The Sisyphus Comments

Job Announcements, Recruiting and Young Workers

I want to remind all criminal justice agencies that we welcome your job announcements on the weekly CopCAST podcast. Just send the announcement to talkback@copcast.net and we will put it on the next show. I will also list your job announcement here on The Sisyphus Comments.

However, after reading and announcing a bunch of job opportunities, one of the things I have noticed is that some agencies aren’t preparing their recruiting announcements with today’s target audience in mind. There are a few issues that I believe every agency administrator should consider when putting together a recruiting program.

First, you must realize that the days of emulating the old Marine Corps slogan of “We are looking for a few good men” are over. There are not nearly as many good men and women out there who are interested in pursuing a career in the criminal justice profession and the competition for the best is very keen. Even the Marine Corps has retired that method of recruiting.

Next, sell your community, its history, climate, location, recreational opportunities and other quality of life factors. Don’t be afraid to mention the night life in the area. Remember, you are targeting the 20 somethings and many of them are more interested in social hot spots than the quality of the schools in the area.

Keep in mind that younger workers feel much less loyalty to institutions than the older workers you may already employ at your agency. Unlike your older workers who expect to earn their way up the ladder, younger workers have been raised in a culture of “immediate gratification” so they want responsibility and expect to have input right away.

Another factor to consider is that most high school and college curriculi now include a strong emphasis on group projects and teamwork. This has created a class of young people who are very social and if you can create a strong social environment at work, you can take advantage of this network-centric attitude.

Recruiting and training new employees is a very expensive endeavor. Agencies need to make retention more of a core responsibility for managers at all levels of the organization. You may even want to include recruitment and retention of employees in your supervisors’ job descriptions and as a point in their yearly performance evaluation. In fact, you could carry this a step further and make recruiting a factor in everyone’s performance evaluation. Issue job applications containing a “Referred By:” block to all of your officers and deputies and then reward them for helping to refer quality candidates.

Finally, always remember that mediocre recruiters seek out and attract mediocre applicants. If you truly want to land the best available applicants for your agency, put your best people in charge of recruiting, testing and hiring, to include performing background investigations. It takes the best to recognize the best!

In the words of Dennis Miller, of course that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.