Recruitment and retention

Report: 9
Date: 19 April 2001
By: Commissioner

Summary

The report examines the issues relating to recruitment and retention of police officers and civil staff in the MPS.

A. Recommendation

That Authority members note the contents of this report.

B. Supporting information

Workforce statistics – Police

1. The budgeted workforce target (BWT) for police officers in 2000/01 was 25,600. The actual strength at the end of the financial year (31 March 2001) was 25,430, a shortfall of 170 officers, which equals 0.66 per cent of the total workforce.

2. During the year 1,350 officers were recruited, of these 90 (6.6 per cent) were classified as visible ethnic minority (VEM) and 278 (20.6 per cent) women. The total included 137 transfers from other forces, including officers rejoining the MPS and people rejoining the police service having previously left.

3. The number leaving the MPS was 1,469.21 (full time equivalents), which are broken down as follows:

Ordinary retirements

465.4

Medical retirements

220.06

Transfers to other forces

382.4

Resignations

359.35

Deceased

12

Dismissals

10

Required to resign

20

Workforce statistics – Civil Staff

4. The BWT for civil staff in 2000/01 was 11,110. The actual strength at the end of the financial year was 10,197, a shortfall of 913 which equals 8.2 per cent of the workforce.

5. During the year, 1,099 generalists and specialist civil staff were recruited plus 28 traffic wardens. Of these 176 (16 per cent) were self classified as VEM and 632 (55.7 per cent) were women.

6. The number leaving the MPS was 1,568 civil staff and 136 traffic wardens.

Police recruitment 2000/01

7. There has been a steady improvement in recruiting performance since the beginning of the year. Appendix 1 shows the increase in the number of enquiries from 2,092 in April 2000, with 4,629 in July and rising to 9,345 in January 2001, 7,405 in February and 6,214 in March. A total of 55,638 application packs were sent out during the year.

8. There are a variety of reasons why the level of interest in joining the MPS has significantly improved. A national advertising campaign funded by the Home Office has had some impact, with television advertisements asking the audience 'could you' become a police officer. The advertisements used celebrities to emphasise the message and raise the profile of the job. The numbers of enquiries identified for the MPS were a little disappointing with only 13 per cent of the total enquiries requesting information about the MPS. A number of initiatives were used to improve this for example including in the information pack the size of each police service, the level of vacancies and the pay scales for the MPS compared with other forces.

9. Increases in the rate of pay for new recruits and for probationers after the 18 weeks training has also helped. A salary of £25,211 has attracted a higher number of enquiries. This has also been supported by the free rail travel for police officers in and around London to a radius of 110km. The full impact of this is yet to be reflected in the number of applications and joiners.

10. Applications received have risen similarly, Appendix 1 shows the increase since the beginning of the year together with the number of VEM and women candidates. In April 2000: 309 were received, July: 411, January 2001: 1,386 and in March 1,436 were received. A total of 8,942 applications have been submitted during the course of the year, with 53 per cent of those received since 1 January 2001.

11. It is important that the MPS not only increases the number of expressions of interest by proactive, focused marketing and advertising but also the conversion rate from initial interest to completed application form. Some work has been done on this, more information about the police service and role is included in the packs and the application form has been simplified. There now needs to be a more individual personal contact made with potential candidates. This will be done through the establishment of a Careers Advisory team who will initiate and attend a range of recruiting opportunities but also offer more informal briefing sessions and one to one interviews.

12. Improvements also need to be made in the conversion rate from receipt of application form to recruited police officer but without compromising quality. A total of 1,350 applicants were successful in 2000/01 following a rigorous selection process. On receipt of an application form a series of checks are undertaken which includes a review of a medical questionnaire completed by the candidate. Compliance checks with Police National Standards on nationality, residency, previous employment, family history, tatoos, convictions and debts are also undertaken.

13. If all the criteria are met, applicants are invited for an interview to ascertain their suitability and are tested for written abilities, verbal usage, numerical reasoning, verbal logical reasoning and observation skills. Successful completion of the Day One processes to the required standard means the applicant will be invited to attend a second selection day to undertake medical and fitness tests.

14. Further information on medical history is sought from the applicant's GP together with eyesight and dental checks, plus height/weight ratio indicators are considered by the MPS Principal Medical Officer. Each candidate also undertakes a series of fitness tests to examine stamina, agility and strength. At this stage successful candidates are cleared by security services before a job offer is made.

