A bright, fit, motivated 18-year-old approaches your booth at a high school career fair. They are excited about a career in law enforcement or fire services.
Then you have to tell them the bad news: “That’s great! Come back in three years when you’re 21.”
This age gap is a massive leak in the public safety recruiting pipeline. During those “gap years,” that motivated young person will find another job, perhaps go to college for something else, and likely move on from their public safety dreams. Agencies lose thousands of potential recruits simply because they have no way to stay in touch during that waiting period.
The Failure of Manual Follow-Up
You might have the interested teen fill out a “interest card,” which gets shoved in a desk drawer. No recruiter has the bandwidth to manually call a 19-year-old every three months just to say hi.
To build a true long-term pipeline, you need an automated system that nurtures these future candidates without requiring daily effort from your staff.
Automated “Nurture” Campaigns
This is a perfect use case for the marketing automation software provided by Safeguard Recruiting.
When an underage individual expresses interest, they are entered into a specific “Future Candidate” workflow. The software then takes over, sending low-pressure, high-value content via text and email over a period of years:
- Quarterly Check-ins: “Hey [Name], just checking in. Hope school is going well. Still interested in Fire Rescue? Here’s a link to our ride-along program requirements.”
- Birthday Texts: A simple automated happy birthday message keeps your agency top-of-mind.
- Invitations: Automated invites to open houses, Explorer post meetings, or civilian auxiliary opportunities.
Building a Farm Team By using automation to maintain a low-touch relationship, you ensure that when that individual finally turns 21, your agency is the first one they think of.
Instead of starting your recruiting search from scratch for every academy, you will have a pre-built “farm team” of individuals you have nurtured for years, ready to apply on day one of their eligibility.
Stop letting future recruits slip through the cracks. Safeguard Recruiting can help you set up automated long-term nurture campaigns to build a robust pipeline for years to come.
Contact us to start building your future workforce today.
