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This research project was initiated to provide fixed-route bus, general public demand response, and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) paratransit systems with resources to assist in the recruit- ment, development, and retention of managers. Creative new approaches to human resource man- agement are needed because public transportation system challenges are changing and evolving, and many managers in transit systems are âBaby Boomersâ who will retire during the next 10 years. This Guidebook provides practical, strategic recommendations that will enhance existing transit system human resource management practices or provide guidance for adopting new practices. The Guidebook is designed to serve transit systems that have found it difficult to fill management positions and have limited human resource management resources. While the Guidebook was designed primarily to address the needs of rural and smaller urban transit sys- tems, large and mid-sized urban bus and rail transit providers may find suggestions in this Guidebook helpful and are welcome to modify guidance to meet their specific needs. Brief descriptions of parallel practices within transportation and other industries are also included. Supporting materials have been provided in the form of the following documents. CRP-CD-77: Model Job Description Guides. These documents include 32 Model Job Descrip- tion Guides and one file with Employer Information. These documents provide information on what should be included in job descriptions to ensure legal defensibility of hiring practices and to promote retention of managers. A job matching matrix has been created to help managers select the Model Job Description Guide that best suits their needs. Five sample job descriptions have been pro- vided as well. These job descriptions were created for transit systems and provide examples of how final job descriptions should appear once the Model Job Description Guides have been utilized Research Report. The research report provides a brief overview of the research methodology used to collect information and program examples used in developing the Guidebook. The research report also includes results and guidance from the literature review conducted on behalf of this project, all article references for literature reviewed, and documents created to conduct the study (e.g., interview protocols). Finally, the research report includes the results of focus groups conducted with 15 other industry (other than bus transit) public and private sector organizations. The organizations included local government agencies (e.g., Charleston County Government), communications organizations (e.g., Time Warner), package delivery services (e.g., FedEx Express), utility companies (e.g., Sempra Energy), and other transportation orga- nizations (e.g., Metro-North Commuter Railroad). These files can be accessed via the TRB website, www.TRB.org. The Guidebook is organized into three major sections: Recruitment Recommendations; Train- ing and Development Recommendations; and Retention Recommendations. There are four appen- dices to the Guidebook. Appendix A contains figures that support Guidebook recommendations. 1 C H A P T E R 1 Introduction
Appendix B is a checklist for transit manager recruitment, training, and retention excellence. Appen- dix C contains summaries for 20 case studies of transit systems. Transit system case study partici- pants ranged in size and type with a special emphasis placed on small and medium-sized systems. It is important to remember that the case studies are examples of practices, specific to the context within each transit system. Appendix D includes a glossary of commonly used acronyms from the Guidebook. Users of the Guidebook are first encouraged to conduct a thorough review of their current recruitment, training and development, and retention practices as well as an organizational analy- sis of their existing resources, staffing, and strategic direction prior to implementing any one specific practice. Figure 1 in Appendix A is an example of the framework transit systems should institute prior to selecting the workforce strategy appropriate for their system. While the Guidebook is designed to serve all types and sizes of transit systems, one size does not fit all and thus systems may need to implement the alternate approaches provided or some variation of the recommendations. This Guidebook provides an overview of human resource management strategies that have been effective in transit agencies and other types of organizations. For each strategy, this docu- ment provides an outline of broad steps rather than detailed instructions. As such, the Guide- book is likely to be an effective aid in selecting a strategy, but not sufficient to fully implement a strategy. Effective implementation of these strategies assumes skill and knowledge in human resources management. Each strategy will need to be adjusted to the unique organizational cir- cumstances, so an analysis of the organization is critical. Entire textbooks have been devoted to many of the strategies discussed in this Guidebook [e.g., Assessment, Measurement and Predic- tion for Personnel Decisions (Guion 1998); Applied Measurement Methods in Industrial Psychology (Whetzel and Wheaton 1997); Understanding Performance Appraisal: Social, Organizational, and Goal-Oriented Perspectives (Murphy and Cleveland 1995); Creating, Implementing, and Managing Effective Training and Development (Kraiger, 2002); and Online Recruiting and Selection: Innovations in Talent Acquisition (Reynolds & Weiner, 2009)]. The authors of this Guidebook recommend that organizations consult these textbooks and/or human resources professionals prior to implement- ing a strategy listed in this Guidebook. 2 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems
