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July 30, 2024

Revolutionizing Law Enforcement Recruitment with Doug Larson

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Unlock the secrets to modern law enforcement recruitment with Doug Larson, co-founder of SAFEGUARD Recruiting, as he joins us on Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates. Learn how to attract and retain the best candidates through revolutionary strategies that go beyond superficial marketing tactics. Doug shares his transition from a Utah police officer to a recruitment expert, emphasizing the importance of self-sufficiency for police departments through targeted training.

Discover how proactive engagement and continuous communication can transform your recruitment process. Traditional methods are outdated; today’s approach involves a 24/7 digital campaign that keeps potential recruits engaged and informed. Doug discusses the necessity of multiple touchpoints and expert-crafted messaging to ensure candidates stay interested throughout the lengthy hiring journey. This strategy not only helps fill vacancies but also meets the needs of contemporary law enforcement.

Addressing budget concerns, we delve into cost-effective recruitment solutions tailored to fit various financial constraints. Doug highlights the inefficiency of relying solely on flashy websites and videos, advocating instead for acquiring candidate names through targeted social media ads. With detailed data and metrics, Doug demonstrates how to convert traffic into actual applicants. For departments looking to enhance their recruitment efforts, valuable resources and training are available at safeguardrecruiting.com. Join us for an episode filled with practical insights and a courageous call to action.

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Chapters

00:00 - Leadership, Recruitment, and Retention Strategies

04:59 - Modern Recruiting Strategies in Law Enforcement

18:18 - Affordable and Effective Law Enforcement Recruiting

26:06 - Recruiting Assistance From Safeguard Recruiting

Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.119 --> 00:00:04.826
We can handle all forms of this that you see, so we can put a website up for you.

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We can provide applicant tracking systems so you can track all your applicants that come in, put them in categories, mass messaging from them and make yourself more efficient.

00:00:16.196 --> 00:00:17.425
We can do videos for you.

00:00:17.425 --> 00:00:24.233
But what I'm going to tell you, Travis, when I talk to a department is I want to prioritize what they need.

00:00:24.233 --> 00:00:31.027
A lot of departments right now think they need the fancy websites and the videos up front, and but they need names.

00:00:31.027 --> 00:00:35.222
They need people working for their department, and that's what we need to go after first.

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We'll follow it up with the marketing elements.

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Keep people interested and understand what the department's about.

00:00:41.850 --> 00:00:49.640
But I think there's a priority of how you should be spending your money if you're going to be most effective in getting people interested in working for your department.

00:00:51.384 --> 00:00:59.771
Welcome to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates, where leaders find the insights, advice and encouragement they need to lead courageously.

00:01:01.121 --> 00:01:02.386
Welcome back to the show.

00:01:02.386 --> 00:01:19.456
I'm so honored you're spending a few minutes with us here today and I think this is going to be a show that you have to listen to and you've got to send to anyone and everyone that cares about the law enforcement profession leadership, recruiting and retention.

00:01:19.456 --> 00:01:24.852
I have on today's show the co-founder of Safeguard Recruiting, doug Larson.

00:01:24.852 --> 00:01:26.013
It's an incredible story.

00:01:26.013 --> 00:01:26.519
It's an incredible story.

00:01:26.519 --> 00:01:28.105
It's an incredible company.

00:01:28.105 --> 00:01:29.947
You've heard me talk about them a lot.

00:01:29.947 --> 00:01:32.748
I'm even more involved now today than ever with them.

00:01:32.748 --> 00:01:39.034
That's because, when it comes to leadership, if you don't figure out recruiting, there's no need for the rest of this stuff.

00:01:39.034 --> 00:01:44.325
It is literally the most important topic of our generation, and Doug and his team have figured this out.

00:01:44.325 --> 00:01:45.548
So, doug Larson, how are you sir?

00:01:46.531 --> 00:01:47.171
Doing excellent.

00:01:49.647 --> 00:01:50.712
Thanks for having me on.

00:01:50.712 --> 00:01:56.364
Well, man, I know you've been going here what three or four years now and it's a pretty incredible story, so I know many of our listeners have heard it.

00:01:56.364 --> 00:02:08.004
But quickly tell us how you went from a retired Utah police officer doing a lot of stuff in the private industry to now you literally are solving the recruiting issue for all these agencies.

00:02:08.004 --> 00:02:08.907
How'd that even happen?

00:02:10.169 --> 00:02:13.003
Yeah, it's kind of been an incredible little ride here.

00:02:13.003 --> 00:02:15.711
I didn't start off right away in law enforcement recruiting.

00:02:15.711 --> 00:02:23.962
I actually started in truck driver recruiting and it's even a much more difficult industry than the law enforcement has.

00:02:23.962 --> 00:02:37.812
They're up against a lot of barriers there, so we learned a lot from what works over there, best practices and in my travel still doing training in law enforcement, I come across a lot of departments that are struggling to hire.

