Recruitment and Retention
Marinus Jorgensen
What a hot topic! Almost every agency in every state is experiencing some type of shortage. When I was hired in 1999, over 125 people applied for my single position. Last hiring, we had 9 applicants. What has happened? What changed in those 26 years that stifled our ability to hire? If I could honestly answer that question, I would be touring the country making millions as a consultant. As it currently stands, I am a sergeant who would still gladly bleed for his agency, but making far less than those millions. Some blame shifting politics and anti-police sentiment, some cite a generational gap, and some are still blaming covid. I cite the following, and be warned, this is merely my opinion, and I am a tad salty. (No mention of pizza parties allowed to boost morale).
Culture
What is the culture of your agency? Does it invite questions from new officers, or does it shun them for simply lifting their heads? When I started, the older officers insisted that the younger ones do all the work. Why? Because they thought they already did everything they needed to do. Although I kept my mouth shut and worked, that sat in my craw for years. I made a promise to myself then and there that when I became the older officer, I would never do the same. My motto became, “If you’re not too old to wear the uniform, you’re too old to work or train.” This is where I also began to eyeball sergeants. In 1999, it was almost unheard of to be able to ask a shift sergeant a question. It felt as if it was beneath them to entertain such trivial issues from new hires. If this is your current mindset, you may be part of the problem.
The culture of your facility is not hard to figure out. Is it conducive to longevity, or does it constantly have turnover? Are there any rewards for longevity, or are you concerned with merely appeasing the new hires? There is a balance that must be achieved. It is delicate and requires your most loyal officers and command staff. Through persistence and dedication, these goals are attainable. When many people work towards the same goal, it becomes a mission. That mission gains traction and will change the entire culture. Here’s how!
Generational Gap
Never forget your first day in the big house. The noises, the smells, the overall nervousness that you felt as you walked your first check. If you can recall that, which I can viscerally, use that the next time someone approaches you for advice. I have incorporated an “open door” policy with new hires. They genuinely believe I am investing in them, which yields a bountiful harvest down the line. I understand that they are a different generation, and they are much more tech savvy than they are frontal lobe. This is OK if you learn to utilize their strengths. My dad used to say, “it’s easier to pull a rope than it is to push it.” Why do we, as supervisors, overlook the massive talent pool we have working beside us? Got a new officer who is great with social media presence? Put them in touch with your command and let them assist in the agency’s platform pages. This gives them ownership in their job and a sense of real belonging.
We all must master the different areas of a jail. The best officers tend to be the most curious. We are literally shooting ourselves in the foot when we do not foster that curiosity. When a new officer approaches me for the first time, they all say the same thing: “I got a dumb question.” My immediate response, “Then I have a dumb answer.” When the recruit understands that I value all their questions, then they understand they can ask me anything. This only works when you truly buy into the thought process that you should genuinely care about their progress and growth.
Leadership
As their sergeant, I also work WITH them. There is a school of thought that when you arrive at sergeant-hood, you do not have to work any longer. So, what you’re saying is that you spent years trying to impress your command staff, only to back it up by being lazy? As my daughter would say, “that’s cray.” I log roughly 22,000 steps a day, hoofing it with my crew. They know that without question I would be there sweating with them. The job is tough for them; it should be tough for me also. I never bark orders from a seated position. My feet are never up, and my attitude is always one of having fun while we are slowly killing ourselves. Shift officers on my team present with a much higher level of productivity through this. I admonish in private and praise in public. When’s the last time you said “good job” to your crew? You may be asking how does this relate to retention?
Happy officers do not seek employment elsewhere. Officers who feel valued do not seek validation elsewhere. The big question is how do you make everyone happy? The answer is very simple; you cannot make everyone happy. You invest in the ones who reciprocate, and we simply must part ways with those who cannot. My agency is big on talking family first and my agency is also big on walking that walk. When your officers genuinely believe that they care about them, the loyalty and work ethic deepen. My captain has helped me so much through my career that my son’s middle name is named after him. It sounds weird, but that’s what creates loyalty, just being there. There were 100 times I could have been fired, but he saw that through a teachable moment, I can and will become a leader in our field.
