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Sentinel Workforce™

Hiring that survives the scrutiny.
Documented before the question is asked.

Standardized testing. Documented screening. Non-biased process. Sentinel Workforce administers the hiring process so the agency can defend the outcome. Built for public safety, government, and mission-critical environments. Scaled for the small town and the major city alike.

See the Testing Suite Start a Workforce Conversation
Practice areas Sentinel Testing Suite Workforce Recruitment Screening Services Mainstreet
The Premise

Agency hiring breaks in two directions.

Workforce-level hiring goes wrong in two ways that hurt the agency long after the offer letter is signed. Both are preventable. Both deserve a documented process. Sentinel Workforce was built to run that process so the agency does not have to.

The Bias Problem

Even good people make biased hires.

Hiring panels score subjectively. Internal relationships influence outcomes. Candidates from the chief's church get a closer look. Candidates without local connections do not. Each finalist walks through a slightly different process. The agency does not mean for any of this to happen. It happens anyway.

Sentinel administers the testing. The same standard runs for every candidate. The bias has nowhere to hide.

The Defensibility Problem

The question always gets asked.

An applicant files an appeal. A council member asks why. An inspector general opens a file. A civil service commission reviews a promotion. The questions come from different directions on different days. They all want the same thing: documentation showing the hiring decision was made to a defensible standard. When the file does not exist, the agency owns the consequence.

Sentinel documents the process before the question is asked. The file holds up to the inspector general, the council, and opposing counsel.

We have run public safety hiring at every scale. Sentinel Workforce was built so the same standard runs at every scale.

Justin Scott and Jason Floyd · Founding Partners

Three Modes of Engagement

How agencies use Sentinel Workforce.

Sentinel Workforce runs three ways. Each one designed to meet an agency where it is. Full process. Testing layer only. Or scaled for the smallest community. The standard runs through all three.

Mode 01

The Full Engagement

We run the entire hiring process.

Sentinel sources the candidates, administers the testing, conducts the screening, coordinates the interviews, and runs the background, psychological, and polygraph coordination. The agency receives a documented finalist ready for the offer. The agency provides the position. We provide the candidate and the record.

Best for

Agencies without internal recruitment capacity. Agencies that want to stay out of the evaluation. Agencies that need defensibility from day one.

Most-Requested
Mode 02

The Testing Layer

We administer. You decide.

The agency runs its own recruitment. Sentinel runs the testing and screening that sits underneath it. Standardized written exams. Behavioral assessment. Promotional process. Sentinel Insight Assessment™. Background, psychological, and polygraph coordination. All administered by a third party. All documented. The agency receives results and makes the decision.

Best for

Agencies with internal HR. Agencies that want documented third-party testing to remove subjectivity. Agencies that need to defend the process without owning the administration.

Mode 03

Workforce Mainstreet

Scaled for the smallest agencies.

For agencies serving fewer than 15,000 residents. Sentinel runs the full hiring process at a scaled price point. Same testing standard. Same screening discipline. Same documented file. The small town gets the same defensible hire that the major city gets.

Best for

Small agencies without HR capacity. Agencies with one HR generalist. Small communities that need to fill a critical position with the same standard.

Three modes. One standard. The agency picks what fits.

The Sentinel Testing Suite

Three layers of standardized testing. One non-biased process.

Sentinel Workforce administers three categories of standardized testing for public safety, government, and mission-critical agencies. Each one externally administered. Each one documented. Each one designed to remove subjectivity from the agency's decision.

Tier 01

Entry-Level Testing

Standardized cognitive, behavioral, and knowledge assessment.

Built for police officer, firefighter, dispatcher, and corrections candidate pools. Cognitive reasoning. Situational judgment. Reading comprehension. Behavioral indicators. Administered remotely or onsite. For dispatcher candidates, Sentinel administers CritiCall, the industry-standard pre-employment simulation used by 1,800+ public safety agencies. Scored by Sentinel. Results delivered with rank order, percentile breakdown, and validity documentation. The candidate pool narrows. The agency stays out of the screening.

Built for

Police Officer · Firefighter · Dispatcher · Corrections Officer

Starting at

$375 · per candidate

Sentinel-Only Product
Tier 02 · The Differentiator

Sentinel Insight Assessment

The disposition layer that reveals who the candidate actually is.

Standardized cognitive tests reveal capability. They do not reveal judgment, integrity, or operational fit. Sentinel Insight is a proprietary assessment that surfaces a candidate's decision-making patterns, behavioral defaults, and operational disposition. Designed for public safety and mission-critical environments. Administered externally by Sentinel. Validated against operational outcomes. Delivered with a structured profile the agency can defend.

Use it as

Standalone product or add-on to entry-level or promotional testing.