00:02:37.812 --> 00:02:53.168
They're struggling to get enough interest in their department and they kept asking us to take a look at what they were doing, what was working, what wasn't working, why they couldn't get enough people interested in their openings, and Safeguard was born from that.

00:02:53.168 --> 00:03:04.955
Safeguard not only gets people to apply for departments, but we've got a training arm where we're trying to educate and assist in every way possible.

00:03:04.955 --> 00:03:10.048
So these departments are recruiting most efficient and effective as they can.

00:03:11.110 --> 00:03:17.572
Well, that's what, to me, is so unique and that's why I'm highly involved, because this is such a cool thing to be involved in.

00:03:17.572 --> 00:03:25.973
Doug is from a business standpoint, most people would say man, do the job, because what you do is unique.

00:03:25.973 --> 00:03:26.542
We'll talk about that.

00:03:26.542 --> 00:03:28.387
As you provide candidates to these agencies.

00:03:28.387 --> 00:03:40.106
These agencies are spending crazy money on branding and a bunch of stuff, whatever it is, and you say that's fine and dandy, but do you want recruits?

00:03:40.106 --> 00:03:41.371
Do you want applicants?

00:03:41.371 --> 00:03:42.233
Do you want candidates?

00:03:42.233 --> 00:03:43.805
That's what we do.

00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:59.568
So to kind of barrel this down into simpleton terms, to let the audience understand exactly what this is if your department and most departments needs to hire a chief or a captain or an administrator, you're not doing a branding campaign.

00:03:59.568 --> 00:04:04.953
You're hiring a recruiting firm or a headhunter firm to go find good candidates.

00:04:04.953 --> 00:04:09.187
That's not being done for the line officer, it's not being done for law enforcement.

00:04:09.187 --> 00:04:10.926
That's exactly what you do.

00:04:10.926 --> 00:04:28.370
You go out and you find qualified people that want to work for that specific agency and you send them to the agency and that's why you have clients that are in the top five cities in America to smaller clients, to everybody in between, because they have figured out this is the way recruiting is done.

00:04:28.430 --> 00:04:34.403
You go out and find people and that's what you've been able to do, doug but from a business standpoint, you talked about the training arm.

00:04:34.403 --> 00:04:38.838
That, to me, goes against everything in my mind about if I want to make money.

00:04:38.838 --> 00:04:41.242
I don't want to really tell people how I'm doing this.

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I don't want to tell people about the processes that we use.

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I don't want to educate the clients.

00:04:46.170 --> 00:04:47.492
I want them to pay me to do it.

00:04:47.492 --> 00:04:52.089
What made you decide to go deep into the training arm?

00:04:52.089 --> 00:04:59.156
And just for transparency, I do some of that training for you on the leadership end, but you guys pull in all the recruiting stuff.

00:04:59.156 --> 00:05:00.461
What made you decide to go there?

00:05:01.803 --> 00:05:05.973
Well, Travis, both you and I have an extensive training background.

00:05:05.973 --> 00:05:07.403
I think that's probably our first love.

00:05:07.403 --> 00:05:19.482
We've been doing our whole law enforcement careers and when I look at law enforcement and the availability of training for people that are put in the recruiter position, there's really nothing available.

00:05:19.482 --> 00:05:21.343
You come into that spot.

00:05:21.343 --> 00:05:32.536
There's no training to keep you up to date on the latest trends, the latest laws, how to make the algorithms work for you, where to place your ads, how long you leave that ad up.

00:05:33.461 --> 00:05:36.891
And getting the candidate is just the first step, Travis.

00:05:36.891 --> 00:05:39.163
That's probably the easy part.

00:05:39.163 --> 00:05:45.274
From that point on, we've got to work that candidate and we've got to kind of work it like a sales pipeline.

00:05:45.274 --> 00:05:46.723
So we keep them interested.

00:05:46.723 --> 00:05:50.733
We have, we make sure they understand what our entire process is.

00:05:50.733 --> 00:06:02.408
We take the stress out of the process and we keep the communication lines there so they can fill a part of our department, they feel needed and they know exactly what's going to take place every step of the way.

00:06:02.408 --> 00:06:09.992
Because getting into law enforcement is a lot different than getting into just a regular job where you can be hired to work that week.

00:06:09.992 --> 00:06:11.603
This can take three to six months.

00:06:11.603 --> 00:06:14.632
It's a process and we don't want people dropping out.

00:06:15.877 --> 00:06:20.067
Well, and that's really a mindset shift, because I know I speak about this often in training.

00:06:20.067 --> 00:06:25.827
Like you know, when I hired in law enforcement over 30 years ago, I put my application everywhere and I just sat back and waited.

00:06:25.827 --> 00:06:29.600
Back then it was a letter, right, you wouldn't even get a phone call and six months later I'd get a letter.

