Several years ago, the HPD promoted their employment brand of “ohana,” meaning family. Now they’re having trouble keeping the family together.
Police departments all over the United States are experiencing a reduction in applications, requiring increased emphasis on recruitment. The Hawaiian Islands and their near‐perfect weather may be inviting, but Honolulu has some recruiting challenges that the rest of the country doesn’t encounter, including the limited population and relative isolation of the Hawaiian Islands, competition for applicants from other law enforcement agencies, and the relatively high expense of living in Hawaii.
The number of vacancies is climbing with just over 200 in January of 2017. There are 106 recruits in various stages of training, processing applicants through testing and background checks takes up to 7 months.24 Typically, only 3 percent of the applicants are then accepted into the 6‐month training class, and several of those do not complete training.
Adding to the challenge, the cities of Sunnyvale and San Jose California have shown up in Honolulu, recruiting for their own police departments. They’ve had some success too. Since 2001, Sunnyvale has hired 38 officers from Hawaii. Annual salary for beginning public service officers in Sunnyvale is approximately $96,000. In Honolulu, new officers earn about $63,000.25 California’s expensive living expenses don’t scare Hawaiians who are used to an even higher cost of living. Sunnyvale calls their officers “public service officers” because they train recruits to be both a police officer and firefighter, adding challenge and career flexibility.
The city of San Jose California also sent 11 police officers to Honolulu to attend job fairs and recruit candidates for their police force in their first recruitment effort in Hawaii. Although the starting salary of $95,00026 is comparable to Sunnyvale and they contacted nearly 900 prospects in advance, they weren’t as successful as Sunnyvale. Out of 89 scheduled interviews, 39 either didn’t show up or were disqualified. Of the 50 interviewed, only one candidate completed the background check process. The $42,692 cost of the trip led the mayor of San Jose to observe “it was not a good use of the public dollars.”27
1.What elements of branding would be important for a police department?
2.What factors may explain the difference in results between Sunnyvale and San Jose?
3.If salary can’t be changed, how can the Honolulu Police Department use internal and external recruitment methods to make recruiting more effective?
4.Design a social media strategy to reach potential applicants for HPD. How will it differ from the social media recruiting strategy of mainland law enforcement agencies?
5.Research: Take a look at the Honolulu Police Department Career Center at www. Honolulu upd.org and the Sunnyvale Public Safety Recruitment and Careers site at www.sunnyvlaw.ca.gov. Investigate their recruiting pages. In what ways does the content support the employment brand? What suggestions can you make to improve their recruiting efforts? Which seems more effective? “
