Victorian Police Recruitment Strategies on 3AW 693AM Melbourne
Topic: Victorian Police Recruitment Strategies
Date: 6 January 2023
Media Outlet: 3AW 693AM Melbourne https://www.3aw.com.au
Broadcaster / Interviewer: Heidi Murphy
Producer: James Szabo
Duration: 00:06:53
Time: 16:11
Audio Recording: 6MB
YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KDNygwPtyc
Topics Discussed:
✔ encouraging existing police officers to encourage friends and family to apply
✔ developing voluntary work and internship options
✔ coordinating work experience placements at a central level rather than station level with career practitioners in schools
✔ discussing the advantages of policing in advertising
✔ dispelling the myths of the dangers of policing in advertising
✔ streamlining the recruitment process
Transcript:
Now I wonder if you’ve ever tried to get into the Police Academy tried to get into the police force what happened the force is struggling to attract recruits at the moment there’s low numbers at the Academy not as many applications on the books as they’d like um and they’ve acknowledged that there is an increased attrition level or there was an increased attrition level in the 12 months to November last year attrition was at 4.7 percent much higher than where it normally sits around 3.6 percent they’re blaming that in part on the high number of officers who held off retiring during the pandemic so then when they’ve all gone in one fell sweep it’s pushed the attrition rate a bit higher and and they say it stabilized in recent months but they are on a recruitment blitz and they do need more uh more applications more recruits coming through they launched some ads back in October and I understand they’re about to trial a new exam option where you can do the test online anywhere a bit like the uh bit like the learner driver test I guess I was keen to um get some expert advice on what sort of things would attract people to this as a as a career I ask if if people are currently considering it as a career online is Sue Ellson Career Expert so thanks for your time this afternoon
Hello Heidi what would you uh what would you say to someone if they came in to say I’m thinking about a career in the police force
Well I would look at really a number of ways that they could get some sort of introduction to it so yeah obviously if you go to the police website there’s a lot of information there sadly it only talks about getting the full career not joining a civilian role as a public servant it also is saying that you can’t do voluntary work and you can’t do internships but if you had some of those other options available you could get the taste test you could understand a little bit more about it but the actual application process is pretty detailed and I think that would actually put a lot of people off as well do you have people asking you about it as a as a career choice look I did meet a police officer and he said the reason he wanted to join the police force was so he could drive fast cars so you know that was his motivation and look I find that a lot of people who work in defense you know police or those sort of Emergency Services roles they usually have family and friends who are in a similar role so they’ve got some sort of exposure to it and they’ve heard a little bit about it when I was working in banking we found our best recruits were friends and family of existing bank employees so that is you know definitely a good segue but if the advertising campaigns start up I think they’d probably need to dispel some of the myths now one of the myths that I think is in regular use is oh it’s dangerous work the police force you could get killed on the job well sadly there are many people who are killed at work and most of them are killed in the industries of manufacturing and construction in Victoria so you know you’d want to dispel that myth you’d also want to focus on some of the positives so for example you get nine weeks leave if you join the police force you get that camaraderie that being part of something or wearing the uniform and you actually get a lot of transferable skills that you could use in another career uh you know if you no matter how long you stay there
Is that the solution then to pick up on what you’re saying first there is to is to ask current members of the force to recommend it to family and friends as Absolutely as possibly a more effective thing than just uh broad strokes advertising campaigns oh I would absolutely agree with that in some organizations they actually offer a financial incentive if you know you recommend somebody who then becomes a successful applicant and stays for a length of time in that organization so that could definitely be a way to do it and they can talk to what the job is really like I would also like to say that if you look at the structure of the police force and all organizations are changing all the time but if you could say look here’s some more jobs that we can make as civilian jobs rather than you know fully qualified police officer jobs that could perhaps ease the stress of some of them who’ve got all this paperwork that they have to complete and it could give other people an introduction to the police force that says right now I want to get my hands dirty and you know be out on the street and do those other policing duties
I wonder what you think of this idea the state government did flag before the election uh their new state electricity commission idea part of it part of the um the scheme will involve sending reps um to every state school careers night to try to lure the school leavers into trades into renewable energy trades mmm to build these Workforce as they go along is that the next step for police should they be getting into that sort of space going to every careers night I mean do they already or um I’m not aware of that but as I said earlier they don’t offer voluntary work they don’t offer internships but they do offer work experience now those work experience placements are coordinated at the station level and most stations I imagine would be particularly busy so I would suggest perhaps having a central work experience coordination unit that liaised with careers advisors and and those sorts of people and kept them updated on the work experience placements that are available throughout the year at different times that could be a really effective way because a lot of careers teachers have difficulties getting students into placements whereas if there was a coordinated approach available through some central unit at VicPol then that could you know definitely help encourage a few more people to to see it
The police Minister did tell our Newsroom this morning that the current recruitment campaigns are paying dividends and are but I don’t think that is actually the case mmm tell me what what are the more popular of the career choices these days for younger people for school leavers Well if they’re watching the you know average number of 43 hours a month on TikTok, they’ve probably decided they’d like to do a side hustle and sign up for some little program where they automatically get paid and they can stay on the couch now the Australian Bureau of statistics has actually indicated that 20% of the workforce went to work from home during the pandemic and they suspect that ongoing it’s going to be 15% so if you’ve got a lot more people who would like to be working from home and that’s all ages not just young people but older people as well then I think some of those roles could be helpful to to offer as well sort of desk jobs are white collar business services those sorts of roles you’re thinking all right thank you very much Sue Ellson Thanks Heidi Career Expert sueellson.com tell me have you ever tried to uh to get into the police force and if so I mean how did it go did you manage to get in was there a stumbling block what was it 18 minutes past four back in a moment
Further information:
Police Career https://www.police.vic.gov.au/police
Victorian Public Service Careers (Civilian Roles) https://www.police.vic.gov.au/vps
Work experience, traineeships and employment schemes https://www.police.vic.gov.au/work-experience-traineeships-and-employment-schemes
Workcover Statistics https://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/data-and-statistics
Australian Bureau of Statistics ABS Working from Home https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-working-conditions/working-arrangements/latest-release
15% working from home in the future https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bernardsalt_the-big-shift-how-our-priorities-have-changed-activity-7014691938704510977-ZsT6
Victoria Police Career Advertisement https://twitter.com/VictoriaPolice/status/1590579437443371008
3AW story from earlier in the day https://www.3aw.com.au/how-to-address-victoria-polices-recruiting-woes
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