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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2009. Tools to Aid State DOTs in Responding to Workforce Challenges. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14247.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2009. Tools to Aid State DOTs in Responding to Workforce Challenges. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14247.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2009. Tools to Aid State DOTs in Responding to Workforce Challenges. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14247.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2009. Tools to Aid State DOTs in Responding to Workforce Challenges. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14247.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2009. Tools to Aid State DOTs in Responding to Workforce Challenges. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14247.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2009. Tools to Aid State DOTs in Responding to Workforce Challenges. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14247.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2009. Tools to Aid State DOTs in Responding to Workforce Challenges. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14247.
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Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

TRANSPORTAT ION RESEARCH BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. 2009 www.TRB.org N A T I O N A L C O O P E R A T I V E H I G H W A Y R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M NCHRP REPORT 636 Subject Areas Planning and Administration Tools to Aid State DOTs in Responding to Workforce Challenges SPY POND PARTNERS, LLC Arlington, MA W I T H Barbara Martin Helena, MT ERS ASSOCIATES Somerville, MA RANDOLPH MORGAN CONSULTING, LLC Alexandria, VA Research sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration

NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM Systematic, well-designed research provides the most effective approach to the solution of many problems facing highway administrators and engineers. Often, highway problems are of local interest and can best be studied by highway departments individually or in cooperation with their state universities and others. However, the accelerating growth of highway transportation develops increasingly complex problems of wide interest to highway authorities. These problems are best studied through a coordinated program of cooperative research. In recognition of these needs, the highway administrators of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials initiated in 1962 an objective national highway research program employing modern scientific techniques. This program is supported on a continuing basis by funds from participating member states of the Association and it receives the full cooperation and support of the Federal Highway Administration, United States Department of Transportation. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies was requested by the Association to administer the research program because of the Board’s recognized objectivity and understanding of modern research practices. The Board is uniquely suited for this purpose as it maintains an extensive committee structure from which authorities on any highway transportation subject may be drawn; it possesses avenues of communications and cooperation with federal, state and local governmental agencies, universities, and industry; its relationship to the National Research Council is an insurance of objectivity; it maintains a full-time research correlation staff of specialists in highway transportation matters to bring the findings of research directly to those who are in a position to use them. The program is developed on the basis of research needs identified by chief administrators of the highway and transportation departments and by committees of AASHTO. Each year, specific areas of research needs to be included in the program are proposed to the National Research Council and the Board by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Research projects to fulfill these needs are defined by the Board, and qualified research agencies are selected from those that have submitted proposals. Administration and surveillance of research contracts are the responsibilities of the National Research Council and the Transportation Research Board. The needs for highway research are many, and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program can make significant contributions to the solution of highway transportation problems of mutual concern to many responsible groups. The program, however, is intended to complement rather than to substitute for or duplicate other highway research programs. Published reports of the NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM are available from: Transportation Research Board Business Office 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 and can be ordered through the Internet at: http://www.national-academies.org/trb/bookstore Printed in the United States of America NCHRP REPORT 636 Project 20-72 ISSN 0077-5614 ISBN: 978-0-309-11784-5 Library of Congress Control Number 2009928682 © 2009 Transportation Research Board COPYRIGHT PERMISSION Authors herein are responsible for the authenticity of their materials and for obtaining written permissions from publishers or persons who own the copyright to any previously published or copyrighted material used herein. Cooperative Research Programs (CRP) grants permission to reproduce material in this publication for classroom and not-for-profit purposes. Permission is given with the understanding that none of the material will be used to imply TRB, AASHTO, FAA, FHWA, FMCSA, FTA, or Transit Development Corporation endorsement of a particular product, method, or practice. It is expected that those reproducing the material in this document for educational and not-for-profit uses will give appropriate acknowledgment of the source of any reprinted or reproduced material. For other uses of the material, request permission from CRP. NOTICE The project that is the subject of this report was a part of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program conducted by the Transportation Research Board with the approval of the Governing Board of the National Research Council. Such approval reflects the Governing Board’s judgment that the program concerned is of national importance and appropriate with respect to both the purposes and resources of the National Research Council. The members of the technical committee selected to monitor this project and to review this report were chosen for recognized scholarly competence and with due consideration for the balance of disciplines appropriate to the project. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied are those of the research agency that performed the research, and, while they have been accepted as appropriate by the technical committee, they are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, or the Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation. Each report is reviewed and accepted for publication by the technical committee according to procedures established and monitored by the Transportation Research Board Executive Committee and the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, the National Research Council, the Federal Highway Administration, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and the individual states participating in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program do not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturers’ names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the object of this report.

CRP STAFF FOR NCHRP REPORT 636 Christopher W. Jenks, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Crawford F. Jencks, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs Andrew C. Lemer, Senior Program Officer Eileen P. Delaney, Director of Publications Maria Sabin Crawford, Assistant Editor NCHRP PROJECT 20-72 PANEL Field of Special Projects Mary Harker, Idaho Transportation Department, Boise, ID (Chair) Nancy Berry, Virginia DOT, Richmond, VA John C. Goodknight, Marion County (FL) Transportation Department, Ocala, FL Ivy W. Harris, Alabama DOT, Montgomery, AL Thomas F. Humphrey, Dover, NH Alan W. Lake, Utah Department of Human Resource Management, Draper, UT Mollie D. LeBlanc, Missouri DOT, Jefferson City, MO Michael P. Pillsbury, New Hampshire DOT, Concord, NH Vicki Miller, FHWA Liaison Tate Jackson, AASHTO Liaison Martine A. Micozzi, TRB Liaison C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M S

