• 43°
franklin county times

RFD officers learn about employee evaluation methods

The Russellville Fire Department gets a little insight into successful evaluation methods from Florence Police Chief Ron Tyler.
The Russellville Fire Department gets a little insight into successful evaluation methods from Florence Police Chief Ron Tyler.

Fire Chief Joe Mansell is moving toward implementing a change at the Russellville Fire Department – he wants to add employee evaluations to RFD operations.

“My goal is, if we do evaluations and let the officers evaluate the guys, it would give us a better opportunity when we go for promotions to actually have these evaluations to help go off of,” Mansell said.

Evaluations would give the Civil Service Board a clearer understanding of a firefighter’s achievements, strengths and weaknesses, resulting in more advancements of worthy candidates. Evaluations, Mansell said, will also benefit those being evaluated.

“How does anybody know how to get better if you’re not letting them know the areas they need to try to improve in?” Mansell pointed out. “If you’re not doing evaluations, you’re not helping the guys grow.”

But at the same time, he’s always been hesitant about evaluations.

“The fire and police service, we work so closely with each other, it’s more of a brotherhood. You become a family,” Mansell said. That brotherhood can make it hard to deliver criticism. “If you don’t give a true evaluation on somebody, it’s really a waste of paper.”

So Mansell and his officers recently participated in a training class on conducting evaluations, led by Chief Ron Tyler of the Florence Police Department at the AW Todd Centre.

“It was a great program,” Mansell said. “He was able to share experiences from places he worked and how evaluations really benefited them and how they worked out.”

With Tyler’s recommendations and advice in mind, Mansell said he is ready to soon begin implanting a process of firefighter evaluations, to help ensure fairer promotions and make achievements more visible. He said he had an important moment of understanding, through Tyler’s class.

“I saw where, throughout the years, I might have not been doing all I could be doing to better the department and move it forward,” Mansell said. “We’re always wanting to keep moving forward and keep doing better.”

Franklin County

PROGRESS 2024: Veteran Spotlight – Mousey Brown

News

Russellville First Baptist Church receives historical marker

Franklin County

PROGRESS 2024: Meeting a higher standard – Russellville High School JROTC

News

RCS BOE announces new superintendent  

News

Miss Dream Girl Pageant names winners

Franklin County

First Metro Bank hosts FAME Girls’ Ranch donation drive

News

PCHS holds annual Shelby Grissom Memorial Fashion Show

Franklin County

PROGRESS 2024: VFW Post 5184 – ‘No One Does More For Veterans’

Features

Supporting students’ futures

Features

Red Bay Garden Club discusses amaryllis planting

Franklin County

UA announces local students for fall 2023 President’s, Dean’s, graduation lists

News

School news

Franklin County

PROGRESS 2024: Veteran Spotlight – Troy Oliver

Franklin County

Appropriations bill passes, allots more than $3 million for new Russellville library/multipurpose center 

Franklin County

Franklin County Cattlemen’s Association names Cattleman of the Year 

Franklin County

Franklin County votes: Unofficial March 5 primary election results 

Franklin County

Funding for new Russellville library, multipurpose community center expected this week

Features

Faces of Franklin County: BTCPA

News

GFWC Russellville Book Lovers Club sponsors downtown art crawl

Franklin County

PROGRESS 2024: Veteran Spotlight – Cody Bragwell

Franklin County

42nd annual Miss RHS pageant names winners 

News

Miss RHS pageant takes place Friday

Franklin County

Political announcement: David Hester speaks about run for reelection as county commissioner

Franklin County

BTCPA auditions for final production of season take place March 3-4 

x