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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C - Transit Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14417.
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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.

142 Introduction to Transit Case Studies This appendix contains a summary of 20 transit system case studies that were conducted to assist in identifying transit industry challenges and effective practices as they relate to recruitment, development and retention of managers. The diversity of this nation’s transit systems, due to agency size and service delivery models, presents a wide spectrum of required human resource strategies and does not allow for a “one size fits all” approach. To account for this diversity, case studies were conducted with large, mid- sized, and small, urban and rural, private and public transit agencies located throughout the United States. Heavy emphasis was placed on smaller transit agencies based on the suggestion of the TCRP project panel and the perception that these agencies often have fewer staff resources and therefore may be in greater need of strategic human resource assistance. Transit agencies that were selected for these case studies represent a wide- range of service delivery models, including fixed-route, deviated fixed-route, general public paratransit, and ADA complementary paratransit. These agencies also are diverse, based on both size and geographical location. The 20 transit case study interviews were structured to identify agency innovations and success stories. The interviews were conducted over the phone and each one lasted approximately 60 minutes. Participants discussed their transit agency’s managerial recruitment, development, and retention challenges as well as strategies they have used to address these challenges. The strengths and weaknesses of each strategic human resource approach used by these agencies to build and enhance their management team were discussed as well. Each case study is presented in a brief summary report that includes a short profile of the agency, the name of the person(s) interviewed, contact information for the person interviewed (when available), and an overview of the transit system’s effective strategies and practices in the areas of recruitment, development, and retention of managers. A P P E N D I X C Transit Case Studies

Transit Case Studies 143 1. AMTRAN Participant Information Transit System: Altoona Metro Transit, Altoona, PA Interviewee: Eric Wolf (General Manager), 814-944-4074, ericwolf@amtran.org Transit System Profile Altoona Metro Transit (AMTRAN) is a small urban transit authority serving Altoona, Pennsylvania, and the surrounding communities. It primarily provides fixed-route service with some in-house demand response service, but most of the ADA paratransit service delivery is provided through contractors. The agency operates 32 transit vehicles most of which are coaches. AMTRAN has 45 employees, including 7 full-time manager/supervisor positions. Recruitment AMTRAN does not have a human resource management position, and the recruiting function is shared by the General Manager and other members of the executive management team. The agency is concerned that over the next 10 to 15 years employee retirement will have a significant organizational impact since most of the leadership team is close in age. Employees enjoy a very competitive salary and benefit package for the region, and employment with AMTRAN is generally considered a positive opportunity. Most transportation supervisors have been promoted from within, coming out of bus operator positions. The current Director of Maintenance was both a bus operator and mechanic prior to being promoted to his position. Leadership positions in administration have experienced very low turnover. The General Manager has seen similar up-through-the-rank promotional experiences at peer transit agencies throughout Pennsylvania. Overall AMTRAN has a very stable workforce, which is consistent with the mindset of the region in that people tend to feel that if you have a good job, you keep it. The agency rarely formally advertises its vacancies in the local media. Supervisory and management positions have primarily been filled either up-through-the-ranks or by word of mouth, both locally and through the state transit network, including through the State Transit Association. AMTRAN does not use social websites to recruit for supervisory/management jobs. However, in filling the General Manager position, it is possible that the AMTRAN Board of Directors might choose to use a “head hunter.” A formal application form is utilized as an employee screening tool, and the agency leans heavily on references reported on that form. The General Manager has found the interview process to be less valuable as a selection tool for quality than the reference check process. Although AMTRAN has not previously used criminal and financial background checks as a screening tool for leadership positions, it is anticipating doing so in the future. As a screening tool, the agency uses a private sector product called “Step 1 Personality Inventory” that it obtained through the local Manpower Office. This inventory screening tool costs less than $50 per test and has proven extremely effective as a screening mechanism. The General Manager feels that at the supervisory level it is important for candidates to have front line transit experience, and he would weigh selection heavily based on that experience. However, at the managerial level, the emphasis is more on general

144 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems leadership skills, whether demonstrated in transit or not, with the assumption that managers can be taught transit specific skills. The most important attributes of an AMTRAN manager include being positive and forward thinking and being a problem solver rather than a problem creator. Training and Development AMTRAN has very limited internal formal leadership training for managers and supervisors. However, it uses a series of internal strategies to develop staff leadership skills: Holds an annual management retreat where previous year’s accomplishments and next year’s goals are determined, and leadership is a major topic area. Provides value-based team building and principle-centered leadership organizational development activities presented through consultant services. The General Manager requires the leadership team to read, discuss, and implement, in practice, one new gene ric management development book per year. As an example, this year’s book was Good to Great by Jim Collins. Regular management staff meetings are held where the focus is on excellence in decision making and management team building. Pennsylvania has an excellent internal state training program provided through the Pennsylvania Training and Resource Network (PennTRAIN) which is funded by the State Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and managed by the State Transit Association. PennTRAIN is presently offering a 4-level training program entitled “The Professional Supervisor Program.” This program is primarily focused on individuals who have been recently promoted into supervisory or management positions. The 4 levels are based on 3 days of training per month spread out over an 8 month period with a total of 12 days of training. Homework is required to be completed between each level. Topics cover both supervisory and management theory and specific transit application of that theory. Team building and participatory management are emphasized, as is an offering by the Attorney for the State Insurance Pool called “Ten Danger Zones for Supervisors.” At the annual State Transit Association conference, graduates of the Professional Supervisor Program are recognized and receive a plaque. PennDOT has shown interest in developing an upper level management training program and the development of this program is presently underway. This program is based on getting managers together to discuss issues, problem solve, and provide each other support. The effort will be not so much a classroom training approach, as a case-study focus on one’s own agency. AMTRAN and other peer agencies in Pennsylvania utilize leadership development and certification programs offered through the APTA and CTAA. The agency utilizes a formal performance appraisal process for front line employees and a quarterly performance planning process for supervisors and managers. This quarterly performance planning process includes a meeting with the General Manager with a focus on performance goals and partnerships to support performance goals. Retention AMTRAN has very limited supervisory and management turnover. The General Manager believes this low turnover rate is at least partially based on the following: Salary and benefits. The stable culture of the organization and the community within which it resides. The annual organizational goal setting process. Managerial training and development opportunities.

Transit Case Studies 145 Quarterly one-on-one management support and feedback meetings. The value and team based nature of the organizational culture. Lessons Learned The General Manager (GM) feels that the future is a positive one in terms of support for transit, partially because of the philosophy and commitment of the younger generation to global sustainability and the opportunity for social equality, both things that transit currently is a part of making happen. This could well lead to transit being able to recruit young people into its ranks and make transit competitive as a career field on a higher concept level than just another job. The GM defines the essential elements of creating a positive organizational transit environment that facilitates the recruitment, development, and retention of quality leadership as: Treating people well; Respecting people’s individuality; Providing feedback on performance; Not practicing top-down management; and Providing people the opportunity to do something that matters.

146 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems 2. Atomic City Transit Participant Information Transit System: Atomic City Transit, Los Alamos, NM Interviewees: Michael Davis (Transit Manager), 505-663-1761, michael.davis@lacnm.us Nancy Talley (Head of Los Alamos County Transportation Division) Christeanne Goodey (Head of Human Resources for Los Alamos County) Transit System Profile Atomic City Transit is a part of the municipal government of Los Alamos County, New Mexico, which is a city and county government combined. The transit system operates both fixed-route and demand response services. Its fleet of 27 vehicles is a combination of full size buses, cutaways, and vans. The workforce consists of 34 full time transit employees and includes one Transit Manager, two Operations Supervisors, two Transit Leads and one Management Analyst. The Transit Leads function in a supervisory capacity when a Supervisor is not available. Recruitment The County Human Resource Department is responsible for all recruitment efforts. The Head of the Transportation Division is the point of contact for the County Human Resource Department in transit related managerial or supervisory recruitment. The general recruitment and selection process for other than top management positions breaks out as follows: Job requisition is created Advertising is implemented Applications received at HR HR reviews the applications for applicants who are qualified Applications of qualified individuals are sent to the transit department The transit department chooses who they want to interview The transit department conducts the interviews and determines who to hire The application comes back to HR and a compensation package is developed Either the transit department or HR makes the job offer Challenges in managerial/supervisory recruitment and selection include: Due to the recent economic downturn, the agency is receiving many more applications than normal to review, which is extremely time consuming, but on the other hand the quality of the candidates for all levels of positions is higher. Los Alamos is a small, remote community that presents a challenge in terms of finding quality candidates who are willing to relocate, unless remoteness is what the candidates are actually looking for. Salaries offered are not necessarily in line with what the rest of the market offers nor with the cost of living or housing in the area. A significant percentage of managers/supervisors who work for the County commute from other locations. High quality candidates with transit experience are difficult to find within the area and often out-of-state candidates are interviewed and selected. One of the strategies to overcome competitive salary challenges is marketing the attractiveness of the benefit package. This package includes: Strong medical coverage with no deductible Dental and vision insurance Two separate mandatory pension plans – one through Los Alamos County and the other through the Public Employee Retirement Association

Transit Case Studies 147 An optional 457-retirement plan, which is a deferred-compensation retirement plan available for governmental employers. Los Alamos County provides the plan and employees defer compensation into the plan on a pre-tax basis. It is different from a 401(k) because there is no 10% penalty for withdrawal before age 59.5 and participants cannot make contributions to a Roth. Up to three weeks annual leave Life insurance Long-term disability insurance A tuition reimbursement program An employee wellness program in which the County pays for 50% of YMCA fitness center activities Reduced golf course fees A free outdoor skating rink Over the last three years the County has moved away from newspaper recruitment ads and towards Internet advertising. When using the Internet to advertise positions, it has found that advertising on fewer, more transit-specific sites works better than advertising more broadly. For example, using a PGA website when advertising for a golf course manager, and using the APTA website when advertising for a transit manager. Recruitment ads are placed in industry specific periodicals as well. The County uses a very aggressive recruitment advertising mailing strategy. As an example, when recruiting for the Transit Manager position, a letter was sent to over 400 transit agencies throughout the country advertising the position and providing information not only about the job but also about the Los Alamos Community in general. The letters were mailed to “Attention: Transit Manager.” This approach generated a large volume of applications and was how the existing Transit Manager learned of the job opening. Transit supervisors have been recruited in the same basic fashion with 200 letters sent regionally to transit agencies located in Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. When newspaper ads are placed, the papers always include Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos. However, target mailings have proved to be more successful than newspaper ads. The County HR Manager feels strongly that putting the above effort into recruitment ultimately pays big dividends. If you don’t do the important recruitment and selection work up front, it can negatively impact qualit y of services and the ability to get things done. Atomic Transit competes for managerial/supervisory candidates with other transit agencies around the state as well as Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) and the Los Alamos school system. Applications are initially screened against Minimum Qualifications stated in job descriptions. Once this HR screening has taken place, applications are sent on to the Hiring Department, which conducts more extensive screening. This second process includes looking for: Well written and typed applications Resumes and cover letters Full narrative when space is provided for information Gaps in work histories Both leadership and transit specific experience Once top management applicants are selected for interviewing, they are put through an intense interview process that includes the submission by a candidate of a written exercise, a one-hour phone interview that narrows potential candidates down to four or