Front-line supervisors aside, how is your command structure? Is it inviting for those who work there to come and ask questions or maybe just say hello? If it doesn’t, you are missing a genuine opportunity to be a part of those who do the work. Our command is hands on and on the floor. They are also busy with other things, but they always carve out just enough time to come in and mingle with the front-line officers. Maybe we are just lucky, but I have witnessed firsthand how this keeps officers interested in this field.
Accountability
Believe this statement or not: “Adults crave accountability.” There is no more destructive thing to the entire morale of your agency than no accountability. Officer X works hard. She is proud of the uniform and the agency it represents. She is a fine example of future leadership. Officer Y is a lazy, unmotivated soul. He shirks his duties, and no one holds him accountable. In fact, he is so bad that Officer X must pick up his slack. Officer Y continues to be terrible because no one says anything. Officer X is overworked and tired of seeing him get away with being the way he is. Officer X quits. Rinse and repeat in every agency that does not hold their officers’ feet to the flames. This happens every day across our great profession because some folks are afraid of a little confrontation.
A simple fix, find your most productive officers and instead of burdening them with everything because you know they will do it and burn them out, PROMOTE them. Task them with creating more of them and fostering the idea of rewarding positive behavior instead of negative. This sets the bar for promotion and productivity skyrockets. Specialty position opening? Instead of interviews, talk to sergeants and let coworkers have an opinion on who should get it. They work with them, and some people interview well, but are sincerely terrible when they get the job. There is no better litmus test than a real coworker. Institutional jealousy aside, this is the purest way to expose your best and brightest.
Recruiting
Now as much as I have sung the praises of my captain, I’d be lying if I said I haven’t had a few moments where I wanted to strangle him. It’s every time he looks at a possible recruit and utters this phrase, “The jail is a great place to start!” Uh, what? Yeah, I started here too, and 26 years later, I still feel it’s a great place to work. I understand that a lot of new recruits want to be cops. They want to go out and save the world one fail-to-appear warrant at a time, but when I recruit, I scream that this is the best career to get into. I let them know about all the cool things we deal with and the specialty units they can join. I let them know that they will never be doing an accident report at 0234 hours on January 13 when it’s -92 degrees. I make the job sound like it is; different and challenging every day.
How you set the tone and how you work every day is the key to keeping people tied into what I truly believe; that the jail IS the career, not the starting point. I find other officers who look good in their uniforms. They shower daily and carry the same great attitude that separates them from the herd. They are excited about this career and find as much enjoyment as I do. Then I teach them how to spread that to others who may be looking. We hit colleges and job fairs. We stalk sporting events and anywhere they will let us set up a booth. If you are excited, your recruits become excited. I teach their first two weeks, and I keep that energy injected into all aspects. I let them know that when they are done with FTO, they can ask me anything. They find me, they ask, and I give them solid, endearing advice. This is recruiting.
Not only is it recruiting, but I also have many officers who were looking for other law enforcement employment change their minds and stay in our jail. This is our goal. Change our culture from the inside out, make everyone a part of a real team, expose talents, and be better than those before us. Small hint to be even more successful: have the sheriff take a genuine interest in your officers. The sooner they realize that they can curb a multitude of issues by treating us like professionals, the better.
I have been blessed to work under four sheriff’s in my tenure. The first two were rather unremarkable simply because they did not invest in their greatest commodity: the jail. We were the stepchildren of law enforcement and treated as such. Fast forward through many years of heartbreak and a sheriff took a real chance. He addressed the problems in the jail and decided that he would bring us to the same level as the beloved roadside. Deputies did not want to train us and when they were forced to, it was a disaster. This sheriff said, “No one knows a CO better than another CO.” and sent a few of us off to become instructors. I was immediately hooked! I went to every school they would send me to. I became the subject matter expert, and I began the arduous task of establishing programs to be taught.
