9 Police Recruiting Strategies That Can Improve Your Hiring Success
One of the most pressing issues in policing right now is a manpower shortage. Officers are retiring in droves, the next generation isn’t beating down the door to join and, at many agencies, employees are overworked and burnt out.
Shortages aren’t specific to policing; employers everywhere are feeling the pinch. While there are conditions your agency can’t control, here are 9 strategies that can improve the competitiveness of your recruiting campaign and position you favourably for when the hiring market improves.
1. Develop a strong employer brand.
At its core, recruiting is marketing. Your police department is marketing a specific job and your organization, overall, as a great place to work. But you can’t start building up your agency as a great place to work the day you place an ad for a job – great reputations are the result of consistent, long-term branding. You need to promote the benefits of working for your department on an ongoing basis – not just when an intensive recruiting campaign is underway.
Police agencies tend to focus on external brand-building with the community they serve, rather than internal brand-building around workplace culture. And that’s not surprising, given that’s where the eyes of the media, the public, and municipal employers are focused. But your relationship with the community is only half the picture for potential hires. It’s no secret that the job of police officers has become increasingly difficult, and your audience wants to see ongoing proof that you’re a good employer who is working on solutions: on your website, on social, in ads, at events, and via word-of-mouth.
2. Walk your talk.
To build a great workplace brand, you have to build a great workplace. The 2020 Canadian Police Association (CPA) survey of more than 1,000 police officers across Canada showed that many feel a disconnect between the way a department represents its values publicly, and the culture and work environment they experience day-to-day. Developing a culture in which everyone “lives” your brand values from the leadership on down is critical to both retention and recruitment.
Supportive leadership is even more important for attracting and retaining the next generation of recruits. These employees are in the job because they want to be, not because they have to be – and they are more likely to leave poor leaders and managers.
3. Engage in dialogue with the next generation of recruits.
When we work with police agencies and businesses on recruiting campaigns, many talk about the generational divide – the difference between their workplace expectations and the next generation’s. We hear comments about how young people are looking for a “job” rather than a “calling”. How they aren’t interested in shift work, overtime, or situations that might place them in personal danger. How they expect to climb the ladder quickly. Added to that list is the fact that this next generation is less likely to see policing as a desirable career, not just due to working conditions, but also due to negative perceptions around policing’s role in systemic discrimination.
Your agency can pretend that none of these issues exist or you can do your research, start a conversation, and show your solutions: the policies and initiatives you’re developing, your work with community groups, and interesting career opportunities. Don’t just do this on your website, meet this generation where they live, on social and in digital ads.
4. Create messaging that connects emotionally with your audience.
On the topic of solutions…when you show that you understand your audience’s pain points and goals, and offer solutions, you connect with them on an emotional level – and those are the messages that stay with people. In a competitive market, you have to think beyond the usual police recruiting tropes, show the faces that you want to hire, and highlight the things that set you apart from your competition.
5. Build relationships with the recruits you want to attract.
It’s not enough just to show diversity and inclusion in your campaign ads. With groups who have not traditionally considered policing a viable career, you have to build relationships – and that’s not a one-time visit to an Indigenous community, a temple, or an LGBTQ2S+ -focused organization, it’s a long-term process of building trust, showing openness to new perspectives, and mentoring.
Beyond that, when you think about the qualities of your ideal employee, can you use that information to get creative about where you look for new recruits?
6. Create a layered, multi-channel recruiting campaign.
Humans commonly go through a “buyer’s journey” – stages of the decision-making process – regardless of whether they’re “buying” a job or a car, and it’s important to create a range of material that addresses your audience’s concerns at each stage. It takes more than one impression to change minds; a successful recruiting strategy is layered, with messages that build on each other over time, across a range of channels.
7. Focus your recruiting conversation.
Police agency websites and social pages tend to be public-facing and community-oriented – and that’s appropriate. But if you want to speak directly to potential recruits and show them what you’re like to work for, set up dedicated social channels and a recruiting section on your website, or a separate website, where the conversation is entirely focused on their needs. This next generation of prospective employees, in particular, will look to social for proof that you are who you say you are.
A recruiting page is where you can establish a tone that might be less formal than your main pages, show your culture, training sessions and officer stories, invite potential recruits to information sessions, and livestream conversations with your Recruiting team.
8. Ensure your recruiting material looks and sounds like your agency brand.
We see this one often: an organization puts a lot of effort into their website’s main pages and the recruiting section feels like an afterthought – a holdover, no doubt, from the days when agencies used to receive a flood of applications for a single position. Not only does this raise questions about what your internal culture is really like, it fails to sell you as a workplace. Your employer brand should flow from your agency brand – ensure it is just as professional and that it appeals to the candidates you want to attract.
9. Review your hiring process to ensure it is clear and concise.
The hiring process for officers involves multiple different steps and every agency website approaches their explanations differently. Some are clear and easy-to-follow – others, not so much.
The best processes take applicants by the hand and guide them along the path, step-by-step. They explain how long responses will take, acknowledge receipt of information, and advise applicants if there will be a delay. They don’t risk losing candidates to a competing agency that is faster to respond or more streamlined.
Short-term recruiting success relies on long-term brand strategies.
Successful police recruiting campaigns are rooted in positive agency and employer brands, targeted communication, intentional relationship-building, and clear processes. The success of a short-term campaign is often determined by long-term brand strategies. (You can learn more about how to build and benefit from an effective police brand, here.)
If you don’t have the pieces in place to launch a hiring campaign, we can help. From brand-building to recruitment campaigns, Indalma Creative has been the trusted creative partners of police agencies across Metro Vancouver – you can see our work for Surrey Police Service, Surrey Police Board, Port Moody PD and Delta PD in our online portfolio.
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