148 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems five, and then a face-to-face, half-day interview process of these four or five candidates. This half-day interview process includes: A formal structured interview, An informal meal with interviewers, A tour of the town, during which candidates are still being evaluated, and Meetings with County managers where evaluation also takes place. In order to evaluate how candidates deal with change, an agenda of the interview process is sent to candidates ahead of time, but when they arrive for the interview something in the agenda is changed. After all candidates have been interviewed, the interview committee reviews scores for exercises and interviews and, based on t hose scores, makes a decision that everyone on the committee is comfortable with. After all background verifications are completed, a job offer is made. Training and Development The County culture is driven by a high level of commitment to providing training and development opportunities for supervisors and managers. These opportunities are delivered both in-house and by external resources. An example of an external resource is the Leadership Los Alamos Training Program, which is attended by managers from both the public and private sectors. The County also uses the Leadership Challenge Program, which is a generic leadership program delivered in-house by a team of managers who have been through a national train-the-trainer certification for the course. Supervisory and general team training is provided through the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos. This training is accredited and attendees receive college credits. The County provides internal team building training that includes the use of a “Leadership Social Styles Personality Assessment” instrument. This instrument is similar to other personality assessment instruments such as Myers Briggs. However, this one is shorter and easier to work through. Transit managers and supervisors are sent to APTA and CTAA conferences and classes and the TSI for training and certifications. The County also offers generic leadership training through CharacterFirst.com, which is a monthly program that includes DVDs, brochures, and flyers. This program is integrated into staff meetings and focuses on positively reinforcing 49 character qualities such as values, faith, integrity, and honesty. Customer service training is provided through the Fish Philosophy Training. This program works around a purchased film based on the Seattle Fish Market and is a fun reinforcement of positive customer service skills. There are several formal and informal succession planning efforts going on in Los Alamos County government including cross-functional training, lead positions acting as stepping stones to supervisory positions, and an annual performance appraisal process that includes goal setting for upward mobility. Retention Since Atomic Transit is only three years old and no one has left employment, there are no retention issues to discuss. The County is generally considered a great place to work because of the good benefit package and good training opportunities combined with the high level of integrity of the management team. Retirement is the only reason people normally leave.

Transit Case Studies 149 Lessons Learned Do your recruiting and selection work up front and bring on good people. Keep those good people by providing training opportunities, a strong benefit package, and a positive organizational culture. There are five items in all the manager/supervisory job descriptions that are important to the County working culture: Reliable attendance; Ability to work well with others and participate fully in the team environment; Ability to interface with employees and customers in a courteous and respectful manner; Ability to provide high quality customer service; and A commitment to project positive support for all County related activities at all times . The individuals interviewed for this case study concluded by emphasizing that a transit system should never be in a hurry to recruit just to alleviate employee stress due to a vacancy, and never settle for less than the highest qualified candidate. If you hire for integrity, character, and customer service ability, you can train people with these qualities to do just about anything else. It is critical that managers and supervisors enjoy the work they do and the people they work with.

150 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems 3. Cache Valley Transit District Participant Information Transit System: Cache Valley Transit District, Logan, UT Interviewee: Todd Beutler (General Ma nager), 435-71 3-6968, tbeutler@cvtdbus.org Transit System Profile Cache Valley Transit District (CVTD) was established in 2000 to serve the transit needs of Cache Valley residents. Voters ratified a special services district that includes the cities of Richmond, Sm ithfield, Hyde Park, North Logan, River Heights, Providence, Millville, Nibley, and Hyrum. A quarter of 1% sales tax helps to fund the CVTD. CVTD reports to 19 board members. CVTD provides fixed route, commuter services and a deviated fixed route service. CVTD services a population of 75,000 residents, with 30 vehicles and approximately 115 total employees, 40 of whom are full-time. The system deploys buses every half hour and less than 2% of services are ever missed. The system uses students and part-time employees to help staff their operation. In August 2009, CVTD took over all operations, which they had previously contracted out for over 17 years to First Transit. CVTD has 12-15 management jobs, 6 to 7 are upper management jobs and 3 are director-level jobs. Recruitment CVTD Human Resource function is supported by an Administrative Director and a risk management/human resource position. All three Director-level positions are involved in the recruitment for manager jobs. The system’s general practice for manager jobs is to promote from within. However, the focus is not on finding an individual with the technical skills, but instead to emphasize leadership skills in selecting for manager jobs. In the process of moving operations from contracting out to in-house, the system retained all contracted employees increasing from 3 full-time to 40 full-time employees. A Finance Director was also recently hired as part of the transition. The Finance Director was recruited from a private auditing company. The interviewee suggested the biggest challenge for the transit industry is the “fallacy that individuals have to grow up in transit to be effective in transit,” which serves as a barrier to youth seeking out transit jobs. To encourage youth interest, this system provides internship opportunities. When operations were previously contracted out, the system would have students, who were employed with contractors, do special projects and work extra hours for the system in order to groom students for future transit jobs. To develop the students, the system provided job rotation opportunities across different operational areas: 2-3 days in maintenance, 2-3 days in dispatch, and 2-3 days in administrative roles (e.g., budgeting). Students seeking senior projects were brought in to participate in transit roles and learn about transit work (e.g., architect who needed senior project was asked to work on expanding the canopy over buses). The General Manager of this system also gives presentations 1-2 times per year at the local university and networks with faculty to keep students informed about the transit industry and available jobs. One of the system’s biggest recruitment challenges is low compensation. Since part of taxpayer dollars funds the system, elected officials have frowned upon increasing compensation. To address this recruitment challenge (of compensation), this system: Works with the Board of Directors to encourage the conduct of market analysis to find out what other systems and employers in the area are offering.

Transit Case Studies 151 Offers flexible scheduling and generous retirement benefits. The system focuses on “end goals” and as long as employees meet their goals, they can have flexibility in how they schedule their jobs. For example, managers can work four 10-hour-days and have one day at home per week if preferred. The Finance Director who recently came on board was attracted to the workplace environment and the flexibility of this system to allow him more family time as opposed to his previous employer. Employees are also supported in having a second job if they wish. Resources the system would use in future recruitment of managers include: Transit Talent website – transittalent.com, the APTA Passenger Transport magazine, state associations like CalACT, and networking with other transit associations. The system’s assessment process for new hires includes the following steps: Review application/resume (resumes are collected for management as opposed to applications). Look for consistent employment history (to determine commitment level to an organization) and progression level in employment (to identify individuals willing to take on increasing responsibilities). Conduct interviews. This system uses structured interview questions that are job- specific to allow for comparison across applicants. The interview questions are job-specific scenarios. Typically, 2 to 3 individuals from the system participate in each interview to gain multiple perspectives on the candidate. Training and Development Typically 50% of training is conducted in-house and 50% is conducted off-site. The system has a Training Coordinator/Procurement person who develops training and identifies consultants to come in-house to conduct trainings. Examples of in-house training include training on core values and “how to interact with the community.” Managers are actually engaged in the development and delivery of training. For example, managers are asked to speak for half hour on a specific core value and consequences of not supporting that value. The system is currently having managers work on developing leadership training. One of the biggest challenges in training for the system is budgetary restrictions. The interviewee believes training is an important way to show employees they are valued, especially when compensation is low. Thus, the system engages in constant training through sources such as: FTA—grants management and procurement training; NTI—course on leadership (Note: The system also seeks leadership training that is not necessarily transit specific); Utah’s State transit association (URSTA); and Partner with insurance company to provide safety training. Managers are encouraged to spend time each week with employees. For example, the General Manager spends at least 1-2 hours per week with the Directors to establish goals, identify training and development needs, and provide mentoring. The General Manager has developed a leadership training that covers: Proper stewardship, Communication, and Creation ( the process of creating something every day …). Retention CVTD has a very low turnover rate. CVTD credits this low turnover rate to the following:

152 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems Maintaining a “mistake accepting” envir onment. Top managers are encouraged to share their personal mistakes with employees to show how learning can occur from making mistakes. The General Manager shares his own mistakes in the Leadership training conducted with managers. Em ployees and managers are treated equally. The system does not have special parking for managers. Em ployees are engaged in improving the workplace. For example, there is a Safety Committee that includes individuals from all areas of the organization. This Safety Committee accepts suggestions from employees on how to improve the workplace or operations. If the Committee rejects the suggestion, an explanation must be given to the employee as to why the suggestion is rejected. If the suggestion is accepted, it is passed to top management and if implemented, awards are given to the employee. The system maintains benefits to help support employee needs. Employee benefits include: The system pays 100% of health benefits for salaried as well as hourly em ployees. The benefit structure is set up to encourage employees to want to progress in the organization and see reward for doing so. Thus: For managers, the system pays 100% of family health care. For supervisors, the system pays 100% of health benefits for the employee plus the employee’s spouse. The system does not participate in social security. Instead, the employee is allowed to have a social security fund/retirement fund the employee can manage. The system created a new entity and opted out of the government system to allow an employee option they can manage for themselves. For part-time employees, the system matches up to 6% of the 401K. In addition to providing flexible scheduling to all staff, drivers can take off whenever they need as long as they find a replacement. The minimum requirement is that employees have to work 15 hours per month to stay employed. So employees who were formerly retired may choose to take off 3 weeks and then only work 1 week per month. Since the system operates 6 days per week and the manager job can be very demanding, managers may structure their schedule to take more time off when activities lessen. For example, a manager can work 12 hours a day for 3 weeks and then work only 6 hours a day for the next 2 weeks if he/she prefers as long as the manager’s end goals are met. As part of flexible scheduling, the 3 supervisors (road, dispatch, and transit) rotate through each other’s position 1 day per week so that if one individual needs to take off, the other supervisor can cover those responsibilities easily. Lessons Learned CVTD believes that workplace environment is the most important component of em ployment. To demonstrate this, the system has applicants speak directly with mechanics and drivers prior to accepting employment to show the applicant the type of environment the system maintains.

