Border Agency Retention Problems...
In the last few months, I have had the pleasure of seeing many of the young Officers that I have trained in the last couple of years. Unfortunately, they have been wearing another agency's uniform.
If you are a regular, you know that I have repeatedly mentioned the fact that CBP needs to stop hiring old folks. No disrespect intended, but when you hire old folks, they don't stay very long. They may want to work for just a few years before they retire or they decide that wrestling bad guys for a living is not what they signed up for ( even though it is).
So we end up with transitional Officers with no job experience. On the other hand, the young Officers are looking for jobs with a twenty year law enforcement retirement. Sometimes they are looking before they finish their basic training. You really can't blame them.
The agency just closed an announcement taking in 25,000 applications. Why, because we are losing Officers and we need to plug some holes. I have seen some very good young people come and go. Until the agency can make the job enticing enough to retain some of the good young Officers, it will continue to hemorage.
Now put it all in perspective, these are the folks charged with keeping the terrorists out of the country. It would be nice if we could train these young people and nurture their careers in such a way that the country would be safer and they would be likely to stay and continue to learn the job. Anyone that thinks that they can master the CBP Officer position in a few short years is sorely mistaken. It is a job that is so broad that you can never learn it all, hence the need for specialists and if you need specialists, you have to make the job benefits good enough to retain Officers long enough that they can master certain aspects of the position.
Plain and simple, it is just common sense. The excuse is always money, but at stake is the nation's security. In the old days, it was called cutting off your nose to spite your face.
BT
If you are a regular, you know that I have repeatedly mentioned the fact that CBP needs to stop hiring old folks. No disrespect intended, but when you hire old folks, they don't stay very long. They may want to work for just a few years before they retire or they decide that wrestling bad guys for a living is not what they signed up for ( even though it is).
So we end up with transitional Officers with no job experience. On the other hand, the young Officers are looking for jobs with a twenty year law enforcement retirement. Sometimes they are looking before they finish their basic training. You really can't blame them.
The agency just closed an announcement taking in 25,000 applications. Why, because we are losing Officers and we need to plug some holes. I have seen some very good young people come and go. Until the agency can make the job enticing enough to retain some of the good young Officers, it will continue to hemorage.
Now put it all in perspective, these are the folks charged with keeping the terrorists out of the country. It would be nice if we could train these young people and nurture their careers in such a way that the country would be safer and they would be likely to stay and continue to learn the job. Anyone that thinks that they can master the CBP Officer position in a few short years is sorely mistaken. It is a job that is so broad that you can never learn it all, hence the need for specialists and if you need specialists, you have to make the job benefits good enough to retain Officers long enough that they can master certain aspects of the position.
Plain and simple, it is just common sense. The excuse is always money, but at stake is the nation's security. In the old days, it was called cutting off your nose to spite your face.
BT
posted by Border Train at 10:45 PM
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