15. The breakdown of the total number of officers recruited during the year showing transfers, rejoiners and those with previous police service, together with ethnicity and gender details is shown below:

*Transfers/Rejoiners/Previous Police Service

Police recruitment 2001/02

16. The BWT for the year commencing 1 April 2001 has increased by 1,050 officers to a target of 26,650 by the end of March 2002. Based on the current trends, estimated turnover figures, officers returning from boundary secondment and the shortfall from the previous year to meet this target a total of 2,577 recruits are required. It is important that this figure is reduced by improving retention of existing officers. The Service's approach to the retention of both police and civil staff is dealt with later in this paper.

17. The intention is to closely monitor and adjust this target in the light of changes to the numbers of officers leaving the organisation.

18. The first group of candidates in the new year were attested on 9 April 2001. A total of 182 have been invited including transfers and rejoiners. Inevitably there are usually a small number who fail to attend and the number of candidates sworn in was 177.

19. To reach the recruitment target based on current trends, in excess of 120,000 enquiries need to be received with at least 13 per cent completing application forms.

20. At the present time over 250 enquiries for police officers posts are received each day. During March over 6,000 information packs were sent out. Because of the time lag there is not a comparable direct ratio of applications packs sent to completed applications returned on a monthly basis, but during March 1,436 completed application forms have been received. This brings the total to 4,762 since 1 January 2001.

21. To cope with the massive increases needed the recruitment call centre is to be extended, careers advisory teams established, a dedicated interviewing team selected and the numbers of processing staff increased and provided with training on revised processing procedures. The full budget implications of this are currently being worked on with MPS Finance Department.

22. At the moment the Recruitment Centre at Aybrook Street is open six days per week with the number of candidate Day 1 interviews increasing to 50 per day with effect from 17 April 2001. A further site is also being sought as part of the interim arrangements to relieve the pressure of inadequate accommodation. Additional Occupational Health resources are also required to undertake checks on all candidates requiring medical and fitness testing.

23. The existing difficulties with accommodation will continue throughout the year until the move to additional accommodation at Simpson House, Peel Centre, Hendon is completed. The building for the new selection centre is currently being altered and refurbished to enable the function to be transferred in December 2001.

24. The forthcoming year will also have other challenges: the Home Office is reviewing national standards for police recruitment; a revised element of the fitness tests will be introduced; and the national competency framework behavioural and professional/technical competencies must be incorporated into selection procedures. Given the demography of London and the bouyant employment market, pressures will continue in recruitment, especially to reach targets for VEM applicants. The MPS is competing with other public and private sector organisations for the same relatively small number of potential candidates.

25. The targets for recruitment in future years depend on the MPA agreeing BWT, the funding to support this being achieved and the ability to influence improvements to the retention of existing officers. Based on existing trends, using a consistent BWT of 28,000 and incorporating presumed leavers at pensionable age shows:

Civil staff 2000/01 and 2001/02

26. In response to the large number of vacancies the Civil Staff Recruitment Unit (CSR) was established in February 2000 based at Beak Street. During the last financial year over 30 individual internal and external recruitment campaigns have been run by CSR, selecting over 1000 staff. At the present time there are 18 campaigns running simultaneously. These include:

• Administrative Officers and Assistants – 180 vacancies> 4000 enquires
• Communications Officers – 200 vacancies> 6000 enquires
• Criminal Records Bureau staff – 140 vacancies> 900 enquires
• Scene Examiners – 150 vacancies> 2000 enquiries
• Security officers – 30 vacancies> 800 enquires
• Crime/Intelligence Analysts – 70 vacancies> 2000 enquiries

27. In addition, there have been a number of specific campaigns for senior civil staff ie: Grade 9 Higher Executive Officer and above. These cover a broad range of types of roles, with different skills and experience required and needing a variety of selection processes. Examples include, Development Advisors, Operational Policing Researcher, Personnel Managers, Senior positions in Department of Information and Department of Public Affairs.

28. There has however been some confusion within the MPS in the last year about whose responsibility it was to undertake generalist recruitment, either locally on Boroughs, operational units and Branches or within Civil Staff Recruitment. This has now been clarified with the publication of a new Police Notice. A more corporate approach is taken to support local recruitment needs, with the ability of local personnel units to choose to appoint to generalist posts at Executive Officer (Grade 10), Administrative Officers (Grade 12) and Administrative Assistants (Grade13) or use the services provided by CSR.