Transit Case Studies 153 4. Capital Transit Participant Information Transit System: Capital Transit, Juneau, AK Interviewee: John Kern (Transit Superintendent), 907-789-6901, john_kern@ci.juneau.ak.us Transit System Profile Capital Transit is a department of the municipal government of Juneau, Alaska. Its operation is funded primarily by general fund revenues from the City and Borough of Juneau and through passenger fares. Capital costs are provided by the State of Alaska and the FTA. The agency provides fixed route service in the City and Borough of Juneau and contracts out its ADA paratransit services. Capital Transit operates 16 fixed-route buses and has 42 employees (part and full time). There are 7 individuals who perform in managerial or supervisory roles. Recruitment The agency is supported by the City of Juneau Human Resource Department. The City handles payroll, insurance, and technical employment requirements such as job advertising. The Transit Department is responsible for screening, interviewing, and hiring applicants. Generally, supervisory positions are filled in-house and Capital Transit has established an upward mobility program where individuals move into lead bus driver positions and perform as substitute supervisors when regular supervisors are on leave. This process has allowed the agency to develop a cadre of 6 to 8 individuals who have significant supervisory experience either as a permanent supervisor or as a substitute supervisor. Typically, individuals in management positions, unlike supervisory positions, are recruited from the outside. Challenges faced by the agency in filling management positions include the following: The relatively small size and isolation of the Juneau community. The reluctance of people to move to Juneau given its distance from the lower 48 states . The salary is often not competitive with peer positions in the area, although the economic downturn at this time has partially mitigated this issue. The relatively high cost of living in Juneau, one of the most expensive communities in Alaska in which to reside. The recruitment process for transit managerial openings, including the Transit Superintendent position if it needed to be filled, involves interviewing three applicants, background checks, reference checks, and previous employment checks. Depending on the level of the position to be filled, either the City Manager and/or the Human Resource office would be a part of the interview and selection committee. If filling the Transit Superintendent position, this committee could include a member of the public who is a key community stakeholder. An interview for the Transit Superintendent position would take 4 to 6 hours and include direct questions, give-and-take discussions, and role playing/case study activities that focus on how the candidate would react to a given situation. In filling operation and maintenance supervisory positions, vacancies are advertised simultaneously both externally and in-house. The Transit Superintendent screens all applicants and then selects an employee from Human Resources and an employee from another City department to help with the interview. The reason for including another city department representative in the interview process is that it is felt this person will bring mo re objectivity and a broader perspective when determ ining leadership qualities. These

154 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems are structured interviews and last up to 2 hours. There is also an operational skill demonstration associated with the selection process. Although most supervisory positions are filled in-house through promotion, management positions could be advertised via newspapers in the region (Juneau, Anchorage, and Seattle) as well as in industry publications such as APTA’s Passenger Transport and CTAA’s Community Transportation magazine s . Also, the City/Transit website is available for posting job openings. Training and Development Very limited in-city or in-house management/supervisory training is available. There is a new supervisor class offered on occasion by the City, but not on a routine basis. Capital Transit makes extensive use of external resources in its managerial and supervisory training efforts. Recently the TSI presented a Transit Supervisory Course in Anchorage and participants were recruited from around the state, including Capital Transit. Funding for this training was provided by the State RTAP. Capital Transit, along with other transit systems in Alaska, also utilize: the Community Transportation of America (CTAA) Certified Community Transit Manager (CCTM) training training offered through the University of North Dakota at Fargo training offered through the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Access to supervisory and management development activities in Alaska, given its reliance on external delivery sources, would be nearly impossible without the availability of monies through the State RTAP. This RTAP money covers not only the expense of bringing in trainers but also the expense of trainee travel that can be extensive in Alaska. Retention Capital Transit has a high level of supervisory, management, and overall employee retention. The Transit Superintendent attributes this high retention rate to the following: Good benefit package; Flexible work hours as much as is possible; Strong retirement system; Fairly lenient leave policy; Reasonable advancement potential within the City, either in transit or other city departments; and External training and development opportunities which could facilitate advancement. Lessons Learned The Transit Superintendent believes that hiring individuals into supervisory roles is better served by basing the selection on strong transit experience rather than previous leadership experience. He believes that generic managerial and supervisory skills can be taught, but the teaching of transit skills from scratch is far too time consuming and difficult. Juneau, like other cities of its size around the country, is presently going through economic hard times and budgetary constraints have impacted Capital Transit’s opportunities for staff development. The emphasis is presently on creating a lean and efficient management team that results in limited time and resources available to provide training opportunities. However, the Transit Superintendent still believes that if a transit agency is to be effective, energy and effort must be applied to creating opportunities for individuals in supervisory/management roles to grow and blossom.

Transit Case Studies 155 5. Coast Transit Authority Participant Information Transit System: Coast Transit Authority, Gulfport, MS Interviewee: Kevin Coggin (Executive Director), 228-869-8080 (x212), kcoggin@coasttransit.org Transit System Profile Coast Transit Authority (CTA) is an independently managed stand alone transit authority with a Board of Directors. CTA receives small urban Section 5307 funding from the FTA and provides fixed route services, ADA paratransit services, and senior demand response services. The operating area is tri-county and includes the municipalities of Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi. The fleet numbers 30 and vehicles consist of both full size coaches and cutaways. The staff of 95 employees includes 7 individuals in managerial and supervisory positions. Recruitment The Director of Administration has responsibility for Human Resources. This person manages the recruitment and screening process while individual departments do the interviewing and selecting. Job vacancies are advertised in local papers, on a popular local website, on a sign board outside the CTA offices, on the sides of CTA buses, and on the CTA website. The economic downturn has impacted the recruitment process in terms of an increased volume of applicants with a reasonable level of quality in the applicant pool. CTA does not restrict its selection of supervisors and managers to only those with transit experience. The Executive Director believes that a good manager can manage any business and often, because of a lack of candidates with transit specific backgrounds, the agency has no choice in that regard. When an individual is brought into a leadership position with a non-transit background, CTA uses a variety of external resources in order to bring them up to speed on transit specific issues. These resources include FTA seminars, Mississippi DOT seminars, and seminars on such issues as route planning, safety, regulatory compliance, finance, and project management. The agency makes limited use of training offered during APTA or CTAA annual conferences. In order to ensure diversity in the workforce, CTA has to reach out externally for potential candidates. Generally, the protocol is to post a job internally for two weeks and then advertise externally thereafter. Background checks include driving record, criminal record, and job references. This is done before interviewing in order to narrow the candidate pool. Applications are reviewed for appropriateness of background, specific job experience, and the presence or absence of “job hopping”. The goal is to identify two to three strong supervisory/management candidates to interview. Interviews normally last approximately one hour and are based on a structured list of interview questions to ensure consistency across candidates. Before making a final decision as to who to hire, the Executive Director or representative conducts a telephone interview with final candidates and this interview includes follow- up questions. The Executive Director believes that hiring decisions should not be based simply on a one time face-to-face interview where personality issues and strengths and weaknesses may not become clear. The telephone interview process allows for thought out follow-up questions developed by the CTA management team. These questions are

156 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems designed to get better insight into the candidate’s management and communication style and people skills. Case study problem situations are often presented and the candidate is asked how he/she would handle the situation. The salary and benefit package is very competitive with local and state government positions but the salary is not necessarily competitive with the private sector. CTA tends to overcome this private sector disadvantage by offering a supportive work environment, flexible hours when possible, and a strong benefit package. One strategy that the agency has found effective in carrying out its mission of recruiting and retaining managers is to allow managers to set their own work schedule. It is CTA’s philosophy that as long as a manager gets the job done well, it is not necessarily important how many hours are worked or what schedule is followed. CTA encourages managers to work no more than 40 hours per week, but provides comp time to those who do. The agency works with its staff in regard to personal family issues and urges employees to not short change families for the company. Time off is given to attend children’s school events, accompany children on field trips, and take care of sick family members. This approach makes CTA competitive with the private sector regardless of salary differences. The benefit package includes 100% paid health, dental and life insurance for employees, seven holidays, vacation days, and four hours per month sick leave. Sick leave buy back at the end of the year allows the employees to trade three sick days for two day’s pay. This policy has minimized the use of sick leave. The Executive Director emphasizes the importance of concentrating on elevating the morale of the workforce through creating a supportive low-stress work environment. He understands that employees may not be happy every day, but he doesn’t want people to hate to come to work. He encourages managers to listen to employees and resolve conflicts and problems. Performance Appraisals are required on all employees on an annual basis. Individual departments have flexibility as to the structure of the performance appraisal, so long as the appraisal instrument is consistent within the department. Some departments use an objective scoring method and others use a narrative method. Performance appraisal is tied to pay which is merit based. Up to 3% raises are given annually based on performance. The Executive Director is well aware of the need for succession planning. A senior manager is approaching retirement so the Executive Director created a position to prepare an individual to take this senior manager’s place. The individual hired for this position could be considered a “Director in training.” This employee does not have a public transit background but, as a part of the succession planning effort, he is being brought “up to speed” on transit specific knowledge. The job entails spending weekends in the field performing normal operational supervisory duties and three week days being mentored by the senior manager. No guarantee of promotion has been given to this employee, but it is generally understood what he is working towards proven his strong performance. Training and Development CTA does not have formal in-house training for managers and supervisors. Leadership development is primarily accomplished through an informal job mentoring program. When goal setting is done with managers, strengths are identified and areas in need of improvement are defined in terms of future expectations. The Executive Director sees this not as simply a process of improving the employee, but also as a method of determining if the company is doing all that it can to support the employee in their development.

Transit Case Studies 157 The agency does not use any online or college training resources. CTA is considering investing in a webinar program offered through a generic management consulting company with training in such areas as coaching, personnel management, conflict resolution, motivation, and discipline. The idea is to have all supervisors and managers go through this webinar series in-house rather than send them away for training. This in-house webinar approach appears to lower costs and be more efficient and effective for the agency. Supervisors and managers are occasionally sent to local generic management training workshops. It also sends individuals to training workshops offered by the State DOT and FTA. One of the biggest training challenges the agency faces is developing its supervisory management skills in the area of conflict management and resolution. Retention CTA has experienced minimal management turnover with the exception of the leadership position in the operations department. The incumbent has been in that position for five years but prior to that there was considerable turnover. This turnover was primarily due to the resignation of people who were not a strong fit for the job. Many employees leave CTA to retire or, given that the Biloxi/Gulfport area is a big military retirement community, they leave to live off their military pensions. Lessons Learned The Executive Director believes that there are a set of critical skills a successful transit leader must have and that most of these skills are generic in nature. The transit skill set can and may have to be taught, but the generic skill set generally must already be in place and include: The natural ability of the individual to learn; Basic business management skills; Strong motivational skills to get the job done through others; Interpersonal skills to interact with employees and the public; and Conflict resolution skills.