00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:31.079
Hey, here's the first step, or?

00:06:31.079 --> 00:06:34.642
Sorry, we don't want you, and I'm not bitter against the Arkansas State Police.

00:06:34.642 --> 00:06:37.418
They said I was too young, but anyway, I digress.

00:06:37.418 --> 00:06:42.786
I would get the rejection letters, or okay, you can come take our test, but you would wait for six, seven.

00:06:42.786 --> 00:06:49.862
I mean, I've talked to officers that waited years to get that initial letter in the mail saying okay, it's time.

00:06:49.862 --> 00:06:55.456
You can't do that today because it's not that that worked back then.

00:06:55.456 --> 00:07:04.127
But the people that are looking for jobs now 20 something year olds, in, but the people that are looking for jobs now 20 something year olds, right, for the most part, that's not how they need to be communicated with.

00:07:04.127 --> 00:07:05.810
And you found that out, have you not?

00:07:12.615 --> 00:07:13.016
Yeah, exactly right.

00:07:13.016 --> 00:07:18.716
So anybody listening to this if that is the way your department is recruiting right now, you're losing a lot of opportunity and we can help you out with fixing those steps in there.

00:07:18.716 --> 00:07:29.704
But no, the way people want to communicate now is, first off, lack of communication translates into lack of interest in their mind and they've moved on.

00:07:29.704 --> 00:07:42.822
You're already dealing with a generation that maybe isn't so career oriented, thinking hey, I'm going to do 20, 30 years it's more of I want to try this, so they're not as locked in.

00:07:42.822 --> 00:07:53.348
But we need as much communication as possible with these people and touch points Studies show it's seven, eight touch points to get somebody to take that big step to get an application.

00:07:53.348 --> 00:07:55.060
So what are your touch points?

00:07:55.060 --> 00:08:00.485
What is your messaging you're sending those people Because you need to be on point with those messages so you don't lose them.

00:08:00.485 --> 00:08:11.786
It's not only competitive with other law enforcement departments, but you're competing with every other industry out there right now and the other industries can move a lot quicker than law enforcement can in getting a hire.

00:08:13.355 --> 00:08:18.675
I think that's what's really changed, doug, because law enforcement traditionally always said we had recruiting, we were recruiting.

00:08:18.675 --> 00:08:22.081
The truth is you were recruiting from department to department.

00:08:22.081 --> 00:08:25.956
You had three, 400% of people that wanted to go into law enforcement.

00:08:25.956 --> 00:08:28.584
You were going to get plenty of applicants no matter what you did.

00:08:28.584 --> 00:08:35.788
But what departments did with their recruiting teams is they did a lot of branding and messaging and marketing to make their department more attractive.

00:08:35.788 --> 00:08:38.898
They weren't actually recruiting people into the profession.

00:08:38.977 --> 00:08:44.346
That, to me, is what has really changed, because you still have I call it the 80-20 rule.

00:08:44.346 --> 00:08:46.999
You still got about most departments, about 80%.

00:08:46.999 --> 00:08:47.921
You could do nothing.

00:08:47.921 --> 00:08:56.643
You're going to fill your ranks up to 80% because there's still people that want to go into the profession, but it's the other 20, unlike in years past when they just came right.

00:08:56.643 --> 00:08:58.710
You've got to go out and actually recruit them.

00:08:58.710 --> 00:09:04.169
I know you talk to clients every week and you're hearing that 20, 25% I'm down type mentality.

00:09:04.169 --> 00:09:11.878
So I think I'm pretty accurate on that and that those branding messages won't work for that, because those are recruiting from department to department.

00:09:11.878 --> 00:09:13.041
So you're right.

00:09:13.041 --> 00:09:18.260
What you're doing, doug, is you're going out and you're grabbing people that maybe didn't think they were going to go into law enforcement.

00:09:18.260 --> 00:09:21.990
And then you switch them through the ads.

00:09:21.990 --> 00:09:25.980
You run through the emails you send, because you don't just write emails.

00:09:25.980 --> 00:09:27.666
You have some experts behind that, do you not?

00:09:28.095 --> 00:09:32.552
Yes, we have expert copyrights specializing in the messaging that goes out.

00:09:32.552 --> 00:09:34.096
And you're exactly right, Travis.

00:09:34.096 --> 00:09:36.900
It's that extra 20%, right?

00:09:36.900 --> 00:09:41.649
The extra 20, 30% that puts us up to full staffing on our departments.

00:09:41.649 --> 00:09:44.701
I think there are plenty.

00:09:44.701 --> 00:09:46.889
I don't even think that, Travis.

00:09:46.889 --> 00:09:50.399
I know there are plenty of people that still want to get in law enforcement.

00:09:50.399 --> 00:09:54.336
I'm dealing with it every day with departments across this country.

