Hiring the Right People for a More Resilient Public Service

It will come as no surprise to anyone: Life is unpredictable.

People experience surprises, uncertainties, and unexpected twists and turns in life. Sometimes these little surprises help one to progress. At other times, they can knock a person for six and create obstacles in their journey towards success and prosperity. Dealing with the usual daily stressors that pop up and handling some of those bigger and unpredictable tests life throws at one is bound to test one’s endurance and patience. But what happens when the environment one lives in becomes unsafe?  

When the well-being and lives of people are at stake, the world demands more than a simple helping hand. Thankfully, communities are filled with individuals willing to put themselves on the front line and work tirelessly to promote and create safe environments. One such individual is Brent Clayton.

Meet Australia’s Leading Firefighter Recruitment Expert

Brent Clayton has dedicated his entire professional career to the service of others, and now he’s helping other people, sharing the same passion and eagerness, to do the same. His career in public service spans decades working within the military and as a corrections officer before finding his true calling as a firefighter. After working with three of Australia’s largest fire services and emergency management Victoria, Brent realized that a vital component of the industry is the right people in the right job.

This realization led him to found Fire Recruitment Australia: a service dedicated to promoting the fire service as a rewarding career pathway and attracting the right people to the industry. Through this service, Brent has established himself as Australia’s leading firefighter recruitment expert. His advice and guidance have been published and quoted in Australia’s most prominent news outlets and internationally.

The Right People for the Right Job

Firefighting as a profession is one of the most resilient forms of public service. It’s a job that involves a high amount of personal risk while simultaneously demanding a calm, efficient, and collaborative team approach. It’s a job that, by its very definition, requires individuals with an exceptional set of professional and personal traits. But how does one find these people, and more importantly, how do they support them through the often-demanding recruitment process that the fire services have in place?

This is one of the biggest challenges the sector faces, aided by severe pushback from fire service management to offer help to people in order to excel through the layers of the recruitment process.

Despite these challenges, Brent Clayton has made it his mission to attract young, determined, and most importantly, selfless individuals to the field of firefighting.

Known as the Australian Fire Service Recruitment Expert and the founder of Fire Recruitment Australia, Brent came on to the firefighter recruitment scene in 2007. Even as a child, Brent admired the concept of serving his community and his passion for helping people led him to work firstly in the military and later as a corrections officer. After spending many years in the industry, he noticed that there was a need for something else in the firefighter recruitment sector.

As Brent stepped into this sector and spent time working with fire brigade teams and emergency management across Australia, he experienced a high level of job satisfaction. This was something he had not experienced in his previous roles. This deep sense of satisfaction and job fulfillment led Brent to reflect on the teams and individuals he was working with and the challenges of attracting new suitable professionals into the industry. Brent quickly identified that the recruitment process for firefighters was possibly flawed and could be putting up unintentional barriers to the right people accessing and beginning their career journeys in the sector.

Since then, Brent has made it his life’s purpose to reduce the barriers in firefighting recruitment by providing high-quality advice, guidance and coaching to those seeking to enter the field. In 2009, he founded Fire Recruitment Australia, and in 2012 he published Fire Services Recruitment: The Process to Success.

Brent also launched his philanthropic scholarship program to help coach aspiring individuals better prepare, understand, and complete their firefighter recruitment tests and the process in general. The program he created makes a clear path to pursue firefighting as a career and aids the prosperity of those lacking the resources to establish their careers as firefighters. In addition to this, Brent believes that this program will serve as the legacy of his time building Australia’s leading emergency services preparation service.

In Safe Hands

Brent is putting in extensive efforts to make the recruitment process simple for potential applicants. Both his website, book, and coaching aim to help people make it through the rigorous recruitment process and understand precisely what a career in firefighting will demand from them – and determine whether it’s the right path for them. By attracting only the most suitable candidates for the profession, Brent hopes to address the flaws and loopholes in the current recruitment process. In doing so, Brent also hopes that this will transform the Australian fire service into one of the world’s most efficient and robust.

Despite moving away from the management of the business, he has spent over a decade refining; Brent has remained focused on his path and continues to work tirelessly to promote fulfilling careers within the firefighting sector. The company he founded, continues to work to boost the efficiency of firefighter recruitment and prepare suitable individuals to meet the recruitment process.

Thanks to the innovative and proactive actions of philanthropists like Brent Clayton that the rest of the people remain in safe hands!