I created the defensive tactics program, I head the in-house tactical response team, I am a Taser instructor, less lethal instructor, cell extraction instructor, Force Science Analyst, I head the use of force review team, and many other disciplines. I found a sheriff that invested in me and that returned a massive yield to the agency. Our current sheriff is just as excited and involved in training. He is literally one of the most dynamic leaders I have ever encountered. THAT inspires growth, THAT inspires loyalty. THAT retains employees. I digress as I sound a bit like a fanboy, but I am grateful that he is here and leading this great agency.
Picking the correct officers for the correct role is of utmost importance. If they show a natural tendency to adhere to policy, allow them to assist in its creation. If you have an outgoing and charismatic officer, I am guessing they would make an entertaining instructor. Exposing that talent is just one step; the next is to build it up. I instruct. My background is in instructing tens of thousands of students in the martial art of Taekwondo. It took me two years to be certified and a lifetime to really start to understand what motivates me. By tapping into the individual, rather than the entire collective, we begin to know the person under the uniform. They are not “cogs in the machine,” they are people. They have hopes and dreams as well as fears and trepidations. Seeing officers train officers is one of the greatest compliments to an administration there is.
We, as supervisors, tend to overlook the small details as we are tasked with running a shift. Time to dig a little deeper and invest in those we do not want to lose. Time to break generational cycles of how we were brought up in the system and pay heed to the newer generation that will take over. I often speak to new officers about legend versus legacy. There are two types of long-term officers. Ones who are interested in being legends tend to take risks that are truly not needed. They rush head-strong into unsafe situations to build a reputation of almost Wyatt Earp status. The others are legacy officers. These officers want to make an eternal footprint in the agency that hired them. They instill practices that far exceed their tenure and echo for many, many years past.
At 25 years of age, I knew nothing of legacy. I was fully engulfed in becoming a legend in the sections and an officer to not mix words with. The incarcerated individuals parted like the red sea upon my arrival, and I enjoyed that. At 50, I look back at how foolish that mentality was. I missed real opportunities to positively impact an incarcerated individual’s life and possibly help them from returning. I do not miss these opportunities now and my incarcerated individuals and officers are programmed to look for me in times of real need. They ask, I do. They respect, I respect. They talk, I listen. It is so much easier to be genuine than it is to wear a disguise. Complex problems require complex solutions. We are often faced with issues that we can figure out, but it requires some outside-the-box thinking.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we are in this wonderful mess together. I can only tell what worked for us. Are we fully staffed? Heck no! With national averages citing a -23.2% staffing issue (SPSC.org), we are still doing better than that, but could always use more. As county supervisors play with our budgets with very little concern for our safety, we must take these matters into our own hands. Building morale is more than pizza, it’s effort. I am blessed to be surrounded by those willing to put the effort in. Understand this is not just for sergeants and above, every officer is responsible for their own happiness. I often say, “your self-esteem is not my problem.” I say this not to be rude, but to remind those around me that their happiness is directly related to their attitude. Leadership is not about stripes. Fostering future leadership is a compliment to you. Instill rigid expectations and hold those who need it accountable. Praise those who handle the stressors of this job with dignity and professionalism. Good luck!
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Sergeant Marinus Jorgensen was hired in 1999 and has served in almost every function the Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office has offered. From frontline officer, FTO, in house response team, to sergeant. He is currently a 6th degree black belt in Taekwondo and heads up almost every discipline for instruction in the agency. Marinus is married with three children and two amazing Cocker Spaniels. He firmly believes life is only successful by adhering to the principles my father instilled in me. In order they are Faith, Family, then Profession.
For more information, he can be contacted at cjorgensen@woodburycountyiowa.gov