00:09:54.336 --> 00:09:56.962
There is so much interest in applying for these.

00:09:56.962 --> 00:10:01.657
It's the matter of how you're going out and making contact with these people.

00:10:01.657 --> 00:10:08.840
That is the difference here and that's what we advocate 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-awake digital campaign.

00:10:08.840 --> 00:10:14.898
That is going to go out and it's going to hunt for those folks that are interested in working for your department.

00:10:16.820 --> 00:10:23.144
And when you do that and when you do that, you're sending them the actual people, names, contacts, emails.

00:10:23.144 --> 00:10:26.168
When it comes in and it's real time they can come to.

00:10:26.168 --> 00:10:26.687
Like.

00:10:26.687 --> 00:10:28.809
You showed me a campaign last week.

00:10:28.809 --> 00:10:31.331
It was a Monday, I think you should check this out.

00:10:31.331 --> 00:10:46.384
It was one of your clients and on a Monday morning the recruiter came in and looked on the dashboard that you provided and they had 23 people over the weekend that said I want to work for you, so that recruiter is off on the weekend, going to the lake, doing whatever, not having to go to job fairs.

00:10:46.384 --> 00:10:47.809
They come in on Monday and there's 23,.

00:10:47.809 --> 00:10:48.272
You call them.

00:10:48.272 --> 00:10:50.298
You know these warm leads I want to work for you.

00:10:50.298 --> 00:10:55.216
Then that next step that recruiter takes is important and vital, is it not?

00:10:56.118 --> 00:11:04.842
It's very vital because we are providing you with a qualified candidate that has met your filtering metrics and they want to work for you.

00:11:04.842 --> 00:11:09.339
They know they were applying for your department and so, from this step on, it's key.

00:11:09.339 --> 00:11:18.880
Now at Safeguard, we'll handle the first three touch points for you until that recruiter can come back from the lake on the weekend, in your example, and then they need to take over.

00:11:18.880 --> 00:11:21.277
Best way to take over get a call.

00:11:21.277 --> 00:11:23.121
Get a phone call right to the person.

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Start building that relationship, start having it so if they have a question, they're comfortable calling back in and saying hey, what do I do in this part I'm a little concerned about this area in my background.

00:11:34.667 --> 00:11:49.427
Answer all those questions for them, relieve that stress for them, Make the process as easy as possible and then have and we'll help with this copyright those emails go out, so you have a cadence of messages to keep this person interested, and that's what's necessary.

00:11:50.892 --> 00:11:52.636
And this is just private industry standards.

00:11:52.636 --> 00:12:03.042
Everybody listening to this has bought a t-shirt or they've applied for a university and they're getting that cadence of messaging sent to them and of course those are written in a certain way.

00:12:03.042 --> 00:12:04.986
I mean, copyright experts are expensive.

00:12:04.986 --> 00:12:07.078
Law enforcement's never had to do that, doug.

00:12:07.078 --> 00:12:11.399
We just say show up here or else, and we just sat back and waited for them to show up.

00:12:11.399 --> 00:12:17.000
But you're saying this has all got to change from a philosophy standpoint or we're just going to be treading water.

00:12:17.480 --> 00:12:20.388
Yeah, oh, it 100% needs to change.

00:12:20.388 --> 00:12:22.719
And everybody's got a phone with them.

00:12:22.719 --> 00:12:27.399
They expect information right away and you need to have the proper information there.

00:12:27.399 --> 00:12:32.475
And what we need to do is we need to change the mindsets within departments.

00:12:32.475 --> 00:12:39.698
And that's why this training is so important, because we can't find ways to knock people out of the process.

00:12:39.698 --> 00:12:42.105
We need to find ways to keep them in the process.

00:12:42.105 --> 00:12:43.881
I'm not saying lower standards, travis.

00:12:43.881 --> 00:12:53.009
I'm saying let's do everything possible to capture every person that is interested in working for us and make it easy on them to get through that process.

00:12:54.995 --> 00:13:02.465
I know what some people are thinking is they're hearing this and they've struggled and they've tried mightily and they're thinking this is too good to be true.

00:13:02.465 --> 00:13:03.666
What are you trying to sell me here?

00:13:03.666 --> 00:13:05.008
You can't just go find names.

00:13:05.008 --> 00:13:06.190
There's people don't want to work for us.

00:13:06.190 --> 00:13:07.390
There's a recruiting crisis.

00:13:07.390 --> 00:13:11.894
What are you talking about?

00:13:11.894 --> 00:13:12.635
Do you get some of that pushback?

00:13:12.676 --> 00:13:14.456
when you talk to people that are interested in what you're offering.

00:13:14.456 --> 00:13:15.157
We certainly do.

00:13:15.157 --> 00:13:26.744
People don't understand how the outreach is going, how it's going to work for them, because what they got in their mindset is is we're only getting this many applicants and we're doing everything we know possible to do this.

