When a Chief asks, “How is recruiting going?”, the usual answer is a vague anecdote: “We got a few good ones at the job fair last week,” or “Applications seem a bit slow.”
In an era of multimillion-dollar budgets and critical staffing shortages, anecdotal evidence isn’t enough. Command staff and city councils need hard data to justify expenditures and adapt strategies. Yet, most agencies have zero visibility into their recruiting funnel metrics.
If you don’t know where your best applicants are coming from, or at what stage you are losing them, you are flying blind. It’s time to adopt a data-driven approach to public safety staffing.
The Metrics That Matter
Modern recruiting software, like the platform offered by Safeguard Recruiting, tracks data points that spreadsheets can’t. Your agency should be monitoring:
- Source of Hire: Are your best candidates coming from Facebook ads, Indeed, college job fairs, or your agency website? (Stop spending money on sources that don’t yield hires).
- Cost Per Lead/Hire: How much marketing spend does it take to get one qualified applicant to walk through the door?
- Funnel Drop-Off Rates: Where are you losing people? Do 50% of applicants ghost you after the physical agility test? Do 30% fail the written exam? Knowing where they drop off allows you to fix the specific leak in the bucket.
Moving from Reactive to Proactive
Without data, you only know you have a problem when the academy class is half empty. With real-time data dashboards, you can see leading indicators months in advance.
If you see top-of-funnel applications dip in March, you know you need to increase marketing spend immediately to fill a September academy. Data turns recruiting from a guessing game into a predictable science.
Justifying the Budget
When it’s time to ask the city manager for more budget for advertising or recruiting software, data is your best friend. Being able to show, “We spent $X on digital ads which resulted in Y qualified applicants and Z final hires at a cost of $A per hire,” is far more compelling than simply asking for more money because you’re short-staffed.
Stop guessing about your staffing strategy. Safeguard Recruiting provides the software dashboards and analytical expertise to give your command staff clear visibility into your hiring funnel.
Schedule a demo to see our analytics in action.
