Read This Before You Take An Out of State Police Recruiting Trip!

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before...we can’t find enough qualified applicants and no one wants to do this job anymore around here...I know, let’s go somewhere else to recruit police officers!  If that scenario has been running through your head, I’ve got three reasons why you should reconsider that out of state recruiting trip...keep reading! 👀

Hey everyone, it’s Tom Sye your Police Marketing FTO and this week, let’s talk about out-of-state recruiting trips and why you might want to reconsider before booking yours.  Now, these things have been around forever and are a staple of a lot of agencies police recruiting plans but, if I’m being honest, other than it’s because everyone else does them, I can’t figure out for the life of me why! 🤷‍♂️

I’ve been in recruiting and backgrounds at my agency for coming up on eleven years and we’ve hired hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people during that time.  In state, out of state, all over the place.  Guess how many out of state recruiting trips I’ve taken in my entire career. 🤔

As you can probably already tell by the theme of this newsletter's editon, that would be zero.  None, zip, zilch, nada.  Not a single one.  0️⃣

Now...this doesn’t mean that I’m anti recruiting trip either...as with anything when it comes to police recruiting options, they have their place in our world, but here are three things you need to consider before booking your trip.  👇

Consideration 1: Everything else is not in place

If you don’t have your recruiting unit in order and a recruiting plan in place, an out of state recruiting trip is just an incredible waste of both time and money.  💸

Even if you were to go out of state and have the most unbelievable recruiting trip ever, and I’m talking about hundreds of interested people ready to apply for you right now...if you don’t have your branding in place, your social media presence in place, your website ready to go with detailed messaging and easy to apply links, a designed plan on how you are going to work and move people through both your testing and background process, and enough people to actually work them, your trip is for nothing. 🙅‍♂️

In reality, your recruiting trip to the out of state job fair, military base, or college event is going to net you a handful of applicants, at best.  Sure, you may talk to a bunch of people, but actually getting them to apply, showing for testing and then ultimately making the move to your area is an entirely different story. 📖

Because of this cost vs effectiveness ratio, an out of state recruiting trip should be one of the last things you consider in filling out your recruiting plan.  If you want real value for that same couple of thousand bucks you’re gonna spend, spread that out over three months of Instagram ads targeting the immediate area around your agency.  📲

By doing this, you’re going to find many more people who are actually interested in working for you who aren’t hamstringed by a long move to another state.  This is an option I would take one hundred times out of one hundred opportunities and it’s not even close.  🔨

The bottom line is: if your Instagram ads aren’t working, you need better messaging not a recruiting trip.  💯  

Consideration 2:  When you go to them, there’s no ‘buy in’ on the move

Now, I’m certainly not saying you can’t get people to come work for you on an out-of-state recruiting trip, but what I am saying is when an applicant comes to you, as opposed to the other way around, you will have a much better chance at landing them. 📝  

The reason for that is...‘buy in’.  😍

Once upon a time, twenty years ago, I was an out of state applicant too...who came to Arizona in search of a police career.  Because I made both the financial and emotional commitment to travel here, test here, and then ultimately move here, I had skin in the game.  I was invested in the move and the agency from the very get go.  💪 

When you don’t have that commitment in place, it’s a lot like shopping online.  You see something that’s cool...talk about how awesome it is and maybe even put it in your cart...but then you lose interest, and it sits there forever, forgotten about and unpurchased. 😔

If you really want to target an area out of state that you feel may be a hot bed, follow my advice from above but use that area for your Instagram ads.  If there’s a military job fair going on...put out an ad to gauge interest hitting the area within a couple miles of the base.   This way you’ll target everyone who’s going to the job fair and be able to hit them in their just off base housing. 🎯

Consideration 3: No commitment to your community

Similarly, another big reason to keep the main focus of your recruiting efforts local is the commitment to your community.  Just a couple of weeks ago, I was talking with an applicant who just got out of the Army, has moved back home to Arizona, and is interested in continuing the policing career he started in the military.  🚀

He told me that he has already done some ride alongs with a couple of neighboring agencies, had fantastic rides, saw a lot of stuff and they seemed like really great places to work.  But then...he dropped this nugget on me... 💎

He said, “there was just something about it that was off...it wasn’t Glendale.  That’s where I’m from, it’s what I know, it’s my community...so I had to call you”.  That right there my friends, is what you’re looking for.  🙌

Again, don’t mistake what I’m saying here, lots of people have long careers at agencies they never knew anything about, but if you want that retention number of yours to skyrocket through the roof...find you some people who are already committed to your agency and what you do, and your longevity numbers will do just that.  📈

You know, about 15 years ago, prior to me getting into recruiting, my agency went out of state to Ohio to recruit after hearing there were a lot of candidates who may be looking for police jobs elsewhere.  We sent a whole team to three different cities, hit some college campuses and even held testing events to help streamline things even more.  💨

Now, I’m sure I’m forgetting one or two somewhere, but I can recall at least five people from that trip who went on to get hired here.  Five.  Of those five, again fifteen years later, only two of them are still here.  We probably hired seven or eight total, I just can’t remember them off hand, but I do know only two are left regardless.  And most of the departures from that Ohio trip happened within the first couple of years and saw them return to their home state.  This is the familiarity factor that I’ve talked about in other videos.  ⚡ 

So, before you go giving up on your local area and head off to travel the great unknown of applicants, seriously consider these three things first and make a decision that’s going to actually help your recruiting.  😎

Listen, I know recruiting seems incredibly hard sometimes...I’ve been there.  I know firsthand the pressure you’re facing when you’re down vacancies and people are questioning when you’re going to hire someone. 🙋‍♂️

But there are plenty of applicants, right there in your backyard, who are ready, willing and able to serve your community and have nice careers as police officers.  Look, the well has not dried up, it’s just in a different place than where you’ve been looking. 🔍    

Need some help with your police recruiting? 

My Road to Better Recruiting course is the only recruiting course in the world created by a police recruiter for police recruiters!  You can check it out and everything that’s included on my website by visiting forcopstraining.com/rtbr.

Have a friend at another agency who’s thinking about taking a recruiting trip out of state?  Give this video a like or share it with them so they can consider these too.  Remember, we’re not in a competition...and it’s going to take all of us, working together to restore the future of this great profession.  🤝

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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