5 Keys to a Solid Police Recruiting Unit!

Thanks for reading the Marketing 'For Cops' Newsletter. Want this newsletter delivered straight to your email every week so you don't have to check LinkedIn? Join my Police Marketing Squad and I'll send it to you every Thursday morning! Always free, always delivering knowledge, and never spam!

Thinking about starting a recruiting unit or revamping the one you already got because things just aren’t working?  Recruiting like it’s 2024 isn’t hard...it’s just different and the ways of the past aren’t going to get it done any more.  I’ve got the five keys to building a solid recruiting unit at your agency that will help attract applicants and get things turned around...keep reading! 👀

Hey everyone, it’s Tom Sye your Police Marketing FTO and this week, let’s talk about something we never talk about...recruiting! 🙄

OK, so we talk about that all the time and we’re going to do it again because changing the way you see recruiting and the way you actually recruit is going to be critical in ensuring the future success of your agency and that’s what we’re all here for anyway, right? 👍

As many of you know, this is my twentieth year as a police officer and I’ve been in recruiting and backgrounds for coming up on eleven...and over those years I’ve seen a lot of ideas, structures, faces, ways of doing things, and nearly every recruiting tactic you can think of come and go not only at my own department, but at agencies all across the country.  It’s been a fascinating ride.  🤪

In watching it all unfold, I can tell you this...there are still a lot of agencies out there behaving like applicants have to prove something to them...as opposed to the other way around.  Ten years ago, you could still get away with stuff like that, but in today’s recruiting landscape, where applicants have more choices than ever before in both careers and agencies...that’s the stuff that will derail your efforts in an instant. 💯

Not to get all football coach on you here but, your recruiting unit has got to be right from top to bottom in philosophy, skill set, and execution or you’re going to keep struggling mightily.  😖

Here are my five keys to building a solid recruiting unit that attracts the type of applicants you've been searching for.  👮‍♂️👮‍♀️🧲

1.  Enough Resources

If you don’t have enough people in the right places, you’re doomed from the start. 😳

Look, I get it...staffing numbers at many agencies are at a critical level and you just don’t have the extra bodies to spare to dedicate to your recruiting unit or any unit for that matter.  To that I say, that’s one way of looking at it. 🤷‍♂️

When you start realizing that no other unit has the power to put your lights out, so to speak, that should start changing your philosophy on things.  If you want more applicants to fill your patrol squads, your investigations spots, or even those promotional openings that remain unfilled until you get numbers up, you need more resources in place to help you do it.  🧑‍🤝‍🧑🧑‍🤝‍🧑🧑‍🤝‍🧑

Overworking the people you already have is only going to lead to burnout, short cuts, and disinterest in the unit.  🥱

2.  The Right Resources

This isn’t a gather everyone up on light duty and put them in recruiting fix by any means and if that’s what you’re thinking right off the bat...stop it!  ✋

You need to have the right resources filling up your recruiting unit.  That means, the most friendly, outgoing, enthusiastic, dedicated, least miserable stereotypical cop type people you can find.  😃

When you stick your disgruntled people in recruiting to appease them or get them away from other employees, you’re now unleashing that attitude on your applicants.  By the same token, if you’re sending super serious, robo cop out there to meet potential recruits, the same thing’s gonna happen.  😠🤖

Your recruiters and background investigators should be people-people, who enjoy making connections, have the best interests of your agency and applicants in mind, and who are ready to embrace their most important role...sales.  📈

3.  Buy in

Every person working inside your recruiting unit has to believe in two things for your unit to be successful; they must believe in what you’re doing and must believe it can be done! 🌟

If you have a recruiting philosophy that we’re going to treat people nicely, show them that people like them work here, and encourage and help them every step of the way (this is the philosophy I highly recommend by the way), but half of your unit thinks it’s BS to help people and they should do it on their own, you’re going to fail.  End of story. 👋