00:13:26.744 --> 00:13:41.760
I'll tell you, Travis, most departments don't have the expertise on there to keep up on all the advertising rules, all the employment laws, how to build the ads, what messaging needs to be in the ads.

00:13:41.760 --> 00:13:42.990
They just don't have that.

00:13:42.990 --> 00:13:46.073
And how long do I put that ad up?

00:13:46.073 --> 00:13:49.813
We'll give you all that information with an ad campaign.

00:13:49.813 --> 00:14:03.715
We'll put ads up, We'll place the ads for you and every day we can show you exactly what the ad's doing, what kind of impressions it's getting, what kind of contacts and follow through that ad's getting, and that's important.

00:14:03.715 --> 00:14:05.278
You need all this information.

00:14:05.278 --> 00:14:08.514
You make the proper decisions to spend your money right.

00:14:10.166 --> 00:14:12.312
Yeah, If you're just now joining us, I'm talking to Doug Larson.

00:14:12.312 --> 00:14:14.208
He's a co-owner of Safeguard Recruiting.

00:14:14.208 --> 00:14:16.658
You can find them at safeguardrecruitingcom.

00:14:16.658 --> 00:14:18.686
Fantastic information there.

00:14:18.686 --> 00:14:22.716
The content they're putting out above and beyond their business, from articles and training.

00:14:22.716 --> 00:14:23.948
We're going to get into the training in a minute.

00:14:23.948 --> 00:14:26.446
But, Doug, I want to sort of take you back to my example.

00:14:26.446 --> 00:14:27.629
I come in on Monday morning.

00:14:27.629 --> 00:14:28.392
There's 23 people.

00:14:28.392 --> 00:14:40.330
That's actually a real example, but you have clients that there's even more people than that.

00:14:40.330 --> 00:14:42.518
Think about the energy it would take to find 23 people that want to work for agency ABC and Y.

00:14:42.518 --> 00:14:43.402
I mean, how many job fairs are you going to?

00:14:43.402 --> 00:14:43.802
How many billboards?

00:14:43.802 --> 00:14:43.943
I mean?

00:14:43.943 --> 00:14:48.293
How much effort that takes to go find 23 people in any given town.

00:14:48.293 --> 00:14:53.109
You hand it to them and they can then put their efforts into what you're talking about, correct?

00:14:53.590 --> 00:14:54.030
Exactly.

00:14:54.030 --> 00:14:55.312
We'll find them for you.

00:14:55.312 --> 00:15:04.889
Don't go out and waste a whole day at a job fair where you're maybe going to contact one, two people and you're competing with the other departments out there.

00:15:04.889 --> 00:15:08.777
We'll handle getting the interested people in your department.

00:15:08.777 --> 00:15:10.245
And we hear it.

00:15:10.245 --> 00:15:15.328
Some departments say, man, if you could just find me five people a month I'd be overjoyed.

00:15:15.328 --> 00:15:17.232
And this department good.

00:15:17.232 --> 00:15:19.115
Example 23 over the weekend.

00:15:19.115 --> 00:15:21.547
But that is where the work starts.

00:15:21.547 --> 00:15:32.847
Right there we have to take those 23 people and we have to keep them going through the process to make sure they apply, make sure they get through the backgrounds and get all the way converted to a hire.

00:15:32.847 --> 00:15:35.994
And that's the next step that we like to help with.

00:15:35.994 --> 00:15:42.596
It's one thing to get the names, the second thing to get them to the applicant and all the way through the process.

00:15:44.586 --> 00:15:58.687
We all hear the horror stories of these large departments and they're down so many thousand people and this and that, but the vast majority of law enforcement in this country is 50 officers or less, and those departments don't typically have people dedicated solely to recruiting.

00:15:58.687 --> 00:16:06.373
And so what would you do if one of those chiefs or sheriffs called you up and said hey, man, I'm a 50 person department, but I'm down 10.

00:16:06.373 --> 00:16:08.135
We're down 25%.

00:16:08.135 --> 00:16:09.719
We're sucking wind here.

00:16:09.739 --> 00:16:21.932
We're having to cut services.

00:16:21.932 --> 00:16:24.293
I don't have the people to do what you're saying.

00:16:24.293 --> 00:16:26.255
You offer this from A to Z, do you not?

00:16:26.255 --> 00:16:27.535
If they need it.

00:16:27.535 --> 00:16:31.438
We really don't find a department that's too small to work with us.

00:16:31.438 --> 00:16:55.658
I mean, we try and get packages tailored to everybody, but we will take it from not only finding the name, we will take that whole process all the way to where they apply to your department and, if necessary, we'll nurture those leads, we'll keep the contact going and we'll get them to that stage where they apply, and then you can take over with your background checks, your other parameters like physical tests and whatever you got.

