Tactical Concepts Is the Answer To Hiring Retention

We announce our new partnership with Brian Ellis of Tactical Concepts to help agencies keep more applicants moving through the law enforcement hiring process. We break down why candidates voluntarily drop out and how better education and clearer steps can push hiring conversions far beyond the 4% norm.
• what Doug hears from chiefs and sheriffs about recruiting tech gaps
• why agencies struggle to source candidates and maintain a healthy pipeline
• how more applicant volume only matters if conversions improve
• where candidates drop out most often and why anxiety drives no-shows
• how “friction points” in long hiring timelines cause self-elimination
• what Tactical Concepts teaches candidates about each hiring stage including polygraph preparation
• why specialized partners can raise conversion without adding recruiter workload

Reach out to Brian Ellis: badgeradycoach.com

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 Recruiting Road Shows

Travis Yates 0:00

Welcome back to staffing the mission. I hope you're having a great week. And once again, we have with us the COO of Safeguard Recruiting, Doug Larson. Doug, it's been busy. You've been at the Utah Sheriff Show, Chief Show. Where have you been, my man?

Doug Larsen 0:14

Yeah, it was a Chief Show. It was a great little show there. Um, met a lot of good people and talked uh about recruiting with a number of different departments.

Travis Yates 0:23

And you're about to head out to the Texas show. Which one is that? Just in case anybody's in the area, they can come by and see you.

Doug Larsen 0:29

Texas Chiefs Conference. Um down in Corpus Crispy. Uh come by and see us in our booth.

Travis Yates 0:35

Ah, Corpus Crispy. What a terrible place to hang out for a week, huh?

Doug Larsen 0:40

Yeah, yeah, we'll be all right there.

Travis Yates 0:43

Yeah, man. Uh what were you hearing there in Utah? I know you spoke to a lot of uh a lot of folks here. What what's the word on the street there?

Doug Larsen 0:50

Yeah, same problems as across the nation, right? Trying to get ahead of the curve with technology and how to use that to their advantage. A lot of departments just don't know what's available to them and how they can utilize that to make their recruiters more efficient and their communication better. Um, a number of departments that they just are struggling to source candidates. And that's the piece we'll jump in and we'll take over for you. We'll get you that volume. So you have a number of great people to choose from, and you're not limited in the amount of people or maybe taking a lesser person. Let's get y'all quality and you make the choice and keep a pipeline going.

Travis Yates 1:27

Yeah, when you talk about we need more applicants, we need more quality hires, it's just about numbers, and we talk about that a lot. You just need more people coming in the front door, and that's what you're able to provide, is it not?

Doug Larsen 1:38

Yeah, exactly that. We we will fill up whatever volume your department can handle. We like to scale it towards the size of your department and your budget, and then we have a proven process that will work these candidates through, keep them engaged, and we'll help you find leaks in your system where candidates are falling off or maybe dropping out because of certain you know requirements you have or time blocks.

Tech Gaps And Sourcing Struggles

Doug Larsen 2:05

Um, and we'll we'll give you best practices.

Travis Yates 2:07

Well, today's show we're making a major announcement. Uh, we've got several great partners that we work with, and our newest partner is Tactical Concept. It's Brian Ellis, and he's got this company that we think is going to be a great addition for agencies. And uh Brian uh is in the leadership space as he's taught and he's been around, he's a 25-year veteran from Northern California. Uh, but he's he's developed a business that really preps candidates and walks them through the process. And the reason we see we feel this is such a valuable partnership is is when we do bring that volume, Doug, there's always dropouts throughout the way. There's always dropouts, and every there's dropouts at the test or drops at the physical fitness or drops out the polygraph. But a lot of those dropouts is about anxiety, and the the candidates just don't know what to expect. And there's just a lot of nervousness because the process in law enforcement is sort of long, and uh there's a lot of anxiety about that, is there not?

Doug Larsen 3:06

Yeah, you're exactly right. It's from somebody coming from the outside of law enforcement, they don't understand the process, they don't understand the length of the process. And some of them, if you don't have a mentor, you have somebody contacting them, will self-eliminate themselves over something that they didn't need to be eliminated over. And so it's I think what Brian's doing is a necessary piece in this puzzle, and he can help a lot of candidates and he can help a lot of departments out.