158 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems 6. Delmarva Transit Participant Information Transit System: Delmarva Transit Interviewees: Santo Grande (President/Chief Executive Officer), 410-221-1910 Amanda Hubbert (Human Resources Manager) Transit System Profile Delmarva Transit provides general public transportation to six rural Maryland counties on the Delmarva Peninsula covering over 1400 square miles per day. Four counties use fixed-route services, and two counties use ADA and demand response eligible transportation services. Services are provided by about 70 CDL vehicles and an additional 30 non-CDL community service transit vehicles. Within their transportation services, the agency employs six managers; a seventh potential position is currently vacant. Competitors for applicants include, small manufacturing companies, a Hyatt hotel, and others in the service sector (e.g., nursing homes, hospitals). Recruitment The Human Resources Manager recruits for and fills managerial positions. She receives informal support from the Benefits Coordinator and the Chief Operating Officer. Although the agency has not experienced turnover in transportation management in the last four years, they have had recruitment challenges in the past. Because the Delmarva Peninsula has a small population, this affects the size of the applicant pool. There is also a challenge in recruiting managers with a Bachelor’s degree. To address recruitment challenges Delmarva Transit has: Worked with local unemployment offices to host classes for the recently unemployed when a large factory closed. Begun to participate in local job fairs in addition to placing ads in local newspapers. Training and Development For the majority of transportation manager training, the agency relies on organizations such as the CTAA. Delmarva Transit has used CTAA to train eight Certified Community Transit Managers. The agency also uses CTAA’s informal network of transportation consultants as a training resource when training needs arise. Delmarva Transit sends employees to the CTAA conference and other national conferences each year. The agency also utilizes the state’s training resources. Each transportation employee receives week-long Maryland state transportation training. The agency has also used management training that runs parallel to its value-based strategic planning process. The management training focuses on value-based leadership and team building activities. Further, the Chief Operating Officer serves as an informal mentor for new managers. The agency spends between $50,000 and $100,000 each year on training.

Transit Case Studies 159 Retention Delmarva Transit has had little transportation manager turnover over the past several years. They believe their low turnover rate is due to the agency’s generous state employee benefits package. Their benefits include: Agency pays 75% of health benefit costs Health benefits are cafeteria style, which allow employees to choose from the provided benefits those that best fit their needs A unique 401(k) plan in which the agency automatically contributes 3%, and if the employee elects to contribute 2%, the agency will contribute an additional 2%, for a total of up to 5% agency contribution Life insurance at two times the employee’s salary One floating holiday in addition to state and federal holidays Up to four weeks of vacation and sometimes an additional week of vacation given as a bonus In addition to traditional benefits, the agency believes that the opportunities it provides employees to attend conferences and training have a positive effect on retention. Lessons Learned As a winner of the 2007 Rural Community Transportation System of the Year award from the CTAA, Delmarva Transit’s biggest lesson learned is to connect with other transit professionals. Transit managers should not rely solely on training to provide them with answers; they should also speak with other transit managers and visit other agencies. In addition, they believe that all agencies, even small organizations, can get funding for transit training through channels such as their state department of transportation or the NTI.

160 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems 7. Golden Empire Transit Participant Information Transit System: Golden Empire Transit, Bakersfield, CA Interviewee: Jeannie Hill (Human Resource Manager – reports directly to CEO), 661-324-9874 Transit System Profile Golden Empire Transit (GET), a mid-sized, urban transit system, is a stand-alone transit authority with approximately 300 employees, 7 of whom are managers and 12 to 15 are supervisors. It has a fleet of almost 100 vehicles and operates both fixed-route and ADA eligible paratransit. GET serves the greater Bakersfield, California area. Recruitment The Human Resource Manager is responsible for all human resource functions including recruitment and selection. She would be actively involved in the selection to fill managerial or supervisory roles. One of the challenges the agency faces in recruiting qualified managers is the location of Bakersfield midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Most of the managerial talent pool that GET draws from is located in these two urban areas; therefore, managers must be willing to relocate. Operational supervisory positions are normally filled up-through-the-ranks. Two years ago GET performed a salary and benefit study and their package is very competitive. Their management team has a great deal of longevity and only three managers have been hired in the last 10 years and those hires were for an Operations Officer, a Marketing Manager and the CEO. When filling management vacancies, in particular for operations and executive positions, the agency attempts to find candidates with a strong combination of both leadership ability and transit experience. Vacancies are advertised through the local newspaper, APTA’s Passenger Transport, the California Transit Association, and the state’s Career Service Center. Also, word of mouth referrals come from other transit agencies in California. GET has used the Monster.com website in the past without a great deal of success. For future advertising, the agency is considering using other social networking sites. In spite of the current economic downturn, there has not been a high volume of quality applicants for managerial positions. The Board of Directors handled the recruitment and selection of the relatively recently filled CEO position. When management positions are filled, the initial selection interview is conducted by the Deputy CEO and the Human Resource Manager. This is a structured interview with pre- determined questions. Once this interview is completed, a second 1-hour interview takes place with a panel of other GET managers. This interview is more open-ended and assists in evaluating candidate personality and interaction with potential co-workers. The interviews are followed by a tour of the facilities. During the overall selection process the agency is looking for an appropriate combination of education, work experience, project management experience, and is assessing a candidate’s leadership abilities, communication skills, and interpersonal skills. In the

Transit Case Studies 161 past, GET has asked candidates to respond to scenarios to help determine how a candidate would handle difficult situations. Training and Development Supervisory and management training is accomplished by utilizing a combination of external and internal resources. The external resources include APTA, CTAA, and TSI. The Operations Manager has a training program for operations supervisors and this program is augmented by the Human Resource Manager who trains on coaching, counseling, discipline, and human resource related topics. An external consulting firm conducts certain specific trainings in such areas as diversity. An external human resource consulting firm is utilized for the development and delivery of a program entitled “Quick Start for Supervisors.” This program is a generic Supervisor 101 class that is taught two hours per week in a classroom setting for nine weeks. All aspects of leadership are covered and every GET supervisor and manager has been through the program so there is consistency within the agency. Upper management training is addressed primarily through the use of external resources and is based on department by department need. Periodic mandatory safety meetings are held for all employees and managers and attendance is documented. GET uses an upward mobility succession planning based program to fill operational supervisory positions called the “Temporary Supervisory Program.” Coach operators apply for the position and their applications are screened based on education, years of experience and safety record. The screening process utilizes the “Partners Program,” which is a prize-based incentive program for rewarding good attendance and complaint- and accident-free performance. Coach operators who apply for the temporary supervisor program and have met screening requirements, including success within the “Partners Program,” are interviewed by a panel consisting of an operations manager, an operations supervisor, and the Human Resource Manager. Once an individual is selected, he/she fills in for permanent supervisors who are either on vacation, out sick, or otherwise unavailable. Although Temporary Supervisors remain union members, they are paid a higher salary when performing supervisory responsibilities. As long as they perform at a high level, they remain in the Temporary Supervisory Program until a permanent supervisory position becomes available which they are then promoted into. Retention Retention is not a problem. The agency is perceived as a very good organization to work for with competitive salary and benefits. Those who leave generally do so in order to pursue a higher position in another organization. GET presently is going through a significant culture change and growth period and there has been a new injection of energy. Employees enjoy what they are doing partly because there is so much untapped potential and opportunity for organizational growth. Lessons Learned Longevity in transit managerial ranks is partially based on creating a strong support system for employees and cultivating a sense of family. A corporate culture that is supportive and embraces people builds longevity and organizational success.

162 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems 8. Havasu Area Transit Participant Information Transit System: Havasu Area Transit, Lake Havasu City, AZ Interviewee: Gary Parsons (Transit Services Manager), 928-453-6455, parsonsg@lhcaz.gov Transit System Profile Havasu Area Transit (HAT) operates fixed-route service, general public demand response service, and senior transportation within the Lake Havasu City area in Arizona. The system operates 18 vehicles, which include buses, cutaways, and vans. The transit system has 29 paid em ployees, 15 who are full time and 14 who are part time. This number includes 3 managerial/supervisory positions. HAT utilizes 10 voluntary drivers for its Senior Service delivery. HAT is a part of the Municipal Government of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and transit em ployees are employees of the City. HAT’s workforce is primarily older due to the high number of retirees living in the city. The male/female workforce ratio is approximately even and, because inhabitants of the area are predominantly Caucasian, there is very limited ethnic diversity at HAT. Recruitment The Transit Services Manager is responsible for all HAT functions including developing the operating plan and operating budget, applying for grant funding, and overseeing day- to-day transit operations. order to fill vacant positions. A Staffing Request Form guides the recruitment process. The Transit Services Manager works closely with the City human resource function in Job openings are posted on the City website and in local newspapers. Upper level management positions are also advertised nationally, including through the CTAA. The Transit Services Manager reviews all applications and chooses who to interview. Normally there are 3 people on the interview board, including the Transit Services Manager, a representative from City Human Resources, and the Community Services Director, to whom Transit reports. HAT utilizes a formal and structured interview questionnaire that emphasizes consistency in the evaluation process. The questionnaire consists of 10 to 20 questions that may vary depending on the position to be filled. Challenges that HAT faces in the managerial and supervisory recruitment and selection process are: Location. Lake Havasu City is an extremely isolated area, distant from other urban employment pools. Enticing people who prefer urban living to move to the desert is often a challenge, especially with married couples when the spouse also requires employment. Over qualified candidates. Since Lake Havasu City is considered an ideal place for relocation by those who wish to escape urban environments, HAT often has applicants who are extremely over-qualified for a position and simply want to get their foot in the door for employment by the City. Difficulty in travel logistics for candidates to get to Lake Havasu City for a job interview. Because of its location, candidates have to take considerable time off from work to travel to Lake Havasu. The Transit Services Manager has found that it is easier to get prospective candida tes to come for interviews by offering flexible interview times and holding interviews on Mondays and Fridays.