Starting at

$1,250 · per candidate

Tier 03

Promotional Testing

Assessment centers for rank advancement and supervisory promotion.

Sergeant. Lieutenant. Captain. Battalion Chief. Supervisor. Sentinel designs and administers the full assessment center process: written knowledge exam, in-basket exercise, oral board, scenario simulation. All scenarios validated against agency policy. All assessors trained by Sentinel. All results documented for civil service defense. The agency receives a rank-ordered list with documented rationale.

Built for

Sergeant · Lieutenant · Captain · Battalion Chief · Supervisor

Starting at

$9,500 · per process

Standardized. Validated. Documented. The bias has nowhere to hide.

Industry-Standard Test Platforms Administered by Sentinel
CritiCall National Dispatcher Selection Test California P.O.S.T. Entry-Level Dispatcher IPMA-HR Telecommunicator TestGenius VSJT Sentinel Insight Assessment
All testing administered externally by Sentinel. Results delivered to the agency with full validity documentation.
Workforce Recruitment

The hires the agency cannot afford to get wrong.

Sentinel Workforce recruits the operational and technology professionals who run public safety, government, and mission-critical work every day. Not the chief, the chief's officers. Not the CIO, the administrators who keep the systems running. These hires define the agency's day-to-day operations, but most happen through HR functions that were not built for them. Sentinel runs the search to a documented standard. The agency makes the hire.

Roles We Recruit

From the floor to the server room.

Public Safety Field Operations
Police Officer Dispatcher / Telecommunicator Lateral Firefighter Corrections Officer Detention Officer Crime Scene Investigator Records Specialist
Public Safety Technology and Administration
CAD Administrator RMS Administrator Mobile Administrator GIS Administrator System Administrator Database Administrator Network Administrator 911 Technology Specialist
Operations and Support
Operations Manager Communications Manager Training Coordinator Records Manager Logistics Coordinator Quality Assurance Specialist
Other operational and technology roles considered. Discovery conversation defines fit.
The Workforce Process

Three stages. Scaled for the workforce engagement.

Sentinel Workforce runs a tighter process than executive search because the engagements move faster and the role definitions are more standardized. Same documentation. Same non-biased administration. Different scale.

01
Define and Source
  • Engagement letter with scoped deliverables
  • Position profile and screening criteria
  • Regional and national sourcing
  • Initial pool development and qualification
02
Test and Screen
  • Sentinel Testing Suite administration
  • Sentinel Insight Assessment where applicable
  • Interview coordination and oral board facilitation
  • Background, psychological, and polygraph coordination
03
Recommend and Hand Over
  • Documented finalist slate with rationale
  • Reference and credentials verification
  • Recommendation and offer support
  • Hand-over file delivered to the agency
Workforce-Tier Recruitment
Starting at $8,500 per role
Includes Sentinel Testing Suite administration where applicable, interview coordination, background and screening coordination, documented finalist slate, and hand-over file. Bundle pricing available for multi-role engagements.
Serving fewer than 15,000?

Workforce Mainstreet runs the same process at a scaled price point for small agencies. See Mainstreet ›

Chief and director-level executive searches run through Sentinel Selection™.

The chief's officers. The system's administrators. The agency's day-to-day. We recruit them to the same standard.

Screening Services

The screening that protects the hire.

Background investigation, psychological evaluation, and polygraph coordination are the screening steps that protect the agency from the hire that should not have been made.

Small agencies cannot run them at the pace, depth, or documentation standard that defends against a later challenge. Large agencies can, but having the agency's own personnel investigate the agency's own future colleagues creates the exact kind of subjectivity Sentinel was built to remove.

Sentinel runs the screening externally. Findings delivered to the agency. The record holds.

Service 01

Background Investigation

Documented record check. Externally administered.

Sentinel conducts comprehensive background investigations on candidate finalists. Criminal history. Employment verification. Education verification. Reference interviews. Social media review. Credit history where applicable. Findings delivered to the agency with documented source trail. The agency receives the file. The agency makes the decision.

Service 02

Psychological Evaluation

Licensed evaluator. Documented findings.

Sentinel coordinates pre-employment psychological evaluations through a bench of licensed psychologists experienced in public safety and mission-critical environments. Standardized testing instruments where applicable. Clinical interview. Written report delivered to the agency. The candidate's fit for the operational environment, documented to a defensible standard.

Service 03

Polygraph Coordination

Certified examiner. Documented session.

Sentinel coordinates polygraph examinations through certified, agency-approved examiners. Pre-employment questionnaire review. Examination administration. Written findings report delivered to the agency. All sessions documented to the same standard regardless of jurisdiction. Sentinel does not interpret the polygraph. We coordinate, document, and deliver.