00:16:57.505 --> 00:16:59.770
Yeah, I wanted to sort of make sure our audience understands this.

00:16:59.770 --> 00:17:06.196
I actually talked to a chief a few weeks ago and he said hey, I'm the recruiter, I'm the guy, I'm the background guy.

00:17:06.196 --> 00:17:08.327
He had a department, I think, of 17 people.

00:17:08.327 --> 00:17:12.453
He was down six man and he's stressed right, because that's not a big deal.

00:17:12.453 --> 00:17:14.375
But if you're 17, you're down six, he goes.

00:17:14.375 --> 00:17:16.679
But listen, the applications come to me.

00:17:16.679 --> 00:17:19.048
I'm the one that's vetting them, I'm the one that's hiring them.

00:17:19.048 --> 00:17:26.911
And so what you're saying is, if he hires you, you would just give him, he would just get more applications, it would just happen.

00:17:26.911 --> 00:17:30.255
And then he would get to be able to have enough applications to get us hiring done.

00:17:30.255 --> 00:17:31.476
And you, how do you base that?

00:17:31.476 --> 00:17:33.778
Doug, I know your cost differs depending on what they need.

00:17:33.778 --> 00:17:35.401
How do you base those costs?

00:17:35.484 --> 00:17:51.173
Yeah, we'll go through and we'll figure out what it takes, how many qualified candidates it takes, to convert to applicants, converts to hires, so we can get a pretty good idea of how many people we need to come in contact to fill, whatever your ranks are.

00:17:51.173 --> 00:18:08.050
If it was six people with this department, we try and do that as efficiently as possible for the departments and give them an upfront idea of this is the success rate you're going to have, so they can kind of factor in timelines of how long it's going to take them not only to hire the person but get them.

00:18:08.050 --> 00:18:11.693
You know, if they got Academy slots, if they can FTO them.

00:18:11.693 --> 00:18:14.627
I mean there's a lot of factors that go in there that department's got to deal with.

00:18:18.154 --> 00:18:18.454
Yeah.

00:18:18.454 --> 00:18:24.080
So somebody's probably listening to this and I think they're probably thinking what you've already said, man.

00:18:24.080 --> 00:18:25.486
They think this is too good to be true.

00:18:25.486 --> 00:18:29.154
And then, if it is true, this is going to cost me a gazillion dollars, right.

00:18:29.154 --> 00:18:37.974
And we see departments out there offering $25,000, $50,000, $75,000 hiring bonuses right, that's not actually a long-term solution.

00:18:37.974 --> 00:18:39.828
We know that that's a temporary solution.

00:18:39.828 --> 00:18:49.087
I know you probably don't want to give away everything, but if I'm sitting out here thinking to myself, man, this doesn't even sound believable, and I know I couldn't afford it, what would you tell that person?

00:18:50.551 --> 00:18:53.458
It's a lot more cost effective than you would think it is.

00:18:53.458 --> 00:19:02.000
It really isn't that expensive to go out and find candidates and get them interested in your department.

00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:09.259
We can develop an affordable package based around what your budget and what your needs are and we can make that work for you.

00:19:09.259 --> 00:19:11.507
And we can make that work for you.

00:19:11.527 --> 00:19:12.327
So I know that.

00:19:12.327 --> 00:19:14.029
I know you also do the marketing.

00:19:14.029 --> 00:19:18.214
But you know you're different in that you recruit names first and then you use marketing elements.

00:19:18.214 --> 00:19:20.376
So you know a lot of the bigger departments.

00:19:20.376 --> 00:19:23.800
They have the big budgets, they bought the fancy websites, they got the fancy videos and stuff.

00:19:23.800 --> 00:19:28.268
But what's cool and I saw you just roll this out you actually have packages.

00:19:28.268 --> 00:19:29.951
It's almost a subscription based package.

00:19:29.951 --> 00:19:42.285
From what I can tell that even if you're a smaller department and you can get the website, you can get the materials, you get all this stuff right, because a lot of these small departments I mean they don't really have that stuff right, it's really not in in their budget.

00:19:42.285 --> 00:19:47.673
So you've made it affordable for them to kind of put these websites up and to do all the marketing stuff as well, have you not?

00:19:47.772 --> 00:19:48.212
Exactly.

00:19:48.212 --> 00:19:51.557
We can handle all forms of this that you see.

00:19:51.557 --> 00:19:53.221
So we can put a website up for you.

00:19:53.221 --> 00:20:09.935
We can provide applicant tracking systems so you can track all your applicants that come in, put them in categories, mass messaging from them, and make yourself more efficient.

00:20:09.935 --> 00:20:11.818
We can do videos for you.

00:20:11.838 --> 00:20:14.684
But what I'm going to tell you, Travis, when I talk to a department is I want to prioritize what they need.

