COPS Monitoring announced it has reinvested more than $4 million in permanent annual wage increases and another $1 million in additional employee benefits.

“For the past two years, the entire country has been faced with an unprecedented crisis related to hiring and retaining qualified employees,” said COPS Founder and President Jim McMullen. “While the ‘Great Resignation’ and other factors have certainly affected nearly all employers, these challenges impact our industry more acutely because hiring and training a dispatcher is a rigorous and time-intensive endeavor that can take up to18 months before a dispatcher is thoroughly trained and completely vested in our industry. This fact places extraordinary importance on not only attracting the right talent, but also retaining our dedicated employees.”

In its continuing efforts to attract new recruits and reward its seasoned team, COPS Monitoring has implemented the following:

• Three separate wage increases in the past nine months for hourly employees (more than 600) exceeding $4 million annually
• Reinstatement of Club 6 events, an all-expense paid quarterly reward provided to all top-level dispatchers totaling more than $200,000 annually
• Restoration of seasonal company functions, management educational retreats and elaborate in-person year-end holiday celebrations at each of its six locations 
• Seasonal parties/outings 
• An impromptu one-time bonus to all employees to help mitigate the impact of inflation 

Together, the hourly wage increases and additional benefits total roughly $5 million in the first year.

“We are fortunate to be in the position to be able to make these investments,” continued McMullen. “Not only does it make us competitive as an employer but it also gives us the ability to retain the best and most dedicated team members, which translates to better service.”

The average tenure of a COPS dispatcher after passing the one-year mark is over five years, while the company’s most seasoned dispatcher has been employed for 26 years. 

“What's more is that 96% of our staff in supervisory to senior-level executive roles have all started in an entry-level position with COPS,” McMullen said. “These facts all indicate that we’re doing something right and we’re confident our investments will continue to provide enduring benefits to our dealers and their customers.”