Citation:

McKellips, T. (2026). Beyond Recruitment: The PEOPLE FIRST^TM Framework for Volunteer Fire Service Organizational Development. The Legacy Engine Research Program. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.34259.34088

Abstract

Volunteer fire departments depend on sustained human commitment, yet recruitment and retention are often treated primarily as staffing problems. Volunteer-fire research instead identifies interacting organizational and human conditions involving support, relationships, work-family demands, formal management practices, culture, development, recognition, and workload. This conceptual paper presents PEOPLE FIRSTTM as a proposed recursive, human-centered organizational-development framework for organizing those conditions. The framework traces its empirical lineage to qualitative fieldwork conducted in 2015 with 35 volunteer firefighters representing 11 departments, a sample size consistent with the qualitative sampling guidance cited in the original study (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011). Iterative analysis identified recurring conditions associated with joining, continued participation, and departure. An early PEOPLE FIRST structure then organized those findings around the principle that organizational preparation should precede recruitment. Continued development expanded that recruitment-and-retention model into a broader organizational-health framework informed by organizational systems, culture, human development, group change, and organizational-routine scholarship. The mature framework comprises 11 connected elements organized into two interdependent phases: PEOPLE prepares the organization, and FIRST brings people into and develops them within that system. Six conceptual propositions formalize relationships among
organizational conditions, human willingness and capacity, meaningful contribution, organizational capacity, recursive member action, diagnosis before recruitment, and mutually reinforcing individual and organizational development. PEOPLE FIRST is presented as a conceptual framework requiring empirical testing rather than as a validated causal model.

About This Paper

Title
Beyond Recruitment: The PEOPLE FIRST™ Framework for Volunteer Fire Service Organizational Development

Author
Dr. Tom McKellips, DM

Publication Type
Conceptual Academic Paper

Published
September 2026

Focus
Volunteer fire service organizational development, retention, culture, human capacity, organizational support, and sustainability.

Purpose
This paper presents PEOPLE FIRST™ as a proposed human-centered organizational-development framework for understanding how interacting organizational conditions may influence volunteer participation, contribution, development, retention, and organizational capacity.

Research Foundation
Developed from qualitative volunteer-firefighter research conducted in 2015 and subsequent organizational-development research and framework development.

Status
Conceptual framework requiring continued empirical testing.

Keywords
Volunteer Firefighters · Organizational Development · Volunteer Retention · Organizational Culture · Organizational Capacity · Organizational Support · Volunteer Sustainability