Elizabeth Anderson and Nimisha Thakur

Volunteer Evaluation – Traditional Interview Script (Elizabeth Anderson)

Welcome the participant warmly.

“Hello {name of the participant}, thank you for taking the time to meet with us. My name is {your name}, and I’m doing some research regarding skills and physical evaluation in reference to our project on search and rescue operations. We are working in conjunction with GravityDrive, and our goal is to identify current types of evaluations used by first responders, law enforcement, and athletes to determine what existing methods are being used today.

GravityDrive is actively working in this field and producing a platform for all aspects of search and rescue. With this information, we hope to develop a platform where incident commanders can easily put together an efficient search and rescue team based on the overall statistics of volunteers.

All the information we gather here today will be kept anonymous and confidential. We ask that you keep all information shared confidential as well. The information will be used for research purposes only. Do I have your permission to record this interview?

If, at any point in the interview you need to leave, please feel free to stop the interview at any time. You can skip any questions throughout the interview if necessary.

Do you have any questions before we start?”

General Information:

• Tell me about yourself (build rapport)

  • Age, if you’re ok with sharing this?

  • What is your current occupation?

• Do you have any experience working in a search and rescue role? If yes, can you describe that briefly?

  • Tell us briefly what got you into search and rescue

    Or

  • We have some additional questions after this initial interview if you have time to answer them.

• How long have you been an {occupation type}

Thank you for sharing that information with us. We would like to ask more specific questions about what types of evaluations your occupation requires.

Evaluation Questions:

• What evaluation methods has your occupation required?

  • Physical?

  • Mental?

  • Educational?

  • Certifications?

If their company uses certifications as a method:

• What forms of communication are used to share news on training or certification?

• What types of certifications are required or helpful for your job?

  • For example, diver’s certifications

• What types of certifications do you have? Is it important to your job? Could you share specific stats that were recorded?

  • Strength

  • Dexterity

  • Performance

• How are team members ranked/scored?

  • Numerical score?

  • Title?

  • Descriptive format? Using some sort of scale - qualitative data

  • Does the number or text tell you what you need to improve or are outstanding in?

• How often is this performance evaluation completed, and does it change based on some point in your career or based on what you do? (patrol to a desk job)

  • Yearly?

  • Quarterly?

• Are there any programs available to help maintain or help improve your performance? (things to improve your evaluation) (improve themselves because they want to versus because they have to)

  • Offered by your employer?

  • Third-party?

  • What options do you have?

• Have you ever done an evaluation on another person?

  • (If yes)

  • What position was that person in relation to you?

  • What was being evaluated?

  • How did this experience differ from when you were the one being evaluated?

  • Have you ever recognized someone else?

  • What was the recognition for?

  • How did you do that?

  • Did other people learn of the recognition?

  • (if yes) How did they learn of it?

Tell me about your last evaluation if you’re comfortable with sharing this information. OR you could also share a story about someone else’s evaluation experience.

• When these tests are done, what are common rankings that people have to stay in to be qualified for the job

• What do you find to be the most valuable part of the evaluation and why?

• What do most people find to be the most frustrating part of the evaluation process?

  • Ratings? Are they easy to understand

  • What does this number really mean?

  • Are the ratings they give have the same meaning to you as the person rating you?

  • Do they make sense to you?

  • Are they what you believe to be a fair assessment?

• What other statistics do you think would be helpful to add to the evaluation you took?

• Would you be willing to give us access to a blank copy of your evaluation for research purposes?

Conclusion: No search and rescue

“That concludes the questions about our problem space. Thank you so much for your responses. Before we call it a day, was there anything else you think would be helpful to know about your occupation’s evaluation method?”

We have a few other people on our call, would you mind if we see if they have any questions or clarifications they’d like to ask? Call each person by their first name and ask questions.

Let them respond if they have anything.

“Awesome, that’s good to know. With that, we are done. This information will be very helpful as we move forward with identifying key requirements for our search and rescue evaluation platform.

Conclusion: Yes, search and rescue

“That concludes the questions about our problem space. If you have additional time, could we ask you questions specific to search and rescue?”

Volunteer Evaluation – SAR Specific Interview Script (Namisha Thakur)

• Preface this with second line of questions

• Ask about your experience in search and rescue if that works for you

• Lead into it and explain why you’re asking

Proposed Questions

• What does your day-to-day job look like?

• What training is required to become a firefighter/ Incident commander?

• How is the entire training/search and rescue mission carried out? Can you take me through the process step by step?

• What is the biggest challenge you have faced while completing a mission?

• Are there any changes you have felt in the years when it comes to innovation or using tools carrying out the search and rescue mission?

• Can you think of any conflict that you faced during training or a search and rescue mission, and how did you resolve it? Start with sometimes by example. Can’t hurt to ask

• Can you think of a scenario that could affect your ability to work during an ongoing mission? Your own ability you feel may not be sufficient to complete the mission -ex. Mountain climbing only a few are qualified - any type of mission or scenario that you’ve seen for a mission that may preclude you from wanting to take on that mission - if so, is this related to your abilities or skills can you explain more?

• What are the selection criteria for the volunteers?

• Which innovation do you think is most important in training?

• What are the current training tactics?