Transit Case Studies 163 Advertising to prospective candidates. Since most managerial and supervisory positions are filled by individuals who do not reside in Lake Havasu City, it is quite difficult to find a way to effec tively reach these out-of-area candidates. HAT has filled three management/supervisory positions over the last two years. Since a majority of HAT drivers are retired from previously held non-transit jobs, there is little desire on the part of the front line workforce to move up into supervisory positions. Therefore, HAT often has to look outside transit, City government, and the Lake Havasu City community to fill managerial positions. An advantage in meeting its recruitment challenges is that Lake Havasu City is generally the highest paid and most stable employer in the community. Employees are offered a competitive salary and a good benefit package. Over the recent past, the transit agency moved from a strictly demand response service to a predominately fixed-route service. This has increased the skill demands on both front line employees and managers/supervisors. This increased skill level demand has added a great deal of stress to jobs at HAT and has somewhat diminished the number of applicants who are interested in those jobs. HAT’s primary competitor for manager/supervisor candidates are other departments within the Lake Havasu City government. It also competes with metro areas such as Phoenix and Las Vegas that offer higher salaries and more opportunity for career advancement. There is limited opportunity for career advancement within the HAT organizational hierarchy. Training and Development HAT previously had available to it a management training course offered through Lake Havasu City that consisted of approximately 20 topics covered in small workshops spread over a time frame of approximately 1 year. This training was discontinued recently due to City budget reductions. The agency relies heavily on the Arizona DOT and the State Transit Association for the provision of leadership training opportunities. It also makes limited use of the CTAA management certification programs, but the expense of travel involved to attend CTAA training is prohibitive. The primary training and development challenge is the lack of training budget and the difficulty of pulling people off the job to send them to training since HAT is a 15-hour per day, six-day-a- week operation. The Transit Services Manager expressed a strong need for individual, self-paced learning through online training opportunities, both in generic leadership skills and in transit specific job skills. HAT makes use of some NTI online programs but these are mostly of a technical nature. The expense to send an employee to Phoenix for a management training workshop offered by NTI or some other entity is often reimbursable through the State DOT, but the City must pay this expense up front, which causes problems in gaining approval to attend training. HAT does not have formal mentorship, succession planning or job rotation programs. This reality is partially due to the small number of management/supervisory positions and the limited interest on the part of the frontline workforce for upward mobility. The local Mohave Community College offers few training opportunities that are appropriate for transit managers. The Transit Services Manager expressed a belief that strong generic leadership skills and the ability to build a productive team are significantly more important than transit

164 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems experience when considering someone for a management role. He believes transit skills can be taught in a hands-on fashion whereas strong leadership and team building skills are not easily cultivated. His philosophy is to involve subordinate managers/supervisors in as many transit decision-making experiences as he can. Whenever possible he takes subordinate managers/supervisors with him to offsite transit conferences and involves them in the budget preparation and grant application processes. Retention HAT faces several major retention problems: Em ployees looking for career advancement move on to other departments within Lake Havasu City government. Em ployees with a spouse who cannot find employment in the area are forced to move to a large urban area with greater employment opportunities for both family members. The 6-days-a week, 15-hour day service delivery system requires managers and supervisors to work long hours and, at times, on evenings and weekends. It also requires managers and supervisors to be available 6 days a week. HAT has attempted to mitigate this “on-call” requirement by paying supervisors for two hours when they are in “on-call” status, whether they are called or not, and for four hours when they are required to report for work while on “on-call” status. Although HAT’s salaries and benefits are competitive in the Lake Havasu City area, real estate prices are quite high, thus cost of living is a disincentive for em ployees. Lessons Learned The Transit Services Manager believes an effective strategy in manager workforce development can be found through working intimately with the State DOT. The State DOT can help identify candidates state-wide, or even nationally, for transit managerial positions and can actively support individual transit agency leadership development needs. Building this same relationship with the State Transit Association is also helpful in meeting both these recruitment and development needs. Recruitment and retention of managers and supervisors is greatly enhanced when local government and the community as a whole recognize the important service transit provides. If government and people who reside in a community think highly of transit, high quality individuals will want to work in transit and, once employed, will stay on the job partially because of the respect they get from others and the satisfaction they feel in enhancing quality of life.

Transit Case Studies 165 9. Jefferson Transit Participant Information Transit System: Jefferson Transit, Port Townsend, WA Interviewee: David Turissini (General Manager), 360-385-3020 (x107), dturissini@jeffersontransit.com Transit System Profile Jefferson Transit receives funding from the FTA as a rural public transit agency and also receives some state and local funding. The system operates both fixed-route and ADA paratransit services. The service area of Jefferson County has approximately 29,000 residents and the only incorporated municipality within the County is Port Townsend, a community of approximately 8,000 people. The system operates 18 fixed-route vehicles, primarily coaches along with some cutaways and vans. The agency has 48 employees, 40 of whom are full time, and this number includes 5 managerial positions. Recruitment The General Manager is primarily responsible for the recruitment and selection process but is assisted by the manager of Finance, Accounting, and Human Resources. Challenges that Jefferson Transit must overcome in recruiting and selecting managers include: Less than competitive pay scales for the region; Getting word out to candidates outside the traditional recruitment and talent pool; and Large volumes of applications but less than desirable quality of applications. Managerial positions are advertised in APTA Passenger Transport, in local and Seattle newspapers, through the State Transit Association, and on the Jefferson Transit website. Social networking sites are not utilized. At times advertising has to be run more than once in order to obtain an adequately qualified applicant pool. Applications are screened by the General Manager and department heads that brainstorm about what they are looking for in a candidate; what the job expectations are; what projects or functions the new employee will have to undertake; and the necessary qualities of the desired new employee. Based on this brainstorming activity, applications are separated into 3 groups with one group of those who are obviously qualified, a second group of those who are somewhat qualified, and a final group of those who are not qualified. At that point a series of interview questions are developed based on a standard template with flexibility depending upon the job being filled. After the structured interview questions are determined, a scoring matrix for each question is established. The agency previously had some legal difficulty with a suit filed by a supervisory candidate who was not hired and this formal scoring tool was upheld by the court as a legal basis for the hiring decision and the case was dismissed. Prior to deciding on which candidates to interview, a questionnaire could be sent to applicants to be completed and returned. This action is dependent upon the level of the position being recruited. The transit system normally interviews two to three candidates for a managerial position and the interview panel consists of the General Manager, the Human Resource Manager, and an individual from the functional area of the position where the vacancy exists. Interviews last approximately one hour and most candidates interviewed are local. Once a hiring decision has been made, background checks are done, which include previous employment, personal references, criminal record, and Google searches. An

166 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems offer of employment is made contingent upon passing a pre-employment drug and alcohol test. The effect of the economic downturn has helped grow the applicant pool. The agency recently experienced a significantly large special project based on a local bridge closing that required the hiring of 24 temporary employees, including supervisors, for a period of two months. The agency received 150 applications and many of these applicants were individuals with strong supervisory experience and/or CDLs and strong driving records. Training and Development Jefferson Transit does not provide formal in-house leadership training. It utilizes an informal mentoring program with training on policies and procedures specific to the job and the agency. The agency utilizes the Washington State Transit Insurance Pool (WSTIP) as a resource for training at all levels. This training is conducted in cooperation with the Washington State Training Association and the Washington State DOT. This is an excellent training resource for all transit agencies within the state. Classes are offered regionally, fees are generally minimal, and the quality of training delivery is high. Jefferson Transit also uses APTA and CTAA as a leadership training resource and sends individuals to national Expo events. There is also a CTAA Northwest which offers training opportunities. The agency makes extensive use of RTAP grants and also prepares their budget for training based on these grants. If this resource were not available, training development would be a significant problem. RTAP money is used for travel and tuition expenses. The General Manager has found that a particularly difficult skill development issue is the lack of adequate computer skills on the part of his older workforce. He uses externally offered computer classes to meet this challenge and finds people can be far more productive if they are able to efficiently use technology. He feels the return on investment for pulling employees off the job and paying for computer skill training more than justifies the expense. The system does not use online training nor does it have any relationship with local colleges. However, individuals are sent to local generic seminars such as those offered through Fred Prior. Jefferson Transit is developing a disaster mitigation plan that addresses agency reaction to major emergencies such as a swine flu outbreak or earthquake. Succession planning is a part of that process. The agency has an annual performance appraisal process with established managerial goals and measurements for goal accomplishment. This appraisal and goal system is linked to pay as long as there is not a pay freeze in place. Jefferson Transit has been under a salary freeze for the past two years and two positions have been eliminated. This has increased the workload for the remaining managers and supervisors. The General Manager has turned this issue into a positive when conducting interviews by describing the position as “The hardest, most under-appreciated job you’ll ever love.” He finds that applicants appreciate the honesty and this eliminates his need to waste time on someone who is not willing to work within those conditions Retention Retention of employees is not a significant problem at Jefferson Transit. There are limited jobs available in the community and working for the transit system is considered a good position.

Transit Case Studies 167 Managers and supervisors primarily leave because they cannot handle the stress of supervising others, or because they are not good fits for the job. The benefit package is fully loaded and that is a strong draw in the recruitment and retention of staff. The General Manager envisions significant retirements in a few years as most of the senior staff are within the baby boomer age group. Lessons Learned The General Manager is very comfortable with hiring leaders without transit experience. He feels if they have good leadership skills and can deal with people, that is 90% of the job requirement. He believes that people can be trained to elevate specific transit skills. This training includes mentoring and orientation on the history of transit generally, as well as the agency in specific, the agency mission, and agency goals. The training of new leaders also should include significant time riding a bus, learning to understand the dynamics of the culture, working in dispatch, and generally immersing the new supervisor/manager from the ground up. Understanding the product itself must come before understanding how to make the product work. The GM also believes that too much emphasis is given to prior knowledge of the transit industry and transit has sold itself short by not looking for leadership candidates from outside transit. Due to upward mobility limitations, there is always the possibility that one of the leadership team may have to move on to another system. The GM is comfortable with this reality but does what he can to reward good performance in nontraditional ways. This includes flexibility of work schedule with managers setting their own schedule with the GM’s approval. Over his career the GM has seen a pattern, regardless of where he has worked, and that pattern is that about 10% of employees are superstars, 10% are poor performers, and 80% just want to get the job done and go home.

