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at ways to retain police officers after Police officer recruitment
retirement and encouragingly have seen a Last 12 months Last three months (May - July)
number who extend their retirement date or
return to take on police staff roles.” PCDA 305 142
Early this year the Force introduced a DHEP 250 96
retention interview to capture the views of Transferees/rejoiners 42 7
officers who has resigned from the service or Re-joiners 8 1
were looking to transfer to another force. Police Now 92 92
This identified that some were relocating Direct Entry 2
to another part of the country while another Total 699 338
officer was planning to leave due to their
posting with the Force, an issue that was Police officer turn-over
resolved leading the officer to stay with Resignations, ill-health, dismissal, retirements and transfers
West Midlands Police. Full-time equivalents (FTE) Last 12 months Last three months (May - July)
However, some also expressed Resignations 62.1 12.4
frustration with the promotion processes. Ill-health retirements 33.2 8.0
“We are continually reviewing our Dismissal 14.0 3.0
processes and our goal is to introduce a Retirements 158.7* 29.6
promotions process that takes into account Transfers 100.1** 5
periods of temporary promotion and draws Other 2.0 0
directly on performance in the workplace,”
says Nicola. Total 370.1 58
“We are working on the introduction of a * Forecast retirements in the next 12 months – 220 FTE.
performance management framework ‘WMP ** Of the 100.1 transferees over the last 12 months only one officer has transferred with less
Conversations’ which will underpin this than four years’ service. This officer was an ex-Police Now student and transferred to North
approach in the future.” Yorkshire Police.
The Federation has concerns about the
effects the current processes can have on
officers who are acting up in roles and then Agile working will continue
not passing the process, even though they
have no performance issue and can clearly The Force will continue to support agile Nicola puts down, in part, to social
show operational competence. working but is not advocating a home- distancing and lockdown significantly
Nicola admits she understands those based Force, according to the director of reducing the transmission of both Covid and
concerns. people and organisation development. other related illnesses.
“We want all of our competently Nicola Price said the Force will “Sickness levels in January and February
performing officers to progress their career continually look at the changing landscape are always higher than the following months
and to be rewarded for the efforts they are and guidance from the Government to as we move out of the flu period,” Nicola
putting into progressing our policing ensure it can be a Covid secure employer. explained.
objectives. It is recognised that not all “We analyse our daily data on sickness, “The temporary reduction in demand in
officers perform as well during an testing and tracing and look for patterns areas such as Response and Custody has in
assessment centre which doesn’t always of positive cases, checking it by location or turn reduced potential for accidents, assaults
reflect their performance on a day to day demographic data or protective and stress-related illness.”
basis,” she explains. characteristic. We have learnt through But, she also believes that officers and
“The approach that we would like to Covid that we can work agile and have staff have worked together to ensure
move to in the future will go some way supported the most vulnerable to work colleagues are supported with a more
towards recognising this. The process that from home,” she said. personal commitment to ensure teams and
we currently have in place is applied fairly “Although we are not advocating a functions can remain resilient.
and consistently and is recognised as good home-based force, we will continue to The potential reasons for reduced
practice nationally, with the support of the support agility in the workplace.” sickness will form part of a research project
Federation we will continue to develop this There has been a drop in sickness for one of the new master’s courses the Force
further to reach our preferred objective.” levels during the coronavirus crisis which launched in September

ABOUT NICOLA PRICE

Nicola Price joined West Midlands Police in November 2019 as She started her career in the Manpower Services Commission
director of people and organisation development. supporting national youth and adult training programmes, to help
A professionally qualified human resources leader with more drive Government initiatives in skilling people back to work.
than 20 years’ HR experience in all areas, she has worked in Since then, she has worked in a large number of public and
centres of expertise, HR shared services and HR business private sector organisations driving global diverse people
partnering across Europe, the Americas and the Asia Pacific. strategies in Rolls Royce, Bombardier Transportation and Siemens
Nicola completed a master’s degree in strategic human Business services.
resources at the University of Portsmouth, and is a member of Married to Ken, the couple live in Derbyshire with their dog,
the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development. Molly, and chickens.

www.polfed.org/westmids federation October/November 2020 17