Campaigns aim to attract more staff



THREE-THOUSAND OVERSEAS police officers have received good news as part of a NZ Police recruitment drive.

"The 3000 are currently serving officers from overseas jurisdictions who have expressed an interest in coming to New Zealand," says General Manager Human Resources, Wayne Annan.

"Now, we’re responding to their requests to see if the interests of both parties can be advanced."

The database of names was compiled from interest generated during and since the 2002 recruitment drive in the United Kingdom.

"The decision three years ago to recruit officers from the UK was successful in topping-up our staffing levels. It also added experience to our ranks. Based on that we are going overseas again."

Six-hundred new officers from New Zealand and overseas will be recruited to Police this financial year.

"This is in line with the numbers recruited in each of the last three years where we have consistently recruited between 400 and 600 recruits each year," says Wayne.

"By the end of this calendar year sworn staff numbers will have increased by five percent since 2003, reaching a total of 7,746 compared with 7,372 two years ago.

"We also have one of the lowest annual attrition rates of any public or private organisation in New Zealand. It is around four-and-a-half percent compared to ten to twenty percent in most organisations.

"We may have to work a little bit harder and smarter but we are still attracting a high calibre of recruit in what is regarded as a very tight labour market."


Wayne says the tightening labour market means rethinking the target, timing and content of recruitment campaigns.

"In addition to attracting serving officers from overseas, a campaign is currently underway to inform younger people and their families of the attractive career opportunities in police.

“We want to reach university graduates and senior school leavers and we have timed two recruit wings for the January/February period next year that will cater for the majority of them.

"We are one of the few employers who actually pay people while they are in training and that is a pretty attractive option."

Wayne is adamant that the organisation will not lower recruiting standards to reach target numbers.

"Standards of entry to police are important to maintain health, safety and integrity of the organisation.

"Most of our standards have been in place for many years now. Like any standards they need to be reviewed from time-to-time to ensure the meet they needs of the organisation. For example in the past you could not enter police college if your eyesight needed to be corrected with glasses, but we have found that the job can be performed by those wearing glasses."

Wayne says people on waiting lists in other than their home districts will be offered the opportunity to begin training sooner if they agree to go to high-demand areas such as Auckland, Gisborne, the West Coast or Queenstown.

Wayne says recruiting is an organisation-wide effort. “There are many initiatives we are doing to recruit staff, such as Operation Step-Up in Counties/Manukau. Recruiting for an organisation like police is an on-going process and we are always looking at innovative ways to attract staff."