Recruiters may not always be the most respected professionals in the business world, but comparatively few have faced the kind of threats to life and limb that have come with the job for Emma Zeeman.

Zeeman, an account manager for Belfast-based Grafton Recruitment, and colleagues were sent bullets and incendiary devices in the post after the company won a contract in 2002 to recruit for newly-civilianised positions in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), formerly the Royal Ulster Constabulary. “But it has still all been worth it,” she said. 

The company is waiting to hear if it has been successful in winning an extension for a fifth year. Since winning the work, Grafton has hired more than 1,600 civilians, in 157 campaigns, for jobs in the PSNI as part of the police service’s role in executing a new approach to policing in the province. Roles include accountant, crime scene investigator and firearms instructor.

Also involved in recruiting for the PSNI is Consensia, a consortium including accountancy firm Deloitte. Consensia was specially set up to recruit for actual police officer positions in the province.

Consensia’s website claims some successes. It points to the Oversight Commissioner’s report last year, which praised the transformation in policing that has taken place in a relatively short space of time. It said: “The recruitment of regular police officers, particularly with respect to community representation, continues to be a quantitative success. The regular police service is now 17.7% Catholic, a noticeable increase from the 8% reported by the Independent Commission in 1999.”

Beckenham-based RIG Police Recruit has supplied officers retired from UK police forces to the PSNI to help with unsolved cases going back several years.

Change in Northern Ireland
Between 1969 and 1994, more than 3,000 people were murdered in Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’. While related violence has abated since the mid-1990s, sectarian-related issues continue to weigh in on policing and employment matters.
In recent years, politicians have put in place initiatives to create greater equality of opportunity, one source of resentment in the province.

The Royal Ulster Constabulary was renamed the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in 2000, following the recommendations of the Patten Commission. In the past, the organisation had been seen by the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland as part of the Protestant establishment. The aim of the namechange was to alter the view that it was staffed purely by one section of the community.
The Patten Commission also said recruitment must be carried out by independent professional recruitment companies. Legislation provided for a large number of jobs to be taken away from police officers and transferred to newly recruited and specially trained civilians. In 2002, the PSNI invited tenders for the ‘civilianisation’ contract, which Grafton won.