Conservation Officer Service Armorial BearingConservation Officer Service

 

Physical Abilities Test for Conservation Officers (PATCO)

Background

Conservation Officers on patrol.

Pre-employment fitness testing is commonplace for many physically demanding occupations, like firefighting and policing, to ensure applicants and incumbents have the ability to perform essential job tasks safely and effectively. For instance, the value of these assessments is clear, and the correlation between physical fitness, job safety and workplace economics is striking, when two equally busy fire seasons are compared for the B.C. Forest Service. In 1985, prior to a required fitness standard for wildland firefighters, there were 893 on-the-job accidents for the Forest Service Protection Program, costing the province roughly $1,345,795. In 1998, five years after implementation of a mandatory pre-employment fitness standard, there were only 131 injuries on the fireline, an 81% decline, with an associated cost of <$150,000.

Before a fitness test can be used as an applicant screening tool, the physical abilities being measured must be validated as bona fide occupational requirements, giving due consideration to the obligations of the B.C. Human Rights Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act. To be “bone fide”, the condition of employment must be necessary for safe, efficient and reliable job performance and objectively shown to be necessary for such performance. According to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, when developing a bona fide occupational requirement, an employer must:

  1. identify the essential, physical components of the job (job task analysis);
  2. determine the physical capacities required for safe, efficient and reliable performance of the essential job components; and
  3. develop an assessment to determine whether an individual has the appropriate capacities necessary for safe, efficient and reliable performance (fitness tests).

In spite of the potential legal problems that pre-employment fitness testing poses, it is still considered a valuable screening tool. There is extensive, scientific evidence of a highly correlated relationship between physical fitness and workplace productivity/safety. Generally, the fitter the employee, the higher their productivity and, more importantly, the lower their chance of injury due to physical stress (e.g. strains, repetitive motion or overuse injuries, back injuries, etc). Research has also shown that fitter employees maintain a higher level of mental alertness on the job, which is often crucial to reducing an employee’s risk of injury.

Specializing in workplace fitness testing, job demand analysis and in the development of bona fide occupational fitness requirements, the pre-employment Physical Abilities Test for Conservation Officers was developed by Dr. Lynneth Wolski in conjunction with the University of Victoria, the B.C. Conservation Officer Service and the B.C. Government Employees’ Union (BCGEU). Test design and validation followed the guidelines set out in the Consensus Forum on Establishing BONA FIDE Requirements for Physically Demanding Occupations (Gledhill et al., 2001).