A recent interaction with a recruiter over police recruiting in the Midwest inspired this article, and it is important for all to know. Agencies do not have to remain short-staffed, and it takes just a few adjustments to get back on track. The first step in that success is actually believing that police recruiting can improve, and according to Travis Yates, VP of Operations at SAFEGUARD Recruiting, that disbelief is grounded in the damage that many marketing companies have done to the profession.
Don’t get us wrong. We love marketing, and those marketing companies promising websites, videos, and all the flash do their job, but that alone will never translate into more police applicants.
A few weeks ago, we spoke to a police recruiter at an agency and he was doing a fantastic job. As the only full time recruiter, he was bringing in 30-40 applications a month but he was struggling to maintain current staffing. It was close and it wouldn’t take much to match the current staffing but current staffing wasn’t the issue.
The agency was down almost 20% on personnel. In speaking to the recruiter, we sensed doubt that he could actually get fully staffed.
This mentality is nothing new and absolutely does not reflect negatively on the recruiter. His thoughts are definitely rooted in reality…if we don’t change our overall approach to law enforcement recruiting.
In this agency, we immediately discussed a two-year plan to fully staff it, and the only reason it’s a two-year plan is the workload. The cost is actually very minimal, and we don’t even want the recruiter to change what he is doing.
He’s doing a great job, so we want him to keep bringing those 30-40 applicants, and we would double or triple that number, depending on his desire.
Police Recruiting: It Can’t Be That Easy
One of the biggest hurdles we face is actually convincing our clients, but it doesn’t take long. As we often say, “We guarantee candidates,” and once that happens, any doubt disappears.
If you want to know why we are passionate about solving the recruiting crisis in law enforcement, it’s because we are the only recruiting company dedicated solely to law enforcement, made up of law enforcement. Yes, we care about business, but we care much more about the profession that each of us spent our adult life in.
If you would like to see the actionable changes we recommended to this recruiter, watch the episode below of the Police Recruiting Show.