Travis Yates 3:37

What I love about all of our partnerships, and we have a partner that works with retention and wellness, or another partner that does testing all the way to psychological tests, is Doug, we have a particular niche inside recruiting. We're going to bring you a ton of people that want to work for your department, but there's so many other elements, and we're a full solution-based company, but we don't want to get involved in all that. Like this is Brian's space. He wants to do the education piece to the candidate. And so what Brian does is he goes to the agency and he says, You're getting this pipeline from Safeguard. You know, how many are converting to hires? And we know there's about a national average of about four percent. It may be more at some agencies, maybe less, but we know there's a national average of about four percent, meaning if you get a hundred

New Partner To Boost Conversions

Travis Yates 4:20

applicants, you're gonna hire four of them. Well, what Brian's company promises is let's take that from four to ten or four to eight or four to fifteen. He's going to increase the conversions, and that really is what it's about because just by educating the candidate through this online platform he has, and basically you provide that platform to the to each candidate. So the candidate can only go through the process, but they're getting this training block where they can feel a lot better about the process.

Doug Larsen 4:47

Yeah, they feel a lot better, and they have somebody you bounce ideas off of and get educated about. And the way I look at it is the same way that departments should look at using Safeguard and using Brian's company is that pull in these pieces that are an expertise that you don't have internally to enhance what you're doing. Nobody's coming in to take over your recruiting, they're just making it better and filling in those pieces that it's hard to get that expertise within your law enforcement department.

Travis Yates 5:17

Yeah, there's no question that this is a piece that recruiters are doing. Recruiters should be educating the candidates and the applicants and kind of helping them out. But why not give him more? And Brian just makes it so easy for him to do. So I'm super excited about the partnership. Uh, without further ado, let's bring him on and we'll hear what he has to say. It's our newest partner with Safeguard Recruiting, Brian Ellis. Welcome back to Staffing The Mission. As you know, we're on all podcast platforms. And well, what a week it's been, and we're excited to have today's guest. Today's guest is Brian Ellis. He's a retired police lieutenant with over 25 years of experience. He's an author, he's an instructor, he's a crisis management professional, and one of the best sort of

Why Applicants Voluntarily Drop Out

Travis Yates 6:00

leadership influencers you'll find today. And he is the founder of Tactical Concepts. They drive recruiting conversion for public safety. He's a partner with us here at Safeguard Recruiting. We're going to get into what he does for us and for our clients and what he can do for you. But it's incredible and it's one you need to listen to. Brian Ellis, how are you doing, sir? Um, I'm just blessed to be here. Thank you, Travis. Well, our audience is well versed uh in a lot of things that you and I sort of deal with every day. We know there's not a recruiting crisis. We know it's just making decisions and sewing up your processes and tightening things up. But one thing that we have dealt with at Safeguard with really all of our clients is their conversion rate once somebody applies, it's still relatively low. I think the national average is about 4%. We've been able to get that up to five or six percent if we can sort of move some of their processes around, i.e., don't make them fill out a 50-page background first, get them to a test first, get them to the easy things first, build a relationship with them. But there's we continue to hear though about the dropout rate. We had one particular client that uh they were losing 50% of the people at the physical fitness alone. That's not failing, that's just not showing up. And so we we we we've talked to them about how to educate, we've talked to them how to do this, but quite frankly, Brian, they're just working their tail off to get a lot of people in the front of the pipeline, right? So, what happens is a lot of people sort of get lost in that process for a variety of reasons. They're nervous, they have anxiety, they're not sure what's going to happen. That's why we partner with you at Tactical Concepts, because I think you your company is going to just change the game with what we're all trying to do, which is to staff agency schools. So tell us a little bit about yourself and kind of why you develop tactical concepts.

