Law Enforcement Recruiting is Sales: Welcome to the Blog!
In 2019, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) published The Workforce Crisis, and What Police Agencies Are Doing About It, in which they describe recruiting as one of the most critical issues facing law enforcement agencies today. In their 2023 membership staffing survey, responses indicated 47% more sworn resignations and 19% more retirements in 2022 than in 2019. Nationally, separations are up and hiring is down. At Interview Now, we believe this will continue to be true for at least the next decade and are actively working to bring you the knowledge, tools, and services needed to build and maintain an effective recruitment program.
The traditional hiring process, where we primarily rely on candidates to come to us, is no longer sufficient and agencies across the country are struggling to adapt. Law enforcement administrators consistently cite the lack of credible guidance and information related to effective law enforcement recruitment as one of the primary hurdles they need to overcome. The information and training available today largely focuses on the legal liabilities associated with recruitment and hiring without giving insight into the process itself and how you can get back to full staffing.
If we break recruiting down into its component parts, it quickly becomes apparent that it is, at its core, a sales process; and, fortunately, there is an abundance of information on how to effectively sell. Law enforcement recruiting is sales, so we must become salespeople.
My name is Kevin Gendron and I am a former law enforcement professional who has made a second career in sales. I will be joined by Rob Cate, CEO of Interview Now, as well as guest contributors in an exploration of law enforcement recruitment as a sales function. We will look at how to build an effective recruiting team, how to analyze and optimize your recruitment process, how to apply proven sales techniques to get the results you need, and much more. We will post twice a month and include templates, exercises, and worksheets you can use to immediately start building and optimizing your processes.
A successful recruitment program requires a combination of marketing, communication, and sales skills, an optimized sales process, and the tools needed to operate efficiently.
We can no longer rely on “post and pray” techniques where we leave the outcomes to chance, instead we will proactively seek out, engage, and sell quality candidates on careers in law enforcement.
It is time to stop farming and start hunting.