00:20:14.684 --> 00:20:16.632
When I talk to a department is I want to prioritize what they need.

00:20:16.632 --> 00:20:23.115
A lot of departments right now think they need the fancy websites and the videos up front, but they need names, they need people working for their department, and that's what we need to go after.

00:20:23.115 --> 00:20:23.576
First.

00:20:23.576 --> 00:20:30.248
We'll follow it up with the marketing elements keep people interested and understand what the department's about.

00:20:30.248 --> 00:20:37.926
But I think there's a priority of how you should be spending your money if you're going to be most effective in getting people interested in working for your department.

00:20:37.926 --> 00:20:46.671
And the fancy videos I'll tell you right now do not have the throughput that a lot of other methods have.

00:20:46.671 --> 00:20:49.176
So it would be a little lower on my priority list.

00:20:52.227 --> 00:20:53.571
And you have the data to support that.

00:20:53.571 --> 00:20:54.414
I mean, what's your data?

00:20:54.414 --> 00:20:56.414
Because you've done hundreds of these campaigns.

00:20:56.414 --> 00:20:59.988
What's the data showing you is the most effective ads to get names?

00:21:00.028 --> 00:21:06.307
The most effective approach is the social media platforms and you need to place those ads.

00:21:06.307 --> 00:21:08.954
You got to have the content that's going to resonate with people.

00:21:08.954 --> 00:21:15.250
You got to place the ads in the right place and put them up for the right amount of time to be effective.

00:21:15.250 --> 00:21:24.117
And we track all that information and we track it against every metrics we can so we can show departments this is what we think is going to work for you.

00:21:24.117 --> 00:21:34.857
Our research base says we feel like we can get you this many people interested in working for you off this spend and I believe in being efficient.

00:21:34.857 --> 00:21:42.453
I've been on both sides of this, just like you have Travis and want to make sure departments are taken care of and they're getting what they're paying for.

00:21:44.902 --> 00:21:54.257
So if a department's spending money now on recruiting help and they can't tie names candidates or applicants to that spend, and they can't tie names, candidates or applicants to that spend, there's a problem.

00:21:54.317 --> 00:22:01.769
And that's what you see a lot of right, no-transcript people to your website.

00:22:01.769 --> 00:22:12.247
So you're going to get on there and say, look, we have this much traffic on our website, but if that doesn't convert to getting a name, getting information off somebody, then you got a problem.

00:22:12.247 --> 00:22:17.778
And sometimes people go to the website and they get lost.

00:22:17.778 --> 00:22:20.170
They get distracted in everything that's going on.

00:22:20.170 --> 00:22:25.532
They can't find your application easily or it's multiple steps to go through it.

00:22:25.532 --> 00:22:27.929
I'll even tell you some departments.

00:22:27.929 --> 00:22:47.547
When I go in there and try and find their job openings, it's like a game of where's Waldo trying to find just this opening I came here specifically to apply for and it makes it hard on the candidate and then the chances of them keeping interest go away them keeping interest go away.

00:22:47.567 --> 00:22:50.578
I know you were telling me a story about one of your clients and they had spent I want to say it was two or $300,000.

00:22:50.578 --> 00:22:52.786
It was a huge amount for this marketing campaign.

00:22:52.786 --> 00:23:03.053
And when they came on board with you they said we can't tie one new hire or one person to this big market campaign because it was just driving traffic.

00:23:03.053 --> 00:23:03.976
It was just traffic.

00:23:03.976 --> 00:23:16.334
That, to me is I think our brain tells us well, yeah, this fancy website is going to attract people, but if we're talking reality here, nobody out there knows a police officer that went to work for the police department because their website was cool.

00:23:16.334 --> 00:23:22.315
Right, this is not how it works, if we're really honest about it, and that's why we don't put up a website to hire chiefs or whatever.

00:23:22.315 --> 00:23:25.147
Put up a website to hire chiefs or whatever.

00:23:25.147 --> 00:23:26.712
I mean we, we go out and find people.

00:23:26.712 --> 00:23:28.218
So I think it's amazing what you're doing and I, you let me.

00:23:28.238 --> 00:23:32.855
There's a free course on your website that I got the opportunity to film a few years ago.

00:23:32.855 --> 00:23:38.233
It was really cool to talk about all this philosophy and it's totally free right there on the website safeguardrecruitingcom.

00:23:38.233 --> 00:23:52.661
But you just rolled out another class that I'm kind of amazed that you want to roll this class out, doug, because it kind of really gets behind the curtain and tells everybody how you're doing it.

00:23:52.661 --> 00:24:02.914
I would think that would hurt you as a business person, but you just, you truly are wanting to just help people, because this is so much more than just getting names, and so this class goes into real detail.

00:24:03.025 --> 00:24:11.516
I've actually previewed the class before this show and I can tell people listening if you watch this class and you take notes and you pay attention, you will improve your recruiting.

