‘Policing is about much more than people often realise’

Katie Hayton

Humberside Police, which was recently named the best force in the country at a national awards ceremony, currently has its highest number of officers and staff in a decade, but is still recruiting. Talent Acquisition Manager Katie Hayton explains why a career in the force is like no other

When someone says they work for the police, it’s often assumed they’re an officer, but there’s so much more to working for the force than people often realise.

We offer many different and diverse staff roles across Humberside Police that perhaps don’t always have the profile of officers, but are nonetheless essential to the delivery of the service the public demands and deserves.

Following the biggest recruitment campaign in Humberside’s history, we now have around 3,900 people working for us, of which about 2,100 are officers and 1,800 are staff.

That’s the highest number we’ve had in a decade, and also highlights the importance of staff, but we’re still actively recruiting.

We’re looking for good, talented people across different departments because we aren’t resting on our laurels after recent successes. We’re determined to improve further, and for that we need the best people.

We’ve already had a big focus on PCSO and call handling recruitment, which has been very successful, but there are many other positions we’re looking to recruit for throughout the year across the force, including in Hull, the East Riding, Grimsby and Scunthorpe.

There are a lot of exciting and rewarding positions available to people with the right skillset, including in digital forensics, compliance and engagement, analytics, and on front counters, to name but a few.

We’re recruiting from administrative, to specialist, to leadership roles.

Our recent officer recruitment campaign has had a knock-on effect with the number of staff we need because the more officers we have, the more training we need to deliver. This means we need more driving and officer safety training officers at the moment too.

The beauty of joining the police family is the variety it offers, but also the opportunity for career advancement and progression.

We have people who join us in a staff role, who develop and eventually take on leadership positions. Similarly, we have people who join as staff and move on to police officer roles.

Quite often, they gain the organisational knowledge during their staff role and decide they want to change their career path, but still within the force. That’s something we actively encourage and support.

That’s a real attraction of working for Humberside Police – you can take different paths at different times. As a member of the force, you can take on many different roles, but all with the same employer and with the same benefits. We’re very open to people developing and progressing.

We’re a Disability Confident Employer and we support every successful applicant to meet their needs. New members of the team have a consultation with Occupational Health to make sure we get the right adjustments in place, should any be required.

We’re also a very inclusive organisation as we know the most effective police service is one that can help anyone, whatever their age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or faith. That’s reflected in our recruitment.

There are so many exciting opportunities, and there’s so much more to a career with Humberside Police than many people think.

• To find out more about these opportunities, visit https://www.humberside.police.uk/join-us