In my first Chief’s Blog, which you can read here, I talked about the importance of being passionate about what you do.

At our recent Employee Awards, I was privileged to recognise a number of colleagues from across our organisation for their dedication, professionalism and attitude in going above and beyond in their daily work.  It was clear to me that they are passionate about what they do!

As I was preparing for the Employee Awards I was thinking about what makes a good employee.  The following qualities came to mind:

Competence – the ability to do your job well

Capacity – the ability to cope well with demand and maximise your output

Contribution – the ability to add value to your organisation

Commitment – the ability to continually deliver over time

Courage – the ability to face difficult circumstances

Courage speaks for itself with regard to firefighters.  However, there is another type of courage that people demonstrate every day and that is the courage to come into work when they are facing difficult circumstances in either their home or work life but still display the qualities mentioned above.  That takes courage!

The winners of the Employee Awards: Tommy Stubbs, Manual Technician (pictured above with myself); Deborah Reynolds, Business Assurance Manager; Alvin Walker, Watch Commander; and Firefighters from Omagh and Newcastle Large Animal Rescue Teams, are all worthy winners of an Employee Award for their competence, capacity, contribution, commitment and courage. They were nominated by their peers who recognised their dedication to their work and to NIFRS.  Congratulations to them all.

Let’s pause for a moment and allow the winners of the Employee Awards to challenge and inspire each one of us to strive to be better.  As we all commit to investing in public safety, and making a positive difference to those we work with, may each one of us enjoy the benefits of job satisfaction and fulfilment.

As always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this blog or if you’ve any questions/thoughts you want to share with me please email me at cfro@nifrs.org

Best wishes

Gary