PSNI HR – Attrition Rates in Recruitment Competition

To ask the Chief Constable (I) for his assessment of reasons for the attrition rates between applications and appointments in the previous recruitment competition and plans in place to address this in the current campaign; and (ii) what involvement the PSNI Ethnic Minority Police Association has had in supporting the recent Police officer recruitment campaign. 

• In our 2018 recruitment campaign, we attracted 6,243 applications. As with all our campaigns, we need to apply a rigorous multi-stage selection methodology to manage the number of applicants progressing through to each stage to ensure that the highest performing candidates are offered a place in the Police College. The table below shows the attrition based on performance in the initial assessment stages:
   

 IST – Initial Selection Test

AC – Assessment Centre

• Candidates in the merit pool are also required to pass the following pre-employment checks; Vetting, Physical Competence Assessment, Medical Assessment, Substance Misuse Test and Online Learning, which also impacts on our attrition rates.
• We are also aware that a number of candidates withdraw at various stages within the recruitment process for a variety of reasons including; change in personal circumstances, salary, sourcing alternative employment, security considerations and continuing with study. We also have had 79 candidates who have withdrawn from the current merit pool as a result of having been appointed via our previous campaign.
• We have put in place a number of measures to minimise withdrawals including:
• reducing the timescales associated with the process,
• developing a new section on the Join PSNI website for posting regular updates to previous applicants,
• personalised e-mails to candidates advising when they have passed each stage, and
• a flexible approach to deferral requests.
• In terms of further reducing withdrawals from the new campaign, we will continue to implement these existing measures. We are also currently reviewing the Physical Competence Assessment to mitigate any impact on the female merit pool and are developing a communication plan for maximising our engagement with candidates throughout the recruitment process.

(b) what involvement the PSNI Ethnic Minority Police Association has had in supporting the recent Police officer recruitment campaign

• We are fully committed to engaging with our Minority Support Associations. All Minority Support Associations are invited to our Positive Action Group which provides a discussion forum for seeking input and ideas regarding a range of positive action measures, including police officer recruitment.