Mentoring from Humberside Police -

Leveraging Mentoring for DEI Recruiting.

In this case study, explore how Humberside Police is using PushFar's mentoring software to
improve diversity, equality and inclusion in recruitment.

An introduction

Humberside Police have been serving the Northern Lincolnshire, Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire community since 1974.

Humberside Police acknowledges that it can only effectively serve its communities when it does so with the consent of the members of those communities. This is achieved by retaining legitimacy with the communities, through transparency, continued dialogue and engagement alongside an ethical and fair application of the law, delivered by a workforce that reflects the people it serves.

A mentoring scheme was suggested to address the proven disadvantage that candidates from under-represented communities face. A candidate is more likely to progress through the recruitment stages if they are internal or have contacts within the force to mentor them.

The key factors in the informal mentoring arrangement that exists between candidates from the wider pool and their internal contacts is information and confidence.

The rationale for the setting up of the scheme was to facilitate confidence-building and also to provide a platform where information could be shared between mentor and mentee in a structured format on an intuitive platform.

The Challenges

Humberside Police wanted a program in place that could be easily managed without putting excessive time pressure on internal mentors.

Humberside Police were looking for a solution where the options existed in terms of online and face to face features.

Speed in terms of development and embedding was essential and the solution had to provide both requirements as recruitment campaigns were imminent.

The platform when found had to be effectively self-sustaining with minimal requirements in terms of manpower and administration.

Mentors and mentees had to be matched by specialities, skills and know-how and not just experience.

A more rounded approach to mentoring was desired; one where mentors were to be hubs of information in addition to the more detailed support that the Positive Action Team was to provide.

From a community engagement perspective, the platform had to be a bridge between the force and candidates who represent the communities served.

The Solution

Humberside Police underwent demos with 3 different companies but decided PushFar was the right platform for the organisation after gathering feedback from various departments.

The PushFar team were able to walk Humberside Police through the platform, offering support and guidance. The PushFar team provided excellent customer service by answering any questions.

The platform was easy to set up. Humberside Police found the ease of use suitable for prospective mentors and mentees.

PushFar were able to offer Humberside Police a fast solution to their mentoring problems.

The mentoring process was to be “fluid” and “organic”, something the resources at the time couldn’t allow for.

PushFar allowed mentees and mentors to find their own matches via the platform but also for admins to manually match individuals too which Humberside Police found useful when working with specific employees.

The Results

Admin time managing the program has been greatly reduced.

The pass rates for candidates on the platform are high due to the engagement levels.

654 hours collectively spent on the platform by mentors and mentees.

PushFar has allowed candidates to gain an insight into life at Humberside Police from a cross-section of mentors.

Mentoring is now a strong pillar in the Humberside Police recruitment process.

48 meetings set up.

The functionality of the platform that allows face to face engagement has been utilised too.

53 mentors and mentees.

Mentees have the opportunity to have more than one person as point of contact.

“It’s helped massively!”

Humberside Police

What's Next?

Cyclical and ongoing onboarding tied into recruitment campaigns.

An increase in Positive Action Markers now means that LGBTQ+ and disabled candidates will now be onboarded as BAU.

The first batch of mentees will be starting with Humberside Police in December 2021 and will come off the stream and enter internal mentoring schemes.

Reward scheme for star mentors.

Humberside Police will now be embedding all internal mentoring schemes onto the PushFar platform and run them as streams.