168 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems 10. Mass Transportation Authority Participant Information Transit System: Mass Transportation Authority, Flint, MI Interviewee: Edgar Benning (Assistant General Manager-Services), 810-767-0100 Transit System Profile Mass Transportation Authority (MTA) is a not-for-profit that provides multi-level service including 55 peak routes (route deviations), 14 fixed-routes, as well as a paratransit service 24 hours a day. In some areas where fixed route is not provided, MTA provides general public demand response and thus does not differentiate between ADA and general public service. Since 1995, MTA also provides regional transportation to 5 other counties and this service includes taking workers to and from jobs. MTA services cover the entire county of Genessee, approximately 640 square miles, with 11 service centers that serve approximately 700,000 passengers per year. MTA’s fleet consists of 353 vehicles that range from cars for paratransit to MCIs that run over the road and provide regional service; some equipment is in their national reserve. The system consists of 400 employees and 40 management staff. As of the past 18 months (when 2 jobs were filled), all management positions are filled. Recruitment This system has a Human Resource Division and oversight of that division is conducted by the Assistant General Manager. The HR group has an Administrator of Recruitment who is responsible for all general recruitment in addition to 5 full-time HR employees and 1 part-time person (including trainers). For management hires, the General Assistant Manager and the top management team are involved in recruitment activities. When hiring for a management job, the system has a panel of individuals get involved in the process in order to gain multiple perspectives on the candidates’ qualifications for the job. The two greatest recruitment challenges for the system in recruiting for manager jobs include: Finding the candidates with the right balance of leadership and technical skills since the job has changed a lot in the past couple of years and requires more knowledge of technology. A sub-challenge that accompanies the first challenge is that retirees often apply for jobs at MTA for which they are overqualified. MTA has discovered that hiring these individuals often results in the individuals being dissatisfied in their job so finding individuals with the right skill sets who are not overqualified is important to MTA. Very low turnover that results in individuals wanting to move up without having the availability of jobs for them to do so. The way in which the system addresses these two challenges includes: Searching for candidates with the appropriate leadership skills and then providing extensive training on the technical skills; and Encouraging employees to return to school to further their personal development and obtain the skills they need for future advancement. To recruit for job openings, the system typically uses the following sources: Advertises through the local universities; Posts on the Internet through sites such as Monster jobs; Networking with other transit systems in other states; Michigan Works Unemployment Office; and

Transit Case Studies 169 Through employee “word of mouth” even though there is no formal referral program in place. The Administrator of Benefits (HR) was recently hired through an Internet posting whereas the system decided to only post internally for the Inventory Control job. The following steps are part of the manager selection process: Step 1: Screen for education (writing samples are often requested as well). Step 2: Three member interview panel- use structured situational interview questions (job relevant) and the 3 members each score the applicant’s responses. Step 3: Final recommendations made to General Manager. Step 4: General Manager interviews all finalists. The system used to compete with the auto industry but now many of their hires come from previous auto jobs. The system does not view other systems as competitors. Instead, the system supports their employees in seeking jobs outside the company since the opportunities for advancement and compensation increases are somewhat limited (due to the very low turnover rate). Training and Development To identify high potentials and determine the developmental needs for employees, the system keeps a portfolio on each employee. In their portfolios, employees have the opportunity to provide information on classes of interest and record additional education obtained. This portfolio helps to identify training needs and it is distinct from the performance appraisal and used for developmental purposes only. Training needs are identified on an annual basis. Management is offered tuition reimbursement ($1500 a year plus stipend for books). For example, the Assistant General Manager has obtained four degrees since he started working at MTA. The system holds management training luncheons once a month with staff to engage em ployees and discuss what is needed for employees to move up the career ladder. Opportunities to join these meetings are posted in employee work areas and 6 to12 em ployees are invited to attend each meeting. In addition to discussing “what is needed to move up the career ladder,” the meetings are used to talk about challenges such as how to increase diversity in the company’s workforce, sexual harassment, team building, front-line supervision, family needs, and other total quality management topics. The biggest training challenges include having a limited budget and the need to increase staff skills in technology. The system is trying to go paperless while many employees still insist paper is necessary to complete their functions. Other technology changes include switching from diesel to hybrid vehicles. Trapeze is used to conduct most of their technology training. Job rotations are used to “cross-train” staff. The goal of this system is to “cross-train” all staff across all departments. Currently, all staff in human resources (HR) and in the purchasing department are “cross-trained” in each others’ jobs. Sources used to develop training content include APTA (for webinars which work well for traveling staff), the state’s DOT (helps to assist small operators), NTI (which does onsite management training-accident investigation and front-line management), private nonprofits, insurance carriers (who provide risk management training), and the local universities and colleges (University of Michigan, Michigan State) help to develop training content.

170 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems Retention This system has little to no turnover. The low turnover is credited to generous benefits, financial stability of the company, and employee recognition. Benefits include: manager tuition reimbursement, health care (agency paid), contributory 401K (double the percentage that employees put in up to 4%, thus MTA will put in 8%), and paid short-term disability. The system is also flexible in allowing individuals time off when needed to address personal concerns. The system uses participatory management. Employees are recognized through the 4Rs committee that supports a program that encourages rewards, recognition, and responsibility. The system partners with the union to recognize employee successes. Each supervisor is given a specified amount of money for rewards and the supervisors are encouraged to use it to reward individuals immediately with rewards such as parties, cakes, hot dogs, and $25 gift cards so the employee does not have to wait until the end of the month to be recognized. The supervisors are allowed to be creative in designing and handing out the rewards. The 4Rs committee sits down and collectively determines how to award employees and comes up with activities such “employee recognition day.” The system maintains a “white glove” program where drivers are rewarded cash (3 employees per month) for maintaining clean vehicles. These awardees are determined through routine inspections. Lessons Learned From 1980 to 2005, the system offered a monetary incentive program where staff were rewarded in percentage of their salary for good performance. The system found some staff were being compensated up to 20% of their pay but since employees could not consider these bonuses as an essential component of their pay (for example, when trying to qualify for a mortgage, employees could not count these bonuses), the system did away with the program. The system has found it is important to create a formal succession planning program to address impending retirements. The system has found that attending job fairs and partnering with universities is a great way to promote transit among youth.

Transit Case Studies 171 11. OATS Participant Information Transit System: OATS, Inc., Columbia, MO Interviewee: Dorothy Yeager (Assistant Executive Director), 573-443-4516, lyeager@oatstransit.org Transit System Profile OATS, Inc. is a private, not-for-profit agency with its corporate base in Columbia, Missouri. The agency serves 87 of the 114 counties in the state. OATS receives Federal Section 5311 and Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) funding as well as state funding. The agency contracts with various state human service agencies to provide transportation to those agency’s clients. While the administrative and financial management functions are housed in the home office in Columbia, the actual operations are carried out by seven generally autonomous regional offices. Policies and procedures are developed and administered out of the home office, as are training programs. The home office also handles the recruitment of upper level management with second tier supervisors often hired out of the regional offices. OATS operates a total of approximately 650 vehicles, which consist primarily of cutaways and vans. The agency has 714 employees, 21 of whom are managers. Some of these managers are based in the home office with one to two located in each region with the exception of the St. Louis County region. A regional director and four operational managers are stationed in that region due to the large contracts overseen there. Recruitment The hiring of managers is overseen by the Executive Director with support provided by the Assistant Executive Director. A Human Resource Manager operates from headquarters and a Personnel Manager is located in the St. Louis County regional office due to the size of the operation there. Challenges that OATS faces in recruiting and selecting managers are: Lower pay and benefits than other for-profit competitors; Competition for managerial staff with state government, the University of Missouri, and large insurance comp anies located in the area; and Finding candidates willing to work long hours who are committed to the OATS service mission. OATS advertises managerial vacancies by posting them internally and placing ads in local newspapers. It advertises its upper management positions through CTAA for a broader outreach. The OATS selection protocol is to screen applicants and conduct interviews prior to performing background checks. Once a candidate is selected, background checks are run, which include employment history, state criminal checks, credit checks and driving record checks. Middle management employees handle the interviewing and selection process for supervisory positions. For upper management positions, a two-tiered interviewing process is used in which the Executive Director interviews a candidate first and then other managers interview that candidate separately. Each of the interviews lasts approximately one hour. Typically, applicants for managerial positions come from within the state of Missouri. OATS has difficulty finding candidates with transit experience and believes that it is better to hire someone with a strong management background and then teach them transit specific skills. The Assistant Executive Director believes management and leadership skills are not easily taught.

172 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems OATS extensively promotes managers from their internal ranks. Top tier management positions are often filled by second tier manage rs. Historically, OATS most successful upper management hires have come from inside the organization. Training and Development Managerial training is primarily provided on the job. OATS makes strong use of mentoring by high level managers with seniority. This process appears to work effectively, although it is not formalized and structured. One of the significant managerial training challenges is bringing managers together for training because of the many regional offices spread throughout the state. OATS does not have a formal management development program, although the establishment of such a program is one of the Assistant Executive Director’s goals. Monthly management meetings are held at the OATS home office and this provides the opportunity for delivery of some management training. The agency takes advantage of training opportunities provided through CTAA and the State Transit Association. OATS encourages its managers to become CCTA CCTM. Currently over half of OATS managers have their CCTM certification and, based on that or any other special certification, they receive special bonuses. Some training utilizing generic off-the-shelf programs, in such areas as sexual harassment and other basic topics, is provided. The agency does not make extensive use of webinars or online training but the Assistant Executive Director sees this training delivery model as the wave of the future and would like to see OATS become more involved in using this technology. OATS does not have a formal succession planning process. However, individuals who are close to retirement generally mentor a potential successor. It is OATS philosophy to attempt to have a second in command for all top management positions so that a smooth leadership transition can occur. Employee performance appraisals that include y early goal setting are conducted annually by an immediate supervisor. The agency utilizes a merit-based salary system associated with these performance appraisals. Retention The managerial turnover rate is very low and those who leave normally do so either because of retirement or because they are moving out of the state. Turnover is low primarily because individuals are recruited into supervisory or management positions based on their commitment to the OATS mission. OATS works hard to develop mission consciousness and utilizes an internal communication plan to obtain buy-in and keep commitment to mission alive and well. This plan includes: An employee only website where employees can log on and access policy information and forms. A news section on the website that provides information on events within the company. Cultivating a sense of family, a term OATS uses frequently to describe its workforce. Sending out weekly emails (which include such things as customer service tips) to all management and supervisory staff to make them feel connected.

Transit Case Studies 173 Constantly informing front line and management staff of the reasons behind decisions that are made. The Assistant Executive Director believes that the agency’s high retention rate is due to developing a positive mission based organizational culture. Staff is constantly reminded that OATS is a charitable nonprofit agency and that its employees at all levels “make a difference. ” The average tenure for the management team is 12 years. Many managers who have moved up through the ranks have been with OATS 20 to 30 years. Because of the company’s size, there are many opportunities for upward advancement. There are also opportunities to learn and grow within one’s job. OATS is not a stagnant place to work and managers face new challenges each day. Lessons Learned Managerial success is primarily determined on the front end during the recruitment effort. Agencies must hire the right person. Although it is nice to hire people with transit backgrounds, those skills can be taught. Loyalty, a commitment to customer service, and basic leadership talent is not easily taught and these attributes must be sought out during managerial recruitment efforts.