If you are facing vacancies, and I don’t care if it’s 2 or 200, but certain members of the unit think no one wants to do this job anymore and you’ll never be able to fill your vacancies...you’re going to fail.  End of story number two. 👋👋

Again, for you to be successful, everyone has to buy in to your recruiting philosophy and work with unshakeable passion and belief that you’re going to meet your goal of hiring awesome people to work for your agency.  🙌

4.  Accountability

Nearly every person I’ve seen come into the field of police recruiting have all had one general sentiment in mind at the start...this is going to be easy!  How hard can this job be after all, sit around and hire people...done and done. 🥳

Anyone who has worked in recruiting knows, it isn’t easy to hire people and if you’re going to recruit like it’s 2024, you have to demand certain things from everyone in your unit.  ✔️✔️✔️

You’ve got to be fully committed, you have to have an ‘all in’ attitude, you have to be nice to people, always, and you have to do a lot of things, like background interviews, candidate interactions, etc. a certain way, with no variation or style of your own. 🐂

We’ve all had applicants or potential applicants who are simply annoying the living you know what out of you...but if you’re going to win...that person can never know you’re feeling that way.  You may never hire that person, and probably won’t, but that doesn’t mean they don’t know someone you could hire. 💡

You’ve got to have people who are willing to be accountable, meaning treating people right, always, and working hard, always, and supervisors that are willing to hold people accountable when they don’t.  If that’s not in place, none of this is going to work. 🤯

5.  Have a plan

Ok, you’ve got the right amount of the right resources, everybody believes in what you’re doing and is accountable to the goals of the unit...now what?  Well, you can’t just pat them on the fanny and send them out there hoping for the best (you probably shouldn’t pat them on the fanny under any circumstances, but I digress). 🙏

You’ve got to have a plan in place for how you’re going to start attacking your vacancies. 🥊

This plan should include everything and be super specific.  How are you going to tackle police testing, screening of background packets, how are you going to assign people to backgrounds, how many job fairs are you going to attend, are you going to advertise, if so, where and how, how are you going to start recruiting through social media, what channels will you use, what themes will you follow, what is your message going to be, who’s going to do what? 😵

Hope is not a recruiting strategy.  You’ve got to have a plan to follow.  Now, that doesn’t mean you have to blindly follow it no matter what.  If things start getting out course, come up with a new plan, don’t just keep doing the same failing things you’ve been doing or you’re going to keep getting the same failing results. 😑

Need some help in learning how to execute any of these five keys?  🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️

My new police recruiting course is going to be perfect for you!

You can learn more about what’s included and how it will help you get things going in the right direction at forcopstraining.com/rtbr. 

Have a friend at another agency needs to revamp their recruiting?  Give this newsleter a like or share it with them so they can learn too.  Remember, we’re not in a competition with each other, and it’s going to take all of us, working together, to restore the future of police recruiting.  🤝

Have more questions about police recruiting, marketing, or anything else you're struggling with? Don't hesitate to reach out...I’m always here to help. ⛑

Until next week my Police Marketing Squad, happy recruiting! 😃

Tom

Did you find this newsletter valuable? Make sure to like & comment below. 👇

I'd love to hear from you! 🤩

Also, if you know someone who needs to see this content, please share my newsletter with them! I would appreciate the help in spreading the knowledge that will benefit us all and make our profession stronger! 💪

Have a marketing or recruiting topic you would like more info on? Drop me a message 📩 and let me know what you would like to learn! It might just make its way into next week's newsletter! 🤞

👋 I’m Tom Sye, your Police Marketing FTO. I founded ‘For Cops’ Training to teach Police Departments how to attract more qualified candidates through the same tried and tested methods I’ve used for the past ten years at my own department to keep up with turnover and stay ahead of vacancies.

Want to learn more about police marketing and recruiting? 👇

🔔 Follow my profile

✅ Connect with me

🗞️ Subscribe to the Marketing ‘For Cops’ Newsletter

You can also connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, X, or visit www.forcopstraining.com to learn more about my Police Marketing and Recruiting courses which will be enrolling soon!