A recent interaction with a recruiter in the Midwest inspired this article and it is important for all to know. Agencies do not have to remain low on staffing and it takes just a few adjustments to get back on track. The first step in that success is actually believing that it can happen 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 the case of this agency, we immediately discussed a two year plan to fully staff the agency and the only reason it’s a two year plan is because of 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.
It Can’t Be That Easy
One of the biggest hurdles we face is actually making our clients believe us but it doesn’t take long. As we often say, ” we guarantee candidates” and once that happens, any sort of unbelief 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 that are 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 below episode of the Police Recruiting Show.