174 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems 12. OCCK, Inc. Participant Information Transit System: OCCK, Inc. Salina, Kansas Interviewees: Deanna Lamer (Senior Director of Human Resources), 785-827-9383, dlamer@occk.com Debby Atkinson (Transportation Coordinator) Transit System Profile OCCK, Inc. is a not-for-profit company that serves people with disabilities by removing barriers to employment, independent living, and participating in their communities. As part of their array of services, OCCK offers fixed-route service with 6 vehicles and general public demand response service with 9 vehicles. The company has 240 employees, 34 of which are drivers, 1 Transportation Coordinator, and 2 Transportation Team Leaders. OCCK has three transportation- specific managerial jobs, all of which have been filled within the last two or three years. The company competes for applicants with other not-for-profit human services providers. Recruitment OCCK’s Human Resource recruiting function is completed by one staff member for hourly position recruiting, though the Senior Director of Human Resources is involved with hiring managers. The company has several recruitment challenges including: Low availability of potential applicants due to the labor market; Competition with local employers for pay; and Finding applicants with transportation experience. To address their recruitment challenges, OCCK has: Recruited managers from other departments that have strong leadership skills but no technical skills. Used unique strategies to publicize job openings as such using a local radio station’s website for placing job notices, in addition to using traditional advertising channels such as newspapers. RadioWorksJobLink.com allows OCCK and other local companies to host job notices via their job link page. OCCK also uses a written behavioral assessment to screen out unqualified applicants. The company used its five best team leaders to create scoring parameters for this off-the- shelf measure. The assessment is called “The Behavior Forecaster,” which was developed by The Mercer Group. It measures individuals along 3 key dimensions: Interpersonal Style; Personality; and Motivations (i.e., factors that motivate the person). Factors measured by the Interpersonal domain include friendliness; extent to which a person is aggressive versus passive; and preference for team or individual work. For Personality, adherence to rules; extent of optimism; and level of calmness and feeling versus fact-focused are measured. Motivational factors include the extent to which money is a motivator; interest in helping others; creativity motivation; extent to which power is motivating; and extent to which knowledge/learning is desirable. Training and Development About half of training for managers is developed and conducted within OCCK by the Senior Director of Human Resources. For new management hires, OCCK has developed a structured learning experience that consists of eight training modules covering content such as generational differences, performance appraisals, accident investigation, conflict management, and employment law. However, much of the technical training is

Transit Case Studies 175 conducted informally and one-on-one with the Transportation Coordinator. The company occasionally partners with outside vendors (e.g., The Center for Management Development at Wichita State University and their insurance company for risk management training) for monthly and quarterly trainings. Participation in monthly and quarterly training sessions is voluntary and open to all managers and OCCK provides lunch for partic ipants as an incentive. Many managers attend the offered training. OCCK’s training and development challenges include: managers having enough time to attend training activities and keeping the material fresh and interesting. As a counter to these challenges, OCCK has strong training and development support from upper management, which includes financial support. This financial and upper management support also allows mangers to take an outside training course if there is a topic of interest to them. To balance the need for technical and manager skills in the area where transportation skills are limited, OCCK prefers managerial experience over direct transportation experience. The agency believes that it is easier to teach technical skills than teach manager skills. Based on past experience, OCCK expects to hire half of its managers externally and half from current employees. An example of OCCK internally developed training includes training on Generational Differences. Examples of topics covered in this training include: Stereotypes of Baby Boomers, Silent Generation, Gen X, and Gen Y Impact of technology with respect to generations Im pact on the workplace of generational differences Values of different generations Career goals Preferences for rewards, retirement and feedback approach Work-life balance preferences Training, managing and retaining different generations OCCK maintains Training In-Service Outlines that track the type of training (e.g., “Performance Appraisals and Feedback”), the instructor, summary description of the training, how the in-service training supports the philosophy and mission of OCCK, objectives of the training (see example objectives below), who should attend the training, how often individuals should attend the training, prerequisites for the training, class size, equipment needs, and handouts needed. For OCCK’s performance appraisal in-service training, these are the following objectives (e.g., skills and knowledge participant is expected to gain): Review of OCCK’s procedure Review of OCCK’s performance appraisal forms How to prepare for appraisal interviews How to effectively provide feedback to employees Goal setting guidelines Legal consideration for performance appraisals Retention OCCK has a very low turnover rate, which has decreased in the last year due to the slumping economy. They believe their retention success is due to its adherence to the company’s mission, employee/manager buy-in to this mission, and also to its benefits package. This is despite lower wages than other local companies and the local school system offer. OCCK offers benefits including:

176 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems Health insurance and dental 100% paid by OCCK State retirement benefits, in which anyone working over 20 hours can be involved 10 holidays per year, more than manufacturing companies 12 personal leave days and 12 sick leave days per year Part-time benefits to staff after 3 years of employment (with only a minimum of 10 hours worked per week) OCCK is perceived as a stable employer. While many local manufacturing companies are laying off employees, OCCK is not. The company also performs exit interviews with all exiting employees and managers. Lessons Learned OCCK believes it is important to not overlook a company or agency’s reputation in the community, as this is what has helped them when establishing their transportation services. The company’s good reputation and publicity in the community made it easier to hire for transit jobs. The agency suggests that small communities and agencies place information about what it is that they do into local newspapers or cable access TV channels. Several OCCK employees have been featured in a weekly newspaper about the work life of local em ployees.

Transit Case Studies 177 13. Palace Transit Participant Information Transit System: Palace Transit, Mitchell, SD Interviewees: Teri Bertness (Human Resources Director), Brenda Paradis (Senior Services Executive Director), 605- 995-8440, bparadis.rsvp@midconetwork.com Transit System Profile Palace Transit offers general public demand response service via 11 buses and three minivans to a population of about 14,600 in the city of Mitchell, SD. The company employs seven full-time and six part-time employees. Palace Transit has one transportation-specific manager job, which has been filled by the same person for the past 30 years. Competitors for applicants and employees include privately run taxi services and the local school system for bus drivers, but, in general, there is not much competition among these organizations. Recruitment The recruiting function for Palace Transit is completed by the City of Mitchell’s Human Resources Director and a part-time Human Resources Assistant. The HR Director serves as the main recruiter for all positions. Palace Transit’s recruitment challenges include: a changing applicant pool consisting of individuals with little experience; recruiting qualified women; and recruiting minorities. To address their recruitment challenges, Palace Transit has: Partnered with other city departments (e.g., the police and fire departments) when participating in job fairs and career expos to increase their visibility to potential applicants and promote the transit system. Recruited via the South Dakota Municipal League monthly magazine; this provides a venue to advertise state-wide for city positions. Contacted agencies that offer similar transit services such as those in Aberdeen, SD and Pierre, SD to identify potential candidates. Spread the word about openings to local vocational and technical colleges in an attempt to attract more diverse applicants. Palace Transit is receiving more applications than it used to, in part due to the downturn in the economy. However, the applicants have largely been individuals with the right educational background, but no transit experience, or, applicants who are simply unqualified for the position. As a result, the agency is spending more time screening applicants who are not qualified than on recruitment activities. Training and Development About half of the training for managers is developed and conducted within Palace Transit. In 2008, the agency developed its own managerial training in order to discuss general management topics for supervisors and managers within the city. Training is voluntary and is conducted cross-functionally across departments. Managers have responded positively to the training and have considered it to be a bonding experience. This manager training is ongoing and conducted bi-monthly for about two hours. Some of the training topics include: Harassment Attendance Workers compensation Drug and alcohol policies

178 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems The agency uses outside training resources from their insurance company, Mitchell Technical Institute, and the Society for Human Resource Management-sponsored Mitchell Area HR Association, and it also uses substance abuse professionals to provide training. Palace Transit has requested help from agencies in Aberdeen and Pierre to find training on specific topics. The agency faces several training and development challenges, including: obtaining manager buy-in; finding time to conduct training; ensuring that the topics are timely; and ensuring that the topics are important. Palace Transit has implemented the following strategies to address these challenges: Gaining buy-in from participants is difficult because they often think that training is less important than their regular duties. Palace Transit emphasizes to managers the need for both as important elements of manager jobs. Because the agency is stretched for resources, it is often difficult to take time away from duties for training. Conducting training sessions during lunch hours has proved to be an effective strategy to increase participation, as it makes it easier for participants to attend. In addition, the agency provides lunch as an incentive for managers. To ensure that training is both timely and important, the agency has the flexibility of conducting its own internal training courses and partnering with outside organizations for training support. In addition, the city has been supportive in giving time and financial commitments in order to conduct frequent training. Although the agency has not attended CTAA Expo for several years due to staffing issues, in the past they have found this to be a good training resource. Because the qualified applicant pool for transit managers in the Mitchell area is low, Palace Transit has begun to do more internal promotions for high potential employees with strong technical skills, but who often lack managerial skills. The agency offers these employees training for managerial duties to groom them for potential promotions. Retention Palace Transit has very low manager turnover. In the coming years the agency is expecting many retirements, but they are not expecting employees to leave for other positions. They believe their key to retention is that the city government is great to work for, and Palace Transit has a great team who believe in the work they do. In addition, the agency’s benefits are some of the best compared to other employers in the area, which also helps increase retention. Palace Transit’s benefits include: Health insurance and dental 100% paid by the agency. Participation in the South Dakota retirement system because they are part of a municipality. This retirement system is more stable and secure than other retirement systems such as 401(k) plans that often emphasize investment in stocks, bonds, money market investments, etc., which are more volatile. Palace Transit matches employee contributions of 6% with an agency contribution of 6%. Vacation and sick leave increases with tenure (e.g., 80 hours up to 5 years; 120 hours after 12 years; and 160 hours after 15 years) which encourages retention. Lessons Learned Palace Transit believes that a big part of retention and employee commitment is that em ployees feel like a part of the organization, that they feel valued, and that they are heard. This can be accomplished with basic courtesies like treating people with respect and consideration. They think that these gestures mean a lot to people and encourage them to join and stay with an organization.

