Content provided by SAFEGUARD Recruiting
I routinely talk to agencies that are putting tremendous effort into recruiting, but don’t understand why they aren’t seeing success. Until recently, recruiting was never an issue in law enforcement. Most agencies could maintain staffing simply by keeping the door open and moving applicants through the process.
That era is over.
Recruiting has changed in both law enforcement and the private sector. And when the environment changes, effort alone stops working. Strategy, systems and expertise start mattering more than enthusiasm.
The 80/20 problem
The traditional law enforcement effort is working. In fact, whether you have a dedicated recruiting team or not, your agency will still be hiring. There have always been men and women who were literally born wanting to do this job, and they will seek you out. I’ve been asking audiences for years why they work at their agency, and no one has ever said it was because of a job fair, cool video or fancy website.
Like most of you, they wanted to do the job, and it was simply a matter of finding the right agency. They recruited themselves, and someone or something at your agency convinced them to launch their career there.
That is the product of traditional law enforcement recruiting.
We thought we were recruiting, but we were just keeping the door open and guiding recruits through the hiring process.
A decade ago, this was all it took because there were more than enough people wanting to do the job.
Today, most agencies will fill their department to 80% with just about any effort. To get the other 20%, we must do things differently.
The first 80% comes from self-motivated candidates. The last 20% comes from active sourcing, consistent nurturing and disciplined conversion.
Recruiting is an expertise
Walk into any corporate office, and you won’t find someone who used to work in accounting now working as a recruiter. It’s only law enforcement that believes we can take someone trained in policing and make them a high-level recruiter.
In the past, we got away with it because it only took effort, any effort. Today, it takes expertise. Recruiting is a demanding skill set that takes time to learn and years to master. It also requires tools and systems that most departments have never needed to understand.
High-level recruiting requires competence in areas like:
- Candidate sourcing
- Candidate nurturing and follow-up cadence
- Pipeline design and stage management
- Digital marketing and targeting
- Branding and creative execution
- ATS and automation systems
- Artificial Intelligence tools
- Messaging and copywriting
- Graphic design
- A/B message testing and optimization
- Legal compliance (EEO and platform ad rules)
- KPI tracking
- Funnel diagnostics
And the list goes on…
Law enforcement didn’t need mastery in these areas until we did. That’s why many agencies keep doing more, spending more and staying understaffed. Without understanding the 80/20 problem and building the capability to address it, the results won’t change.
Options for success
A department has three options for recruiting, and all will work, but some are more difficult to implement and sustain.
Option 1: Build internal expertise
This requires training, technology, dedicated staff and leadership buy-in. It can be done, but it is risky. You could spend thousands training someone, only to see them promoted out of the unit. I’ve also seen recruiters try to handle digital marketing, only to have the department’s social media page banned for an employment ad violation or a new rule they weren’t aware of.
Option 2: Civilianize recruiters
I’ve seen some successes here, but it’s rare. High-level recruiting is not HR recruiting, and not every civilian has the skill set required to source and convert police candidates in a competitive market. There is also the credibility and cultural fit factor. A civilian recruiter can be excellent at process, follow-up and systems, but many candidates still want to ask questions only a sworn professional can answer from real experience.
Option 3: A partnered solution
I advocate for agencies to pursue a partnered recruiting solution, but only with the right partner. In a partnered model, an agency hires a company to perform specialized work and holds them accountable for measurable outcomes. Meanwhile, department recruiters focus on what they uniquely do best:
- Build relationships and agency credibility
- Answer tough questions with real experience
- Coordinate the internal hiring process
- Turn genuine interest into commitment
The most important part of the partnered solution is to hire the right partner, and not every company can do what you need. Recruiting is not marketing, and what works for a product company will not work for your agency. Ask these questions when vetting companies:
Do they have experience with law enforcement recruiting?
Many companies have conducted marketing and branding for law enforcement, but that is not recruiting. They may call themselves a recruiting company, but you need to see real examples of where they helped agencies staff fully.
Ask for a recruiting audit.
You may have to speak to them first, but what they say will tell you what you need to know. If you aren’t staffed fully, there’s a problem somewhere, and you want a partner who can quickly identify it. There are several correct answers, but more wrong ones. Don’t let them tell you that you need a new video, new photography or expensive SEO for your website. That’s a marketing company talking, and they make a lot of money by never solving the recruiting problem.
How many candidates will I get for how much money?
This is the most important question to ask, and most companies either won’t know the answer or will refuse to answer. An actual recruiting company will give you an answer, and they have the experience recruiting law enforcement to give you a guaranteed answer. A quick caution here. Some companies are selling “lists” to departments, and this will not help you. You want actual candidates who want to work for your agency, and a highly skilled recruiter will have no issues making that happen.
Conclusion
Whether we like it or not, law enforcement recruiting is now a professional function that requires a high level of skill. The 80/20 problem is why so many agencies are working harder and remain understaffed. When you treat recruiting like a profession, with expertise, systems and accountability, you stop hoping for more applicants and start producing hires.
This is the standard at SAFEGUARD Recruiting – accountable to measurable recruiting outcomes, not marketing that looks good but doesn’t produce qualified candidates.