00:24:11.516 --> 00:24:12.397
There's no doubt about it.

00:24:12.397 --> 00:24:13.691
But I know you said that you did that.

00:24:13.691 --> 00:24:17.756
One of the reasons you wanted to do that is because there was no official training for recruiters.

00:24:17.756 --> 00:24:19.251
Now that I think about it, you're right.

00:24:19.251 --> 00:24:27.327
There's no recruiter association, there's no recruiter certification, and so you wrote out this sort of high level class.

00:24:27.327 --> 00:24:29.914
It's two hours of real content, heavy content.

00:24:29.914 --> 00:24:31.365
I mean you better watch that thing a few times.

00:24:31.365 --> 00:24:34.455
If you go get it, tell us about that, why you decided to do it.

00:24:35.164 --> 00:24:35.465
Travis.

00:24:35.465 --> 00:24:38.276
We travel around the country, we do seminars.

00:24:38.276 --> 00:24:43.089
We get invited out a lot and anybody who wants to have us come and speak on recruiting.

00:24:43.089 --> 00:24:47.137
We're happy to come out and speak to people and help them out.

00:24:47.137 --> 00:24:58.884
Part of this is just learning from departments where their gaps are in recruiting, where their lack of understanding, where their new people come in and they got nowhere to turn for training.

00:24:58.884 --> 00:25:08.019
We hear this an awful lot and we want to be able to put some training out there to help departments improve on the recruiting side.

00:25:08.385 --> 00:25:10.354
People want to get into law enforcement.

00:25:10.354 --> 00:25:18.328
We need to make sure we're capturing those people and getting these numbers back up so everybody's safe in the community and the whole idea about it.

00:25:18.328 --> 00:25:20.997
And it just goes back to I love training.

00:25:20.997 --> 00:25:22.431
I feel like it should be there.

00:25:22.431 --> 00:25:25.865
Law enforcement's a group that'll grasp onto training.

00:25:25.865 --> 00:25:27.750
They'll take it, they'll learn from it.

00:25:27.750 --> 00:25:31.469
Some people want to do it on their own and that's fine.

00:25:31.469 --> 00:25:35.278
We're here and we'll help you in a consulting role, bounce questions office.

00:25:35.278 --> 00:25:42.708
Others will take it and go through and say, man, I just don't know that I got enough time to be able to keep up on all this.

00:25:42.708 --> 00:25:43.789
I don't want to build the ads.

00:25:43.789 --> 00:25:45.093
I don't want to place the ads.

00:25:45.093 --> 00:25:46.715
I don't want to build the ads.

00:25:46.715 --> 00:25:47.537
I don't want to place the ads.

00:25:47.537 --> 00:25:49.099
I don't want to nurture the leads.

00:25:49.099 --> 00:25:50.583
I don't want to turn them into applications.

00:25:50.583 --> 00:26:00.346
There's not enough of me, so I want to turn that over to somebody that specializes in it, and then we're right there to step in and do that for you also, man.

00:26:00.365 --> 00:26:01.369
It's amazing stuff.

00:26:01.369 --> 00:26:03.375
You got to go check out what they're doing.

00:26:03.375 --> 00:26:06.787
It is believable because I've seen it firsthand.

00:26:06.787 --> 00:26:10.636
Doug is doing this every day with his team safeguardrecruitingcom.

00:26:10.636 --> 00:26:11.647
Doug.

00:26:11.647 --> 00:26:13.077
Any last words before we get off here.

00:26:13.077 --> 00:26:14.085
Thanks so much for doing the show.

00:26:14.125 --> 00:26:18.826
Thanks for having me on, and if you have recruiting questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us.

00:26:18.826 --> 00:26:21.371
You can go to our website, get our contact information.

00:26:21.371 --> 00:26:24.557
My contact information is floating around out there a lot too.

00:26:24.557 --> 00:26:32.228
Even if you just want to ask us some questions, fine, if you want to talk through what your processes are and what your help is, we'll help you out.

00:26:32.228 --> 00:26:39.647
We'll quote out whatever the needs are and look at our training that we got out there.

00:26:39.647 --> 00:26:42.575
I think it'll help you improve your processes.

00:26:43.376 --> 00:26:45.472
Doug Larson, Safeguard Recruiting.

00:26:45.472 --> 00:26:51.448
If you've been listening, if you've been watching, thank you for doing that and just remember, lead on and stay courageous.

00:26:53.712 --> 00:26:56.638
Thank you for listening to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates.

00:26:56.638 --> 00:26:59.913
We invite you to join other courageous leaders at www.

00:26:59.913 --> 00:27:01.195
travisyatesorg.

00:26:59.913 --> 00:26:59.913
travisyates.

00:27:01.195 --> 00:27:01.195
org