Coppers, nurses and lateral pathways….

Who has the worst jobs in the world? Cops. They deal with the full cross section of the community, cut down people hanging from their showers, look at mangled bodies in car crashes, then go home to their families and prepare dinner whilst they maintain interest in what their wives or husbands had for lunch in their sandwiches.

There are two types of people that are Coppers.  The first group, the non-academic kids from school that didn’t get into university.  That makes them sound useless, but we can’t count them out, whilst they aren’t big thinkers, they follow instructions well, they learn the rules, and come rain or shine, those rules are then followed to the letter, like it’s nobody else’s business. 

The problem with these kids is that they get promoted to their highest level of incompetence.  What do I mean by this?  Like it is across all industries and professions, people get promotions because they excel in their roles, until eventually, they become the boss making the calls, then they fall to pieces. 

Imagine if someone who went to university was in a high position at the police force?  They would start to promote laterally so that everyone could continue to excel.

I digress, the second kind of person is a person with “that special something”.  They are still tough and follow instructions, but they have this insane ability to look at each situation with fresh eyes.  They can go to a murder scene in the morning and still show compassion to girl who lost her mobile phone later in the day. These are the cops that hang around.  They were born for the job, a lot of them always wanted to be in the job and they are ever so proud to be Police Officers.

Unfortunately, these people are hard to find and promoting too many of the non-academic kids that couldn’t get into university starts to become a problem. 

That got me thinking.  How could I fix the recruitment problem within the police force?

Bingo.

What profession pay is worse than Policing?  Nursing! 

Guess what? They have the exact same qualities as the good cops do.  Nurses clean up after sick people, make others comfortable so that they can die, console family members, learn how to use every single machine in the hospital and manage to turn up to work every single day with fresh eyes and a positive attitude. 

So, the quality of resilience is what we are looking for.  Not everyday resilience, but real resilience, the resilience of good Cops. We have nurses and possibly Emergency Workers (Ambos and Paramedics).  These guys all need hourly resilience. Resilience that kicks in after every single situation.  Each time they prepare to launch, headfirst, with no idea what they are about to get themselves into.  “Is it going to be worse than Sandra Jones swinging from her garage roof? Hope not, let’s go”.

What if we extend the lateral pathways to offer accelerated switching from one group to another.  When Nurses get sick of the pay conditions, they can get a transfer out of nursing and into the Police Force.  When Police start to shudder at attending another protest in the city, they can jump across to Nursing or become an Ambulance Officer.  Suddenly, our public servants have options.

The research indicates that Police and Nurses get it right when they work together too. According to a Canadian study, there are better outcomes for everyone when the two professions work together.

For the Police it means that recruiting becomes easier.  It means they attract some talented people who have a university education, and they can start putting new people with a different perspective into their organisation at varied levels.  It stops everyone starting at the bottom and working their way up to their highest level of incompetence. 

Nurses have been to university for a while but might find the better pay attractive.  The concept of lateral pathways is so strong, Victoria Police should be investing in incentives for nurses to jump across to the Force, they are educated and have experience with the tough stuff, what a win for the Police.

Then imagine if a Senior Cop wanted a change and to move to a Hospital Job.  Or the CEO of The Alfred decided a career with the Police might be desirable to him/her.  We have senior people taking senior jobs with entirely fresh perspectives, different educations, and a shared passion for public duty. 

Diversity. Must be one of those things you learn about at university!

Who wins? The entire public service.  For the first time in history, it could become one of the most attractive careers around.

Glenn Hall is a former advertising executive turned freelance communications consultant. Glenn has a fresh perspective on topical issues and a unique way of viewing the world.   With diverse interests, no topic is out of reach and Glenn will be sure to challenge your thinking.