Brian Ellis 7:48

Yeah, that's um well, you know, in regards to uh, you know, what why I want to chew on this problem is you know, I mean, when I when I left the profession, I still, you know, I I wanted not just to be another, you know, coffee shop hero and sitting on sitting at a coffee shop, you know, and and and just regaling all old war stories. I, you know, I I I continuously want to serve a profession that, you know, that was a big part of my life for for a long time. And so uh in a in a productive way. And that's what I had been doing over the last you know, three and a half years uh uh from from a different lens. But you know, uh as you and I have talked in in a lot of conversations, is I love to chew in on problems and and this recruiting problem, and we know it's bigger than just it's it's not just recruiting. Recruiting's too uh nebulous of a of a of a word that that captures this entire problem. Uh you know, it's been in our profession for over a decade, and you know, we're we're still struggling with it, and it's it's been compounded uh in in recent years, but I don't necessarily know that it's always just because oh, it's uh there's just not enough applicants out there. There's just there's we're we're we're down so many um uh you know, the act applicant volume is down. So that's that's what that's that's that's the issue. You know, I I don't think that we're being uh truthful in in regard to that because I think there's a lot of opportunity for us to take a systems uh thinking uh idea and and and and really look at friction, because that's really what it comes down to. There's a lot of friction points that uh you know that that we can smooth out and make it a lot easier uh to get the applicants that that that we need or to get the hires that that that we need.

Travis Yates 9:59

Yeah, what I like about what you're doing and why we're working together, so to speak, is because on the safeguard side, Brian, we we've done a lot of things to help with with the conversions. We we can take applications and keep it mobile friendly, take the registration process off of that. We automate communication so there's constant communication and nurturing to the candidates. That also helps. But the one thing that uh a lot of our clients struggle with, a lot of agencies struggle with, is just the sheer education. I mean, I think we discount the fact of how daunting this process is for outsiders because we went through it and we're doing the job, and it's hard to put ourselves in their shoes. And so we see a lot of people that come in the front end that just get scared or nervous, or they they just don't show up at the next event. And so what you do is you go straight to the candidate for the agency and you you educate them about that process, and you can customize this for the agency. Just tell us what that looks like. Uh, because I think you put that, you combine with what you do with what we already do. I think I think the days of a 4% conversion rate are over with. I think I think we're gonna see it go much, much higher.

Preparing Candidates For Every Step

Travis Yates 11:10

And I think it's darn near just going to be a guarantee if they implement this. Just kind of talk to us about what you do to sort of enhance that conversion process.

Brian Ellis 11:21

Yeah, I mean, if I mean, I'll I'll use so in my own backyard, Atlanta Police Department. Um, they they've reported over, I think it was a five-year study that only the or that 92% of applicants voluntarily drop out. And, you know, so like again, uh as a yeah, as really just thinking about problems and and wanting to chew on big problems for the profession and and and raising my hand to to to serve, you know, I really started to think, you know, my like my YKI hat you know got put on and it was just like, well, why is that? And and so I I just went all the way down that rabbit hole, right? And started to think about all the different nuances that that that come with that. And that's a big challenge. I mean, that's I mean, think about it. I mean, that's like, you know, if we're if we were an NBA player, you know, like you wouldn't want me on the free throw line if if I missed 92% of my shots. You'd be fouling me every time. That's just good math to stay stay ahead uh in in the game. So um what I found is a lot of it is is just what you said is that there's just so much friction for the for the uh the applicant. And there's uh so much you know, mystic by, you know, they don't really understand the process or what or have the flow of the process enough to where they just go, man, uh, you know, like I'm off to the next thing because I know there's there's there's other opportunities that are not going to take anywhere from four, you know, months to a year long to do. And uh you know, and and they just sometimes they just it's filling in that why, right? I mean, I think that uh a lot of people can get behind a hard and complicated system once they understand the system. Because I'll tell you, I mean, when you get on the other side of of a hiring process, when you get your badge pinned, you know, one of one of my mentors uh you know, one of the things that he always said throughout my career, he'd he'd he'd say it you know, usually around like Christmas time or uh when somebody was retiring, you know, he just talked about the nobility of the profession. You know, it's it's it's a it's an honor to have you know that responsibility. And um, and I think sometimes we don't think about that enough. Uh and and and so how can we really get people uh give them the discipline that they need to go, hey, you got this. And and that's really what it what it's about.

