My Best Advice for Growing as a Background Investigator, Recruiter, or Police Marketer!

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In a rut with your police recruiting and starting to feel the pressure because you don’t know what to do next?  🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️

Relax…it's ok not to know exactly what to do or how to do it! Believe you me, I’ve been there! The key to it all, is not staying that way, and, in this video, I’ll give you my best advice for growing as a Background Investigator, Recruiter, or Police Marketer...keep reading! 👀

Hey everyone, it’s Tom Sye your Police Marketing FTO, and this week, we’re talking about something that is not talked about a whole lot but affects every single one of us during our time in recruiting and backgrounds and that is the feeling of being stuck and not knowing what to do next. 😩

It really makes perfect sense why this isn’t talked about.  We’re cops.  We’re the problem solvers.  We’re the ones who are supposed to have the answers to everything in a split second without making any mistakes ever.  So, for us, this feeling of uncertainty goes against everything we’ve been taught our entire career and makes us feel like we just got out of the academy again. 😬  

Well, I’m here to tell you…as your Police Marketing FTO, it’s ok not to know.  Not knowing is not the problem.  Doing nothing about it…is. 💯

You know, early on in my police career, I told my dad, who was a nearly thirty-year police officer himself, that I couldn’t wait until I had some more time on, so I felt like I knew more, and his response changed my career outlook forever. 🤯

He told me…Tom…there’s a big difference between twenty years’ experience and one year experience twenty times.  Profound and so true. 💪

So, with that being said, here are the three best pieces of advice I can give to you after 20 years of policing with a decade plus of that being in recruiting and backgrounds to help you through struggling with not knowing what to do...

1.  Constantly seek out learning opportunities

The fact that you are reading this newsletter is a great head start in this area as there always is something to learn.  You know every single day over the past decade plus in recruiting, I learned something new.  Every day.  Whether it was about recruiting in general, background investigations, marketing, people, relationships, new generations, or literally any topic dealing with police recruiting. 🤷‍♂️

The reason I was able to do that was because I went out looking for it.  I surfed the internet for interesting articles.  I was all over social media seeing what successful companies were doing.  I attended webinars, read books, listened to podcasts, and took courses on any subject I thought would help me. 🧽

You should do this too.  When you start thinking you know everything there is to know about something, that’s when you’re showing how much you have to learn.  Seek out learning opportunities…often! 📖

2.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions or for help.

Again, this is a tough concept for us to wrap our cop brains around, but you cannot be afraid to ask for help.  Do you know how many times in my career I have both asked and answered questions about background investigations and recruiting?  Me either…it’s been so many times I couldn’t even possibly begin to put a number on it. 🫨

If you have a question…ask someone!  Ask somebody in your office their opinion on something.  Call another agency and ask for their advice.  You know you can always ask me…that’s what I’m here for. 👍

You don’t need to be nervous or embarrassed that you don’t know.  Trust me…everyone goes through this and the person you ask the question to…will be flattered that you did and be more than happy to help you out. 😀

3.  Never fear trying something out

This is especially true with recruiting and marketing, but really goes for anything in our special corner of the police world…don’t be afraid to try new things and see what works!  It took me forever to build up the confidence to start posting memes on our recruiting page.  I had no idea if they would go over well or not and kept stopping myself because we’re a police department and we’re supposed to be super professional. 🧱

But you know what…for us, memes are now some of best performing content on our page and our applicants love them. 😍

Now, this doesn’t mean try out every idea someone is pitching you…especially when there’s big money involved in doing so.  You still gotta be smart about it.  But if you want to put an orange banner up at a job fair because it stands out…go for it.  Actually did that one too, and it was like a magnet for applicants because it was so different! 🧲

Listen…some things you try aren’t going to work and that’s ok too.  Recruiting is one giant experiment…you’re never going to know what’s going to work until you try. 🥼🧪

Ok, if you’re ready for some more of these pearls…my Road to Better Recruiting course covers all three areas and is going to change your police recruiting forever!  I’m going to teach you the exact mindset and strategies that made me successful in police recruiting…all without comprising our standards, taking short cuts, or spending endless dollars on recruiting ‘solutions’ that don’t work. 😎

Check it out now on my website by visiting www.forcopstraining.com/rtbr.  I can’t wait for you to see it! 🙌

Know someone at another agency who’s stuck too?  Share this newsletter with them!  Remember, we’re all in this together and it’s going to take all of us, working together, to change the future of police recruiting. 🤝

Have more questions about police recruiting, marketing, or anything else you're struggling with? Don't hesitate to reach out...I’m always here to help. 🙏

Until next week my Police Marketing Squad, happy recruiting! 😃

Tom

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👋 I’m Tom Sye, your Police Marketing FTO. I founded ‘For Cops’ Training to teach Police Departments how to attract more qualified candidates through the same tried and tested methods I’ve used for the past ten years at my own department to keep up with turnover and stay ahead of vacancies.

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