Coupons, Recruitment, and Retention

My new friend John Patrick Clair , Chief of Marion, Virginia’s Police Department, and I had a wide-ranging discussion on public safety last week. One issue I hesitated to bring up was #staffing. I know that most law enforcement agencies in the US are critically understaffed.?

“I’m fully staffed,” John said, “despite those who decided to leave in the first few months after my appointment.”

“I’ll bet it’s BECAUSE of those people who left,” I responded. “With all due respect to Donny Osmond, one bad apple does spoil the whole bunch.” (I’m not sure how far back John’s musical trivia goes, but he smiled at the reference.) I’ve seen it in every organization I’ve belonged to, from college fraternities to restaurants to fire departments. Tolerating bad behavior because you’re short-handed encourages more bad behavior, and it turns away potential recruits who are looking for an organization whose uniform they are proud to wear. The end result is an understaffed department that underperforms.

John and I discussed the balance between #recruiting efforts and #retention efforts, and I may have gotten a bit passionate when I said, “Ignore recruitment; focus on retention.” Retention doesn’t mean keeping every cop (or firefighter) regardless of their behavior. Retention means building a system that people are proud to belong to, and contribute to. Sure, compensation is important, especially in a public safety organization where there are many temptations to cut corners on the justice process.?

But once you get past base pay, loyalty to an organization comes from what another friend calls “all that Maslow stuff,” referring to the upper levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. If people feel fulfilled, challenged, and rewarded, they’ll support the organization, and their interactions with the public will inspire others to support it. The sad truth is, few people get “all that Maslow stuff” at work, and often not even at home. If your organization can offer it, you will succeed.?

Solve the retention problem, and two good things will happen as a direct result. First, the recruitment problem diminishes, because you’ve plugged the holes at the bottom of the recruitment bucket. Simple math says fewer people leaving your organization means fewer spots you must fill. Second, those loyal members will be your best recruiting tools. Their mere presence -- well-dressed, smiling, professional – will make others want to be part of that team.

I mentioned to John what I did in a volunteer search and rescue group a few years ago. We started giving members a certificate and round of applause at the meeting after their very first response to a search mission. We wanted to build in all members the habit of responding to search missions, even at inconvenient times. It worked so well that we created another certificate for their fifth mission. By that time, the habit of response was well engrained. The cost of this reward system? A sheet of sturdy paper and 10 minutes at the computer.

Police departments and other agencies are offering new enlistment bonuses of $10,000 and more. “Coupons,” I said to Chief Clair. “If Kellogg wants you to try their corn flakes, they may offer you a coupon for $.50 off. It’s a typical marketing trick to get people to change their habits. And it works to generate new customers. But if the corn flakes are no good, Kellogg’s won’t keep that new customer. It’s the same thing with a public safety agency. Throwing money at a problem is the easiest, and usually least successful, way to solve it.?

Find out why people are quitting, and solve THAT problem. Or find the people who are happy (and whom you WANT to keep) and find out what makes them happy.” As everyone who has yearned for the pride of being part of a successful organization knows, solving that problem often means letting go of the members who are dragging down performance.

As I said to my son’s Drill Instructor at US Marine Corps boot camp graduation, “I never doubted that my son was up to the standards of the Corps. I was a little concerned that the Corps might not be up to my son’s standards.” (It was, by the way.)

I know it sounds contradictory, but the minute you think that someone is invaluable to your organization, the organization becomes beholden to that person. A successful organization needs no one that badly (not even you – rotation of leadership is a lesson for a future article), and that organization will continue to attract more than its share of qualified candidates. So build a department whose uniform you’d be proud to wear. It starts within you, and it grows within the department.