Screening Services Bundle
Starting at $1,750 per candidate

Includes coordinated background investigation, psychological evaluation, and polygraph examination for a single candidate. Available as a bundle or as individual services. Pricing scales with engagement size.

Three layers of screening. One coordinated service. The agency receives the file.

Mainstreet
Sentinel Mainstreet™ · Workforce Edition

Defensible hiring. Small-town reach.

Jason and I came up in agencies where the HR shop was one person, sometimes none. We watched chiefs run their own hiring boards because no firm would take the work. We watched officers, firefighters, and dispatchers hired off a resume stack and a gut feel. We watched the lawsuits that followed. The agencies that need defensible process the most have always been the ones least able to buy it.

Sentinel Mainstreet is how the small agency hires with the same documentation as the largest.

Same Sentinel Workforce process. Same standardized testing. Same documented decision record. Scaled scope. Scaled timeline. A price point built for the four-officer department, the volunteer fire district, the two-seat dispatch center. This is for the agencies that taught us the work.

Justin Scott and Jason Floyd
Founding Partners, Sentinel Solutions Group
Mainstreet Workforce · The Operational Specifics
Eligibility
Agencies serving fewer than 15,000 residents
Workforce Bundle
Starting at $4,500
Roles Covered
Police officer, firefighter, telecommunicator, EMT, and entry-level operational or technical roles at the small-agency scale
Includes
Sentinel Standard Test™ administration, structured background coordination, oral board governance, documented decision record, and 30-day post-placement support

Serving fewer than 15,000? The premium firms passed. We will not.

Talk about MainstreetLearn about the Sentinel Mainstreet™ Program →
The Practice Leads

Two practitioners. The standard they built.

Sentinel Workforce is staffed by its founders. Every test administration, every oral board, every decision record carries the practitioner who built the practice. No partner-bait-and-switch. No junior recruiter representing a senior firm. The founder on the engagement letter is the founder at the close.

Practice Area A · Operational Workforce

Justin Scott

Founding Partner · Operations and Change Management

Justin has run hiring and process governance for some of the largest agencies in the country, from the LAPD modernization to LA County and DC Metro. He has briefed councils, defended panels, run intake-through-hire processes at scale, and watched what happens when an agency hires without one. He leads Sentinel’s Operations and Change Management practice and is the founding partner responsible for Operational Workforce.

Hiring process for: Police Officers, Firefighters, Telecommunicators, EMTs, Sergeants, Lieutenants, Communications Supervisors, and other operational hires.
Practice Area B · Technical Workforce

Jason Floyd

Founding Partner · Engineering and Technology

Jason has engineered, deployed, and operated mission-critical platforms for the country’s largest public safety agencies. He has hired the system administrators, technical analysts, and operations staff who ran them, and he has rebuilt teams after a wave of attrition. He leads Sentinel’s Engineering and Technology practice and is the founding partner responsible for Technical Workforce.

Hiring process for: System Administrators, Technical Analysts, Network Engineers, Mission-Critical Operations Staff, IT Support, CAD/RMS Operators, and other technical hires.

Together, Justin and Jason carry over fifty years of combined operational and engineering experience in mission-critical environments. Sentinel Workforce draws on their direct time in the dispatch centers and on the station floor, where every hire shows up the next day.

The Sentinel Standard for Workforce

Six principles. Every engagement. Every file.

Every Sentinel Workforce engagement runs on the Sentinel Delivery Framework™. The methodology is documented. The principles are non-negotiable. The file survives the inspector general, the council, and opposing counsel.

01
Practitioner-Led Engagement

The founder on the engagement letter is the founder at the close. No bait-and-switch. No junior representing the senior.

02
Standardized Testing

Every candidate evaluated through validated, documented instruments. Same test. Same conditions. Same scoring rubric.

03
Non-Biased Process Administration

Sentinel administers. The agency decides. The testing and scoring stay out of the chief’s office, the council’s politics, and the rumor mill.

04
Documented Decision Record

Every advancement, every decline, every panel score recorded in the file. The reasoning is in writing. The record holds.

05
Vendor-Neutral

No referral fees from testing vendors or background services. No commissions on placements. The recommendation runs only to the agency.

06
Audit-Defensible from Application to Hire

Every phase documented. The file survives the inspector general. The file survives the council. The file survives opposing counsel.

Promoted candidates and command-rank development run through Sentinel Leadership Pathway™.

Ready When You Are

Two practices. One firm. Every agency size.

Sentinel Workforce runs one process at a time. Each one staffed by a founding partner. Each one documented for the record. The wrong hire costs years. The right process keeps the file straight.

Start a Workforce ConversationSee Workforce Mainstreet
Independent. Practitioner-led. Vendor-neutral.