washington State but nationwide, do struggle and have struggled for years to staff their centers," Viebrock explained. "Some do believe, in our industry, that COVID has really changed people and what's important to them."
Rivercom Board Member and Chelan County Commissioner Kevin Overbay maintains his stance on Rivercom's priority be focused on staffing. He also agrees with Viebrock in regards to staff recruitment issues and retention "You just don't have the workforce level that you've had in years past."
With the job requiring staff to work long hours and miss holidays with loved ones, employment opportunities that may leave dispatchers more time with families cause a sharp turnover.
Viebrock admits that there are many complexities to staffing problems and tries not to paint COVID-19 as the main culprit for Rivercom's staffing, but she does admit that it has impacted Rivercom's ability to motivate individuals to join the center.
"They realize long-term that this is not what [they] wanna do for the rest of [their] life, 'I'm missing out on Christmas morning with my children or missing out on my best friend's wedding,'" Viebrock said.
Another complexity within Rivercom's hiring process involves lengthy tests and training programs that new hires must complete before starting. Some of the main traits a telecommunicator needs are things that cannot be measured by testing.
Viebrock provides an example of one of these hard-earned traits called a "split-ear," where they listen to a 911 call in one ear and Police and EMT authorities in another ear. This can be a tremendous hurdle to new trainees.
"We believe it is either a natural skill, it's not really something that you can learn to do, so you have it or you don't," Viebrock said. "It takes a very unique individual to be able to do the multitasking, of all the demands that are coming their way at one time. There are just aspects to the job that we simply cannot test for."
Rivercom claims to be ramping up their recruitment efforts and looking to potentially bring in 'lateral hires' from outside the area, which would reduce their training time.
Viebrock notes her confidence in collaborating with new Executive Director Lowell Porter. She believes that her institutional knowledge and his executive leadership would make the pair a dynamic team.
"I wish he was starting tomorrow."
Porter will start working for Rivercom 911 on Nov. 1.
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