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56 Tools to Aid State DOTs in Responding to Workforce Challenges
6.5 Gaps in Resources Available to Meet
Workforce Needs
This section discusses gaps between the workforce needs that were identified in section 2.3.1
and the current resources available to state DOTs to help them address these needs. Both current
gaps and likely future gaps based on emerging trends are identified.
6.5.1 Gaps Related to Coverage by Need Category
As shown in Table 6.1, the research team was able to locate a reasonable number of useful
information resources within each of the 22 identified needs categories. Categories with the
greatest coverage included Workforce Planning/Development, Training and Development, and
Recruitment. Categories with relatively few resources identified included Retirement, Downsizing/
Reduction in Force, Employee Conflict, and Outsourcing/Contract Management. Materials on
Strategic Planning, Human Resources Planning, and Knowledge Management within DOT set-
tings also have relatively light coverage in the database.
6.5.2 Gaps Related to Specific Emerging Workforce Issues
Linking Strategic Business Planning to Strategic Workforce Planning. While general
resources on strategic planning processes were identified, there is a need for more targeted
materials that help DOTs make progress in the integration of strategic workforce planning with
broader strategic business planning initiatives. Materials on this topic are needed both for human
resources professionals and for agency executives. Materials for human resources professionals
would help to enhance their understanding of business strategy and planning and their human
resources role in supporting those areas. Materials for executives would provide a succinct
understanding of how good strategic workforce planning can be an important driver of long-term
organizational effectiveness.
Workforce planning resources that incorporate all aspects of the multi-sector workforce will
be essential given the evolving models for the acquisition of talent to achieve strategic goals and
objectives. Policies, methods, and other resources to assure that the state DOTs maintain the
technical expertise to properly oversee the goods and services provided by the multi-sector work-
force will be a continuing challenge.
Balancing a Shrinking Workforce with an Increasing Workload. Retirements and reductions
in force due to economic constraints can increase employee stress and potentially undermine
long-term business planning. Case studies, policies, and guides that can help guide human
resources professionals through the preparation, execution, and repercussions of a reduction in
force can ensure that DOTs reduce employee conflict, maintain a positive work environment,
and that the agency is prepared to meet future safety and quality standards.
Reduced workforces and budgets have caused many agencies to outsource work to contractors.
This practice creates the need for a new skill set--contract negotiation and management--as well
as for tools to assess the costs and benefits of outsourcing. It also creates the need to carefully
consider the costs and benefits of direct hire verses acquisition of talent, goods, and services
through contracts and similar vehicles. Software applications that display comparative data
analyses, consulting services, model requests for proposals or contracts, and other informative
resources can help agencies utilize outside contractors in the most cost-effective and efficient
manner possible.
Leadership Development. A need exists for additional resources that address development
of the next generation of DOT leaders. Currently, middle management gaps exist in many DOTs
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Review of Existing Resources 57
due to hiring freezes that were in force during the 1990s and the movement of management
candidates from DOTs to private companies. Resources of all types can assist DOT managers in
identifying potential future leaders and training them in the changing requirements for success-
ful leadership.
Succession Planning. There is a need for a richer base of case studies and models for fully
integrating succession planning processes into the fabric of the organization, and for demon-
strating concrete approaches for flagging areas of risk or exposure.
Competency-based Training and Development Programs. There are good generic toolsets
and methodologies available for competency definition and assessment, but relatively few good
examples of practical approaches to training and development investments to proactively and
systematically fill identified gaps in required competencies. There is also a need for examples of
methodologies for ROI calculations that can be used to determine when training investments
make sense. These ROI approaches should be broadly based, taking into consideration issues
such as dollars expended, competency acquired and applied, short-term and long-term impact
on organizational and individual performance, and similar complex factors.
A second need with respect to competencies is resources which simplify and standardize iden-
tification of competencies specifically related to DOTs and that provide resources to assess and
predict the relationship between competencies in place and successful employee and organiza-
tional performance.
Recruitment. There are resources that more directly address recruiting challenges faced by
today's DOTs given a shrinking candidate pool, changes in what DOTs are able to offer with
respect to compensation, and changes in what motivates and attracts candidates to DOT jobs.
Human Resources Information Systems. There are resources that enable human resources
professionals to articulate requirements for improved tracking and reporting and work toward
successful realization of these requirements as part of system acquisition and development efforts
that are enterprise wide or statewide in nature.
Performance Management. There are resources that help DOTs to shift to a culture that
unites organization and employee performance requirements, metrics, and assessments. Creating,
managing, and evolving the required culture of performance within state DOTs will require the
development and absorption of an entirely new set of executive, manager, and supervisory skills.
It will also require a substantial evolution of the employee-employer relationship with all the
myriad implications for the devolution of greater power to individual employees and the need
to establish a proper set of checks and balances to manage that evolution and delegation.
6.5.3 Gaps Related to the Type of Information Resource
Policies and Procedures. Strong interest was expressed by DOT human resources leaders
(at the AASHTO human resources meeting in Portland, Oregon, in May 2007) for inclusion of
model Human Resource policies addressing a broad range of workforce issues in the database.
In response, the research team gathered relevant model policies from the public and private
sector and included them in the Workforce Toolkit. There are currently 22 policies/procedures
in the database in addition to 100 methodologies/guides/models.
Lessons Learned and Successful Practices. A second comment expressed at the AASHTO
human resources meeting was the need for sharing of real-time information on successful practices
and lessons learned. For example, if states are moving toward outsourcing of DOT functions,
what policies are being used for the employees whose jobs are impacted? What did state X which
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58 Tools to Aid State DOTs in Responding to Workforce Challenges
did this last year do? There is currently no central, reputable source that provides this type of
information. Certainly the sources identified above, as well as the web sites of TRB and its sub-
sidiaries such as NCHRP provide a wealth of information, some of which focuses on successful
practices and lessons learned. However, there has previously been no "one-stop shopping" for
this type of information. In an era of rising demand for services and a shrinking resource base to
provide those services, a portal which provides this type of information will be invaluable. To
address this gap, the researchers added the State Practices view, which links users to a table
containing information from recent NCHRP reports that involved individual state case studies
or examples. More information can be added to this view as it becomes available.