This report is a guide to the selection of practical tools that officials of state departments of transportation (DOTs) can use in recruitment, development, and retention of a produc- tive and effective workforce. DOTs need to hire, train, and keep a competent, qualified, and high-performing workforce to do the job the public expects them to do. This report describes currently available tools for responsible managers to use and provides guidance for how to choose an effective tool for the task at hand. The information will be useful to human resources personnel and DOT managers responsible for ensuring that their agen- cies have the workforce they need. DOTs face ongoing, evolving challenges to maintaining their ability to fulfill their respon- sibilities to the public. Budgetary pressures, policy mandates, changes in the workforce, and introductions of new technology are among the factors that require DOT leadership to reassess and sometimes reshape their organizations’ mission and structure. Managers must then ensure their human resources (HR) assets can respond effectively to the changes. DOTs seeking to build and maintain competent, skilled workforces need time, skills, money, and other resources that often are in short supply. For example, DOTs face demands that require new and greater technical and manage- ment skills and capabilities. At the same time, recruiting and retaining personnel have grown more difficult, as DOTs must compete for the same workforce used by local govern- ment and private organizations. If an agency’s staff is unable to meet all responsibilities, out- side service providers may supplement agency staff capabilities. DOT leaders and managers must decide how HR assets are to be acquired and deployed, and they often seek tools and examples from other agencies that will help them make and implement their decisions. This report is the product of National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 20-72, intended to assist agencies in assuring that their personnel have the capabilities needed to meet the agencies’ critical mission requirements 5 to 10 years into the future. The specific objective of this project was to provide a guide to finding, selecting, and applying practical management tools for characterizing and assessing HR assets. These tools address, for example, personnel core competencies, preservation of institutional his- tory and other mission-critical knowledge, staff recruitment and retention, staff develop- ment, and management succession. The report presents specific information on tools that are currently available, how to apply them, and guidance for judging whether available resources are likely to be useful for specific situations. Much of the information and links to specific resources are presented in a prototype web-based “Workforce Toolkit” developed as part of the research and pop- ulated with over 200 sample resources. The Toolkit is designed with five views linked to F O R E W O R D By Andrew C. Lemer Staff Officer Transportation Research Board

tagged databases of resources. The toolkit includes tables containing state-specific DOT information from recently completed NCHRP projects. Additional views are designed to connect to online communities and education materials. The site also has an electronic user guide. The demonstration prototype, available on a web site currently maintained by the research team, could become the basis for a permanent web application maintained by AASHTO or others. Adding new tools as they become available and discarding those that become obsolete would ensure the Toolkit’s currency and maintain its value. Individual states may find the prototype useful for the information it now contains and as a basis for development their own toolkits. A team led by Spy Pond Partners, LLC, Arlington, Massachusetts, conducted this research and developed the prototype. The project entailed a review of available literature, current practices, and other sources of information to identify tools and methods usable by DOT managers to deal with key workforce challenges. The research assessed the adequacy and value of existing tools for dealing with workforce challenges facing DOTs now and 5 to 10 years into the future, identified the tools most likely to be of value to DOT managers, doc- umented gaps for which new tools may be needed, and suggested activities to fill these gaps. The research team then designed a framework to help DOT managers identify tools appro- priate for use within their unique environments and used that framework to structure the guide and create the demonstration web site detailed in this report.

1 Summary P A R T A A New Tool for Meeting Workforce Challenges 5 Chapter 1 Introduction 5 1.1 Research Objectives 6 1.2 Study Context 8 1.3 Overview of Research Approach 10 Chapter 2 Workforce Toolkit 10 2.1 Overview 10 2.2 Accessing Information 19 2.3 Design Components 24 Chapter 3 Workforce Toolkit Use 24 3.1 User Site 26 3.2 Administration Site 27 3.3 Workforce Toolkit Scenarios 35 Chapter 4 Recommended Future Initiatives 35 4.1 Overview 35 4.2 Dynamic Resources 36 4.3 Community Interest and Involvement 36 4.4 Hosting the Site 36 4.5 Other Considerations P A R T B Development of the Workforce Toolkit 39 Chapter 5 Needs Framework 39 5.1 Introduction 39 5.2 Needs Categories 39 5.3 Current Workforce Needs Scenarios 44 5.4 Workforce Trends 44 5.5 Future Trends 51 Chapter 6 Review of Existing Resources 51 6.1 Introduction 51 6.2 Existing Resources Evaluation and Organization 53 6.3 Summary of Applicable Resources 53 6.4 General Sources/Organizations That Provide Multiple Resources and Tools 56 6.5 Gaps in Resources Available to Meet Workforce Needs C O N T E N T S

59 Chapter 7 Testing Process 59 7.1 Alpha Test 59 7.2 Beta Test 61 Chapter 8 Conclusions and Recommendations 61 8.1 Conclusions 62 8.2 Recommendations 63 Abbreviations, Acronyms, Initialisms A-1 Appendix A User’s Guide to the Workforce Toolkit B-1 Appendix B User’s Guide To the Workforce Toolkit Administration Site

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TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 636: Tools to Aid State DOTs in Responding to Workforce Challenges examines tools that officials of state departments of transportation (DOTs) can use in recruitment, development, and retention of a productive and effective workforce.

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