From Hire To Retire with ResponderStrong

We announce a new partnership between Safeguard Recruiting and ResponderStrong that links front-end hiring with a proven wellness platform to reduce early attrition. We explain how family education, ongoing resources, and leadership support can keep officers healthy and on the job.

• why hire-to-retire support beats one-off fixes
• how family training lowers anxiety for candidates
• wellness as a core recruiting advantage
• the 62 percent five-year attrition problem
• practical check-ins and resources for every career stage
• leadership’s role in normalizing help-seeking
• plans for joint trainings, conferences, and resources

Safeguard Recruiting is owned and operated by first responders, and it is a public safety recruiting firm with a proven recruiting system that staffs agencies across the country. 

Reach out today for a free consultation and learn about our guarantee that will increase the number of candidates for your agency. 

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Travis Yates 0:00

Welcome back to the show. Once again, I have Doug Larson, the COO of Safeguard Recruiting with us. He's been busy as usual. It seemed to be really busy. I think we have budget years coming up, so things have been hopping over his way. Doug, how are you doing today?

Doug Larsen 0:16

Doing all right. Um, we are super busy. A lot's going on in the recruiting world.

Travis Yates 0:21

Well, that's good for us, it's good for agencies, and we'd love solving some of their issues. And we always talk about modernizing recruitment practices and processes.

Announcing The Responder Strong Partnership

Travis Yates 0:31

But this topic today, we're announcing a partnership. We've already done it on our website. We wanted to have to just discuss it. The partnership with Responder Strong. Uh, Doug, that's an incredible partnership. Tell us the importance of that and and what what you see coming in the future with him.

Doug Larsen 0:50

Yeah, Responder Strong is just an excellent organization that I think everybody should take a deeper look into how they can help your department. Um, this has been coming along for a while. We've been talking to them because we're a perfect fit together.

Hire To Retire Wellness Approach

Doug Larsen 1:05

Safeguard takes care of recruiting on the front end, and then it's really a hire to retire mentality, bringing in responder strong, and and they concentrate on that wellness piece all the way through your career. And uh I love what they bring to the table. Well thought out training. These guys do an excellent job of educating not only the departments, the families, the the new officers, everybody along the way. Don't be afraid to bring up if you have some concerns because these guys got the answers.

Easing Candidate And Family Anxiety

Travis Yates 1:36

Yeah, when we talk to uh potential candidates all the time, and our clients talk to them, is there's just a lot of anxiety because you know, if you watch TV or you watch social media, you get this certain impression of law enforcement. And I think what responder strong does is it does bring that family component in, right? It eases the anxiety of going into this job. The truth is, this job is like any other job, you got good parts and bad parts, but man, it the the it's there's so much value in being able to serve your community, and there's a lot of people that want to do that, but they just want to be told that you know it's the culture is good and don't don't believe a lot of this hype. They really bring a levity into this, and they have a lot of online materials, online resources, they have a lot of training. So I think from a someone coming into the profession, there's a lot of benefit bringing that alongside. Just one thing saying I want to work somewhere, it's a whole other thing to go, I've got these concerns or I've I've got this stress going on in my life. How do I deal with this? How do I deal with that? And Doug, I think we do a pretty good job of people entering into a police academy and talking to them about that. But once you get into your career, it sometimes can be a different story, can't it not?

Retention, Culture, And Wellness Gaps

Doug Larsen 2:47

Oh, exactly. And there should be an ongoing check-in or have resources available to people because not only do we need to get people in the door and in the job, but we want to keep them in there, especially once departments have put a lot of time and resources into training these folks and keep them around and keep them happy and keep them mentally healthy. Um, it's responder strong's got some excellent programs to help with that.

Travis Yates 3:12

Yeah, I mean, when you look at the research on this, uh, what why do you stay in your job? This is across all industries, it comes back to support and wellness, support from leadership and the wellness sort of category of how do I feel about this

Generational Shifts And Reducing Attrition

Travis Yates 3:25

job, how are they treating me, are they treating me right? And I think for many years in this profession, if we can admit it, we sort of ignored that part, just be happy you're here. But there's so many resources out there, and I think responders strong is the top of the top because uh what a department has to worry about, Doug, is it's one thing to not have enough people you need to hire to fully staff. But if you're losing a lot of people from retirements or resignations because of these issues, it puts a lot of uh weight on the front end, you'll never catch up. That's that's the importance. And I think when you look at the partnership between Safeguard and Responder Strong, you put that together, it helped not only helps

Engaging With Training And Resources

Travis Yates 4:03

people stay on the job and be more healthier, but they stay the job longer, which helps the front end, does it not the recruiting part?

Doug Larsen 4:10

Exactly. It helps all the way through, it takes pressure off the entire system. We we can get people in there, and we've seen a change in the generations where maybe they don't stick around in the career is career-oriented. But if we can eliminate some of that, you're gonna have natural attrition through retirements, but everything in between, let's do all we can to minimize those numbers of the people that leave the profession before their retirement date. And that's what this is all about. You're exactly right. Probably when we began in law enforcement, it was hey, if you you have issues, you don't want to show weakness, you keep it to yourself. And that's not acceptable

62 Percent Five-Year Attrition Challenge

Doug Larsen 4:45

anymore. And there's plenty of help out there, and there's plenty of planning. So families know what to expect when you're new in law enforcement, they know what to expect five years in and just how to deal with the nuances that are in this career. And I love it. I I think it's just such a perfect fit for what we're doing that it it helps officers every step of the way.

Travis Yates 5:07

You're gonna meet many of those individuals involved with responder strong right here on this podcast. We're gonna be attending some of their training, we're gonna have boost with their training, we're gonna be doing a lot of things together, so I'm super excited about, but I just want to keep those listening or watching keep this data in mind. The research says that 62 percent of every officer that begins their career

Next Steps And How To Connect

Travis Yates 5:28

right now in law enforcement will leave at five years or before. 62 percent that cannot sustain itself. We have to do more once they get hired to make sure they stay 10, 15, 20, 25 years, and that's something that we can't take for granted anymore. And I think this partnership with Responder Strong has the opportunity to really help a lot of our clients, Doug.

Doug Larsen 5:50

I do too. Um, I've been really impressed going through some of their materials and some of their training that we've been invited to, and we look forward to being a part of more of their conferences and more of their training platforms as they roll them out. Um, it's a strong platform that I think everybody should engage with.

Travis Yates 6:08

There you go. There you have it. Check them out. Responder strong, safeguard recruiting. We have all the information on our website, our newest partner, our newest alliance. We're super excited. We hope you are as well. Just reach out if you have any questions. Or Doug Larson and myself. We'll see you next time.