29. The CSR in support of junior and senior appointment processes will provide:

• pool of selected applicants for local units to select from;
• call centre to process enquiries;
• advice on application form design and content;
• media advertising for each campaign;
• production, despatch and receipt of application packs;
• organisation and administration of selection processes;
• references and security checks; and
• preparation of contracts of employment.

30. It is important that the MPS continues to recruit and select civil staff to meet the BWT. The work of the civil staff in support roles especially those in operational capacities is crucial.

31. Assuming a similar level of turnover for 2000/01 (1,700) approximately 2,500 civil staff will need to be recruited in 2001/02 to reach the BWT.

Retention strategy

Targets

32. The high costs of recruiting, training and equiping police officers can be offset if fewer officers leave prematurely, but more importantly the Service needs to retain the experience and skills of existing officers in order to maintain a high quality policing service to London. Similarly, the retention of essential support staff is equally important in order to support front line policing and reduce the administrative burden for operational officers.

33. To help achieve the planned BWT for police officers and civil staff in 2001/02 the following high level targets have been set:

• the percentage of voluntary police leavers 3.4 per cent
• the percentage of voluntary police leavers in first 5 years 6.5 per cent
• the percentage of voluntary police leavers with
• 5-30 years of service 2.8 per cent
• the percentage of civil staff turnover
• (including traffic wardens) 13 per cent

(all targets expressed as a percentage of strength)

The targets in respect of police retention will achieve lower turnover figures than those predicted in paragraph 25 above.

Exit survey data

34. In April 2000 a revised exit survey procedure was introduced and data from the first three quarterly periods has now been Analysed. The survey is confidential and anonymous and although leavers are under no obligation to complete the form, personnel managers give them every encouragement to do so. The overall return rate for the third quarter's survey forms is 39 per cent although the police and civil staff return rates differ with police at 26 per cent and civil staff 45 per cent. The police return rate improved within the quarter, doubling from 19 per cent for those leaving in October to 40 per cent for those who left during December.

35. Police views on pay appear to have changed over the three quarters with no police respondents citing pay as their main reason for leaving in the third quarter against 21 per cent in the April-June 2000 period. However, 44 per cent of police respondents still thought that an improvement in pay for them to continue with the MPS. The reduction in the number of officers citing pay as the main leaving reason suggests that the London Pay Lead has had some impact.

36. Pay continues to be one of the main areas cited by civil staff as affecting their decisions and as needing improvement in order for them to continue working for the MPS. The vast majority of civil staff respondents stated that they would receive pay increases in their new jobs.

37. Most staff agreed that the friendly/team spirit was what they had most enjoyed whilst working for the MPS, although most stated that staff morale needed to be improved for them to stay.

38. To enhance the process and to improve the feedback received exit interviews with the local personnel manager are now offered to leavers. A review of the exit survey process will also take place to identify ways of improving the return rate.

39. A paper setting out more detailed information about data provided by the exit survey is to be considered by the MPA HR Committee on 19 April 2001.

Developing the retention strategy

40. Now that the high level retention objectives have been set the individual strands of the Retention Strategy are being refined and finalised. The strategy will seek to achieve some 'quick fixes' as well as setting medium and long term goals.

41. Information obtained from the Staff Exit Surveys, the Staff Survey and focus groups with staff representatives is being used to establish the Strategy's strands. Work will be progressed under the following strand headings:

• Pay and Conditions
• Flexible Working Practices
• Health, Safety & Welfare
• Career Opportunities
• Morale (& support mechanisms)
• Marketing

42. As no single activity is likely to achieve our retention targets co-ordination of the work is essential. It is acknowledged that some activities which will contribute to the retention of staff are already in hand (eg: developing alternative working practices) and so it is intended that the strategy will comprise both existing and new work. A Steering Group will be set up to monitor activity and mechanisms are being established to ensure regular consultation with key stakeholders and staff representatives. It is anticipated that the introduction of improved retention initiatives will also impact on the ability to attract sufficient numbers of police and civil staff recruits.

Workshop

43. To assist the MPS in achieving these targets the MPA HR committee have requested a workshop to examine the issues relating to recruitment and retention. Members will discuss the problems and proposals to address existing barriers to recruitment and debate how these might be redressed.

C. Financial implications

The financial requirements for 2001/02 were included in the budget building process. Longer term financial implications are currently the subject of detailed discussions with Finance Department and will be reported in due course.

D. Background papers

None.

E. Contact details

The authors of this report are Jenny Deere and Mike Shurety, MPS.

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback