Many people have usually a poor perception or frame of mind about the police personnel or their management. Police cops (in many countries) are lazy and don’t perform their duties at their best; moreover, people are often heard saying that police always reach after the incidence has happened. Even many of them don’t rely on police and don’t take their services even their property or belongings such as car, motorcycle, or cell phone are theft or lost. The fundamental rule is that performance depends over the effort and management of employees; whether it’s a police department, a bank, or any other company. And that effort comes from the quality of the employees that are kept. Not only other small or medium companies face the employee recruitment or retention issues, but the most common institution that faces these problems is a Police department.
All police organizations face the challenge of achieving good results from the personnel they have. This process has become more complicated in recent years (Wilson & Grammich, 2009) as violence and homeland security needs have increased in many communities. The employees in the police departments are often those who are addicted to drugs, involved in bribery, or face the problems of health fitness such as, obesity. All these personal issues no doubt affect their motivation and ability to work properly and honestly. But apart from these personal factors, there are some institutional or departmental problems that are the core reasons that reduces the job image and job satisfaction; hence resulting in the issues of employee recruitment and their retention.
Since this is the era of globalization, so along with its advantages there are some disadvantages, for instance, easy flow of ammunitions from one place to another or the increase in the terrorism acts such as bomb blasts, human trafficking, or cybercrimes. The crux of mentioning these issues are that they require effective and efficient services by the police or other law enforcement agencies in order to keep these issues from happening.
Now we’ll have a look at the problems that are being faced by the police departments in recruiting the quality employees. First of all, the candidates of today are more likely to need a stronger focus on strategic thinking and problem-solving skills (Wilson & Grammich, 2009); moreover, they need the ability to collaborate and as well as the greater capacity to use technology and problem-solving skills. Those who possess these abilities prefer to work in a reputable bank, company, or at any management position than to work in a police department. Another problems that occur in some countries is the gender issue; many countries don’t allow or prefer to recruit female candidates even if they are competent enough to work to the position applied.
A survey was conducted on 205 agencies which included a total of 124 questionnaires which produced an aggregate return rate of 60 percent. The survey asked about the reasons of poor employee recruitment and retention; majority of the people focused on the absence of sound salaries, lack of improved screening criteria, and raising new minimum standards for applicants. The police departments fail to entice the young candidates who are skilled and can efficiently fulfill their jobs because of the salary issue. The salary that is offered is very low; where as the job is hectic and tough, so skillful candidates prefer to work somewhere else. Another issue is that many of the candidates are hired on the basis of reference or source, even if they are not skilled. It worsens the quality of performance of the department and in the long-term affects the system as a whole.
Other problems include are, there are no proper minimum education or personal standards for the applicants, such as, age, criminal record, basic reading and math testing, ethnicity, and relationships with military and college programs. Moreover, the insufficient budgets of the police department remain a key issue for the proper employee recruitment and retention practices. According to (Yearwood, 2004), the research identified the most common barriers to recruitment, out of which agency budget restrictions got 77.6 percent of the agencies; nevertheless, the competition of police department with other criminal justice agencies was the also the main issue.
As far as the problems of employee retention are concerned, they should have been coped in order to increase the job satisfaction of the employees and create the most important thing that would encourage the new candidates, and that is, ‘word of mouth’. The results of the survey shows that Word of mouth got the rating of 6.83 out of 9 on an Average Effectiveness Rating Scale. Obviously, none would want to work more for less and to stay at the same level with his stagnant growth. The main issue that lead employees to change their job or to leave the current job is the lack of salary increases. People think that as the time goes along, no or little increase in the salary doesn’t satisfy the employees of police departments and compel them to leave the job. The survey result shows that the employees often resign or leave the job within 3 years of their starting. Another major issue is the lack of promotional opportunities. Usually the employees in police departments face stagnant growth and don’t get the opportunity to be promoted to a higher level.
Other issues include the lack of tuition imbursements and allowing officers to attend classes during the work hours, favorable work shifts, and lateral transfers. The number of lateral transfers across law enforcement agencies result due to the reason (Yearwood, 2004) that may include the lack of handsome salary, extending an officer’s employee contract, and other employment incentives to remain with an agency once employed.
Since the proper recruitment of quality employees can only help boost the performance of the police department or the whole system; therefore, proper measures must be taken to improve and standardize the recruitment of suitable and competent candidates. Moreover, the policies must be designed and implemented in order to let the employees to stick to their jobs and work diligently and efficiently. The need to be more effective and efficient for the police employees is rising, but it’s not impossible to manage it.
References
- Douglas L. Yearwood. (2003). Recruitment and Retention Study Series. Sworn Police Personnel.
- Douglas L. Yearwood, (2004). Analyzing Concerns among Police Administrators: Recruitment and Retention of Police Officers in North Carolina. The Police Chief, vol. 71, no. 3.
- Jeremy M. Wilson and Clifford A. Grammich, (2009). Police Recruitment and Retention in the Contemporary Urban Environment. Published in 2009 by the RAND Corporation.