Travis Yates 14:15

Yeah, um we're gonna obviously take this to all of our clients and say, hey, this is something you've got to look at. Uh, but what does it look like from an agency? So if an agency uh they're feeling pretty comfortable with their pipeline, you know, but they're not hiring enough of them, right? Um, you know, we're bringing in a hundred applicants, but we're only hiring four or five of them, but we want to hire more. If an agency calls you up, I mean, what does that look like? Because I know you have an education platform that you you don't you're not educating the recruiters, they they know what they're doing. You're educating the ones that don't know, which is the candidate. So how easy is it to onboard an agency and get that information to those candidates quickly?

Brian Ellis 14:56

Yeah, I mean it's it's it's super easy. I mean, it's a uh you know, we we we have a a digital product that basically helps applicants understand every every stage of a hiring process. And there's multiple stages, right? So um and so it gives them the not you know, not only does it give them confidence of, okay, this is what's required of me in this stage, and that's what I'm gonna have to do in this stage. And and and I mean even down to the the polygraph, we're gonna prepare them for a polygraph. We're not gonna show them, you know, how to beat a polygraph. I mean, that's that's ludicrous. What we're gonna what what we're what we're going to do is uh kind of give them education that that helps them understand what it is that that process is looking for. And I think that in of itself helps not only the it not only helps the applicant, but it helps the background uh as well, because you know, you you get people who are grounded in why I'm doing this and and what uh what what's the mission of today. Um and I and I think they're just gonna perform a lot higher.

Travis Yates 16:11

Yeah, and I know you're not gonna get into pricing, but I can tell you we wouldn't have partnered with you if it was going to be not conducive for every agency in America to bring you on board. Uh, you can look at hiring bonuses out there that every agent, a lot of these agencies are offering, you're way below any hiring bonus you can think of. So that's up to you to get into it with the clients or or you know, if a client asks us directly because we're partners, what this looks like, we can certainly send them your way and have some brief discussions on that. But the the bargain is this if I can if I can double my hires on my hiring pool for not a lot of money, my goodness. And and that's a product that the recruiters aren't having to work harder, they're already working harder to get them in the front of the pipeline. They don't have to do anything. All that's going to happen is more people are going to go through the process by taking your product and your background and credibility, so to speak, I think would be just a bonus for any agency to have. So, Brian, man, I can't thank you enough for what you're doing. You know, here at Safeguard, we always talk about that we're a we're a solutions-based product. We're trying to solve solutions. Well, this is a solution that we've been wanting to solve. Uh, we didn't have the bandwidth to solve it. Uh, we saw what you were doing, and it was just a no-brainer for us to go, Brian, we got to have you on the team. Uh, obviously, you have your own company, but we are gonna we talk

Budget Dust Value And How To Reach Out

Travis Yates 17:25

about you, you talk about us, you combine what we do together. It's gonna be a win-win for every agency out there. So, how can they reach out to you? How can they talk to you more about this?

Brian Ellis 17:34

Yeah, uh Travis, first of all, this is budget dust, right? You know, I'm uh this isn't uh uh a way to capitalize on a profession. It's a way to help a profession in a meaningful way that that that has that is a big problem. And so um I you know, my pledge is there's going to be a tremendous amount of value for for an organization to uh partner with me and an applicant to partner with me, you know, both sides of uh, you know, wherever wherever I help uh this this this this problem for the profession, uh there's there's there's definitely uh uh incredible value. Um I'm on LinkedIn. Uh and then the website is badgeradycoach.com. Um and yeah, more to come. I mean, I uh hopefully we can provide a lot more value, just not only what we're doing in this in this arena, but there's a lot of opportunities for recruiters to that that want additional help in uh you know in their in their skills and abilities and in in in in their role, you know, to kind of think a little bit differently and and and and you know, we want to make sure that we we have uh we leave no stone unturned for for an agency that really wants to tackle this problem.

Travis Yates 19:02

Well, I'm excited, Brian. What can bring you on in a few months because you're no doubt going to have the data behind this and these agencies start picking you up and they're gonna be able to show immediate success because this is real data, real numbers. They're gonna be able to track this immediately once they sign up uh with you. There are tactical concept. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for joining our efforts because truly we're just trying to make these communities safer. We're trying to take the load off of all these officers uh that are just under a tremendous amount of stress because there's not enough employees there at the department. So thank you so much for being here. Appreciate the time. Thank you. And if you've joined us here at staffing the mission, as you know, we'll see you back again next week.