Introduction
Police professionalization is a contentious and ongoing process, with disagreements over what police work should involve from the top down. Police officers work in a hazardous environment, making quick judgments that occasionally have life-or-death consequences. Although it is often a community that is hostile to its activities, its objective is to serve and defend the local community. Any law enforcement organization that sends its officers out into the community without the necessary instruction and supervision is setting them up for failure. Effective law enforcement rules are simply one aspect of assisting police in performing their duties successfully. For professional and ethical conduct, policies lay out standards and expectations. Due to the stigmatization of the profession of policing, RPS has experienced a sharp drop in the number of applicants for open positions. Furthermore, we are working to hire more diverse police officers to better reflect the community they serve. In trying to get a diverse police professional, RPS has strategies such as hiring from different ethnicity and individuals with educational backgrounds, experiences, and gender.
Workplace Diversity
The word diversity means difference rather than race or inter-racial connections. It refers to variances in values, thought patterns, racial or ethnic origins, sexual orientation, or any other feature of our social identity. Diversity in the workplace is presently a highly popular topic among corporations. The modern workplace supports social advancements and views workplace diversity as critical to success and enjoyment at work. For some firms, hiring a diverse workforce might be a challenge, but there are ways to foster harmony and cooperation among various individuals and groups (Carleton et al., 2018). A varied workforce is made up of individuals from different demographic groups that work for the same company. Perceptions have an impact on how individuals relate to one another and communicate with one another. For organizations to succeed, human resource professionals must be successful at addressing organizational issues relating to diversity. But in as much as this is so, there are different factors that make it hard for change and diversity in the workplace to happen. It has called for the RPS to try and hire people from different backgrounds to increase their diversity.
Barriers To RPS Hiring a Diverse Workforce
Resisting change is considered to be one of the biggest obstacles to enhanced work diversity. Some individuals might be against the progressions occurring as new arrangements and staff are brought into an association. Firstly, when people are resistant, it is because they o not comfortable with the change or are unsure how they will respond to the changes. At times they may feel unwanted and awkward; the people who are impervious to change can annoy and harm assorted associates. At the point when your labor force opposes the change, unseemly language, fanaticism, and generalizing are only a couple of the terrible impacts. Furthermore, there might be individuals who are against the progressions occurring as new approaches and faculty are brought into an association. At the point when they feel unwanted and awkward, individuals who are impervious to change can annoy and harm different associates (Walby & Gumieny, 2020). At the point when your labor force opposes the change, unseemly language, bias, and generalizing are only a couple of the terrible impacts.
The problem of integration is another barrier that hinders the incorporation of diversity in a workplace. When it comes to assisting diverse personnel in integrating, some organizations may run into problems. Making new hires feel welcomed and valued is crucial to ensuring a seamless transition to the workplace. Organizations won’t be able to effectively assist a new hire’s integration into the office if the proper initiatives aren’t in place to support diversity training (Parent & John, 2019). There are several different degrees of integration required, including interpersonal relationships and concerns about workplace equality, including wage equity, work duties, and more.
The communication barrier is seen as a barrier to diversifying, as it makes it impossible for people to understand each other with ease. Communication issues might emerge in working environments with a variety of issues. Insufficient correspondence can bring about inadvertent affront, doubt, and cloudy work environment strategies. International personnel who speak different languages, adhere to different timetables or have distinct cultural customs may present a communication challenge for organizations trying to promote diversity in the workplace. Administrators sometimes struggle to make expectations clear when attempting to teach staff members how to communicate effectively (Linos, 2018). It might be challenging to confront issues directly, sometimes even while attempting to be courteous and informative. Additionally, managers want all workers to feel welcomed and included, especially those who struggle with communication.
Best Recruiting and Hiring Practices that Can be Adopted by RPS
Due to the existence of barriers, RPS must find a better way of recruiting and hiring when it comes to increasing tit existing workforce. Having in mind that the barriers do exist, it becomes essential for RPS organizations to get alternative ways of recruiting and hiring the personnel they need, those with different education levels and diverse ethnicities (Linos, 2018). Enhancing candidate experience is one of the strategies that can be used when recruiting and hiring. The candidate’s experience during the entire recruitment process is crucial to determining how far they will advance. Candidates who have a good experience are more likely to apply, move farther down the recruitment marketing funnel, and recommend your business favorably.
RPS can implement a practice where they put more emphasis on the culture in the workplace. In this cultural diversity training, they can create a solid employer branding strategy to ensure that potential employees are informed about your company culture. This tactic will allow job candidates to learn more about your business even before they apply. Even better, you can use culture as a recruitment technique to attract the right talent. Candidates more likely to appreciate working for your firm will be more receptive to your message if you emphasize what your organization stands for (Linos, 2018). It can be bad for both sides if a new hire learns about your company culture only after making their first steps within the organization.
Conclusion
Policing is one of the most difficult jobs, which entails dealing with life-death situations and making judgments about whether to arrest, warn or shoot. Since the profession deals with a community that comprises people of various backgrounds, it is imperative to incorporate workplace diversity. This diversity facilitates harmonious cooperation between the police themselves and the surrounding Regina community. While diversity is a critical constituent of the police, there are factors such as communication barriers, resisting change and lack of integration which inhibit distinction in this profession. Nevertheless, this problem can be overcome by employing cultural diversity training and carrying out candidate enhancement techniques. In cultural diversity training, the police can learn the beliefs and practices of various cultures. Besides, the candidate enhancement program will focus on training police recruits on the importance of cohabiting with people of diverse cultures in their workplace.
References
Carleton, R. N., Korol, S., Mason, J. E., Hozempa, K., Anderson, G. S., Jones, N. A. & Bailey, S. (2018). A longitudinal assessment of the road to mental readiness training among municipal police. Cognitive behavior therapy, 47(6), 508-528.
Linos, E. (2018). More than public service: A field experiment on job advertisements and diversity in the police. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 28(1), 67-85.
Parent, R., & John, C. (2019). Diversity and policing in Canada. In Policing and Minority Communities (pp. 145-161). Springer, Cham.
Walby, K., & Gumieny, C. (2020). Public police’s philanthropy and Twitter communications in Canada. Policing: An International Journal.