Police Recruiting Insight: Attracting Female Applicants!

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Let me guess…you’re having a hard time getting female candidates to apply for your Police Officer openings, right? 🤔

Yeah, you and just about everybody else.  Don’t sweat it…I’ve got three great ways you can start attracting female applicants to your police agency...keep reading! 👀

Hey everyone, it’s Tom Sye your Police Marketing FTO, and this week, let’s talk about attracting more female Police Officer applicants to your agency!  This is a hot topic for agencies all across the country, so let’s tackle this problem together, shall we? 🔥

First things first…this problem that you are experiencing in having a low number of female applicants is actually very common nationally, so you are definitely not alone here! I think that's an important realization and the first step in being able to move forward. 🧠

The second step?  Follow my three simple ways to start attracting more female Police Officer applicants to your agency…

1. Start targeting women in your police recruiting.

Years ago, some organization did a study on our agency and found that our ranks were not representative of our community, and it was recommended we increase hiring of Hispanic individuals. Our Chief at the time was hell bent on correcting this and I was tasked with improving the numbers. 🫵

For the next several months, I flooded our marketing materials/messages with Hispanic members of our agency (when I say flooded I mean like 2 or 3 out of every 4 posts/designs). I showed them out there doing the job, smiling, and being happy working for our agency. 😁

I didn't make any mention of the fact that we wanted to increase Hispanic hiring numbers or celebrate any Hispanic heritage month's or anything like that...I again, simply showed Hispanic people doing the job. 🪞

Long story short, about a year later, we were in compliance with the report findings and were more representative of our community.  The same thing will happen when you target anyone in this manner women included…this method works! 👍

2. Meet them where they are at

From setting up shop at a female only gym, to sponsoring/supporting the local girls’ sports teams, places like these give you an opportunity to show your agency supports women while encouraging them to apply. 🤗

A big mistake many agencies make is only sending female officers to these types of events. Now...you should absolutely have a female recruiting officer at every female event, but you also need to have male officers there as well.  This helps set the tone of acceptance.  🫡

With that being said, most women will make a beeline straight for the female officer to ask questions and that’s fine, but I can assure, because I've done it, there will be plenty of them who come right up to the male as well if they feel they’re being welcomed in!  Huge. 😎

3. Set up a ‘women in policing’ section on your website.

No virtual signaling or staged photo ops here…simply provide real and useful information that reassures females that your agency is the kind of place that respects, encourages, develops and appreciates the skills and perspectives that females bring to your agency. 🤩

Want to know what kind of information women are specifically looking for in an agency. Ask your female officers what attracted them to you and what got them interested in policing in general. Then, take that intel and turn it into various content features on that page.  Winning. 🏆  

Look, I know this is a lot to take in...and everyone is searching for this magical product or service that will solve this problem. The simple fact is, that recruiting at its core, whether you’re looking for males, females, black, white, Hispanic, whatever...is the same for everyone… 💯

Human beings want to have their needs met. They want to be assured that they will be liked and accepted. And sometimes, they just need to see themselves in others to get them over the finish line in terms of going for it. 💪

Keep in mind, recruiting is a long game, and it will take a massive effort and some time to turn it around. But focus on the issue, follow the advice above and I’m telling you; good things will happen! 🙌

Ready for some more eye-opening and philosophy altering advice just like you read in this newsletter? 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️

My Road to Better Recruiting online training course is open right now and will introduce you to the wonderful world of police marketing and how you can use it to start winning with police recruiting.  Inside, I’ll teach you all about what it is, how to use it, and explain why it is so important to the future of your police recruiting! 📈     

Start attracting the applicants you’ve been seeking by visiting forcopstraining.com/rtbr. 

It’s the only police recruiting program on the planet, backed by real world police recruiting experience, not theories, and will give you the know-how and confidence to start recruiting like it’s 2025! 🚀

Have a friend in recruiting that is struggling to attract women to their agency as well?  Share this newsletter with them so they can learn too.  We’re all in this together and it’s going to take all of us to change 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

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👋 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.

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