Transit Case Studies 179 14. Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority Participant Information Transit System: Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority, Florence, SC Interviewee: Billy Bundy (Human Resource Director) Transit System Profile Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority (PDRTA) is located in Florence, South Carolina and is both a small urban and rural transit system. PDRTA operates fixed-route and demand response services and the overall service area includes 6 counties in South Carolina. PDRTA is a stand- alone transit authority established by the State Legislature. The 120 vehicle fleet consists of buses, cut-a-ways, and vans. PDRTA has 103 primarily full time employees and 11 managerial/supervisory positions. Their main facility is located in Florence but they have other satellite locations. Recruitment The management/supervisory recruiting function is managed by the Human Resource Director with involvement by the Executive Director and a manager from the operational function of the position being filled. Five managerial vacancies have been filled ove r the last 3 years in the areas of Finance, Procurement, and Transportation. The Human Resource Director feels that filling transportation operational positions is more of a challenge than filling administrative positions. It has not been difficult to find people with appropriate finance and administration backgrounds, but finding individuals with a combination of transit experience and strong leadership skills has been difficult. The last two transportation managers that were hired did not have a transit background but had excellent supervisory / managerial experience and, based on that, were the best candidates for the job. These managers had to be trained from scratch on transportation specific job knowledge and skills. Because PDRTA is able to offer a benefit package consistent with that offered by the state, it is very competitive in terms of its retirement plan, health insurance, and 401(k). To fill management vacancies the agency advertises in the local Florence Sunday newspaper and utilizes the paper’s “Hot Jobs” website. It also advertises through the local Employment Security Commission of the State Job Board and uses their website for posting job vacancies. Job openings are also posted internally in order to offer upward mobility opportunities for those who might be qualified and interested. Since most drivers do not have the appropriate background and skills, promotions to managerial positions from within are rare. PDRTA does not advertise its vacancies nationally, although it does at times run state- wide ads through a newspaper published in Columbia, South Carolina. Often the most effective strategy in recruiting has been a combination of word of mouth and internal contacts. Managerial candidates come primarily from within the state of South Carolina and often locally. PDRTA’s primary competition for managerial candidates is the local private sector, but the agency also competes with the school systems for individuals who have transportation backgrounds. The recruitment and selection process is based on the following model: Resumes are screened and candidates with no appropriate background or no steady employment history are weeded out.

180 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems Interviews for qualified candidates are held often using a team interview approach with no formal structuring or scoring. Interviews take approximately 30 to 45 minutes. Once the most qualified candidate has been identified, a background check is done on that individual. This check includes criminal, job history, and reference checks. If the position being filled is safety sensitive, a DOT physical and DOT pre-employment drug test are also mandated. PDRTA has a very diverse management team with almost 50% of the managers being female and 40% belonging to a minority group. The economic downturn has had a significant impact on recruitment with an increase in the volume of candidates but a decrease in the quality of candidates. A recent dispatcher vacancy generated 60 to 70 applicants, but only 8 to 10 could be interviewed based on qualifications for the position. In rural areas the economic impact has been even greater due to plant closures, layoffs, and job eliminations. Training and Development PDRTA does not have a large training budget and presently does not offer any formal managerial or supervisory training programs. However, it utilizes a very extensive on- the-job training program for new transit managers and supervisors. This training covers all training that drivers receive, which is ADA orientation, defensive driving, accident handling, bio-hazard, and CPR/First Aid. Newly hired operations managers/supervisors are required to ride all routes with drivers to get to know the service area and the customer. These ride-a-longs initially occur 2 or 3 days per week and, as time goes on, scales down to a day here and there. This on-the-job training experience for managers and supervisors encompasses both the fixed-route service in Florence and the multi- county demand response service offered in rural areas. Newly hired managers and supervisors are also assigned to work with dispatchers to learn the scheduling and dispatching processes, how to handle customers over the telephone, and how to make driver job assignments. Informal mentoring by senior staff occurs as well. PDRTA does not have a formal management development relationship with local colleges or universities, but often sends managers to training courses sponsored by the Transportation Association of South Carolina. The agency does not utilize any online training resources and does not have a job rotation or succession planning process. PDRTA utilizes a structured and scored performance appraisal system with appraisals taking place after six months of employment, again at one year of employment and then annually thereafter. Managers participate on a very limited basis in the APTA and CTAA national conferences due to the expense involved. Retention PDRTA has a strong record of retention and longevity of managerial/supervisory employees. Most of the managers in senior positions have been employed by PDRTA for at least 7 years and some even longer. This is particularly true of those working in the operations area. Of the five ma nagers and supervisors that departed over the last 3 years, four of those were dismissed for cause. There are two retention issues of concern to the Human Resource Director: Over the next several years there will be a number of baby boomer generation managers retiring.

Transit Case Studies 181 Since retirement benefits can transfer from PDRTA to state government, some employees in managerial/supervisory positions may leave PDRTA for a job in state government. One of the primary reasons the retention level is high is the quality of the benefit packages the agency offers, which includes medical, dental, and vision with PDRTA paying the employee’s premiums for standard plans. PDRTA also has an escalating sick and vacation leave policy based on time of service and provides employees with one paid personal day per year. Lessons Learned It is critical that transit systems do their homework up front in the recruitment and selection process. This must include not only interviewing effectively but doing in-depth background checks. The price a system will pay for hiring the wrong person is long-term and detrimental to the management team and organizational culture. Leadership positions can be filled by individuals without transit experience as long as they have strong leadership skills, a histor y of management experience, and a good work ethic. The PDRTA internal transportation specific on-the-job training program for newly hired managers and supervisors has been very effective and proves this point.

182 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems 15. Port Authority of Allegheny County Participant Information Transit System: Port Authority of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, PA Interviewees: Stephen G. Bland (Chief Executive Officer), sbland@portauthority.org Tawnya Moore-McGee (Assistant General Manager for Human Resources) Inez Colon (Director of Employment and Development) Transit System Profile Port Authority of Allegheny County is a body corporate and politically organized and existing to provide public transportation services in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The agency offers fixed route service through three modes: motorbus, light rail, and incline plane. Port Authority contracts ADA paratransit service through ACCESS Transportation Systems. The authority has a total of 2,716 active employees, approximately 110 of those in managerial positions. It has a fleet size of 818 buses, 48 small transit vehicles, 83 light rail transit vehicles, 2 inclines, and 279 non- revenue vehicles. Front line employees are members of bargaining units. Recruitment The CEO has responsibility for the overall management, development, and direction of planning, finance, administration and operation of transportation services, in conjunction with broad, general policies and plans established by the Authority Board of Directors. He supervises the functional activities of the Division Directors and the staff of the Office of Executive Director. The Assistant General Manager of Human Resources has overall responsibility for the human resource function and day-to-day responsibilities are carried out by the Director of Employment and Development. Two of the greatest challenges in recruitment facing the Port Authority are: Somewhat limited opportunities for upward mobility, and Difficulty in being competitive with the private sector in managerial compensation. Although managerial salaries may be lower than competitors can offer, the Authority has a very strong benefit package. In order to maximize compensation competitiveness, operationally related jobs were benchmarked with other transit properties for compensation comparison, and jobs in non- transit specific disciplines were compared to the local market and existing internal positions. Based on this benchmarking procedure, the compensation package to external candidates was revised and internal managers’ compensation was reviewed for salary compression and internal equity and appropriate adjustments were made. This initiative was performed using reputable salary survey instruments, total reward trends, and a point factor method to determine fair and equitable offers. All vacancies are posted internally and employees interested in a position submit a Career Opportunity Application (COA). COAs are acknowledged and examined for qualifications matching those needed for the open position. Qualified employees participate in a competency-based interview. If applicable, the successful employee completes testing to demonstrate competency in any software that may be specified in the job description. The promotion is extended and if accepted the employee is given a start date.

Transit Case Studies 183 Port Authority uses its website, the local newspaper classified ads, trade journals, Internet, and social networks to advertise openings and solicit resumes if there are no qualified internal candidates or resumes of qualified individuals on file. Resumes resulting from advertising are acknowledged and examined for qualifications matching those needed for the open position. Candidates submit an application/resume and participate in a competency-based interview. Background checks are completed and, if applicable, the candidate completes testing to demonstrate competency in any software that may be specified in the job description. A conditional offer of employment is extended and the candidate is scheduled for the medical/drug screening. A start date is then provided to the candidate. The agency seeks applican ts from transit agencies, governmental agencies, and individuals from areas of specialized expertise. For senior level positions, the services of executive search companies are used. The agency has recently begun making significant use of social networking sites including LinkedIn, Monster, and Twitter. Television or radio advertising is not used, but occasionally the agency advertises through APTA’s Passenger Transport and the State Transit Association. The recent economic downturn has significantly increased the volume of applicants to fill vacancies, but there has been no huge drop off in quality of applicants. This increased number of applications/resumes puts additional stress on the Human Resource screening process. Most managerial positions are filled locally, but occasionally hiring is done from out of the area. The Port Authority will pay for out-of-the-area candidates to travel to Pittsburgh. Before any job vacancy is advertised, the job description associated with that vacancy is reviewed to ensure that it is up-to-date and accurate. The model that the Authority uses for screening resumes/applications is to match them against a spreadsheet of all job requirements taken from the applicable job description. Matches are checked off from this spreadsheet to see if basic qualifications are met. Based on this process, applications/resumes are divided into 3 groups with one group being those highly qualified, the second group being those basically qualified, and the third group being those not qualified. The Port Authority normally would interview approximately 10 candidates for a managerial position based on this screening process. The agency uses as its interview tool and structure a “Behavior-Based Interview” model. This model is purchased from a vendor who trains individuals at Port Authority to be interviewers using the Behavior Based Interview process. This tool has been researched, validated legally, and when challenged in court found to be defensible. It is based on breaking down the component parts of the job description. The tool forces a candidate to give real life examples of skills that would be applied to the position they are competing for. Interviews take a minimum of one hour and are normally conducted by a representative from Human Resources and the department hiring manager. A structured interview guide is utilized and the interviewers select questions from a pool of questions available to them. No one can perform an interview unless they have been trained on the Behavior Based Interview model. The next step in the selection process is to prepare a grid snapshot of the results of interviews which are scored for each job description competency requirement. Prior to

184 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems being offered a position, the highest scored individual has a background check performed on them. These background checks include education, criminal, previous employer, DMV, and possibly a financial check. The Authority does not check personal references because they do not have faith in the validity of such references. After background checks, job offers are extended, contingent upon passing a required pre-employment drug test and medical exam. Since the Port Authority utilizes an objective selection process based on minimum qualifications, and since job descriptions, depending upon position, speak to transit experience, successful candidates for management positions will either have a combination of strong transit and leadership backgrounds or strong non-transit technical skill and leadership backgrounds. Training and Development The Authority is piloting a 360 degree assessment process. A manager being assessed selects 10 people to assess his/her performance and this group must include superiors, subordinates, peers, and possibly even vendors. The results of this assessment are sent to a consultant who compiles the data and provides the Port Authority with a 50 to 60 page report on the person’s leadership skills and strengths and weaknesses. This information provides the foundation for identifying future training and development opportunities for the assessed manager. The process is used as a developmental tool rather than a discipline tool, is presently being used at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and is similar to the approach used by the Center for Creative Leadership. The agency has a comprehensive in-house training program that utilizes a cafeteria style array of training offerings that are listed in an internal training catalog. Certain training courses are mandatory for managers while other training courses are recommended for attendance. A series of in-house instructor led leadership courses, as well as online training offerings, are available in such areas as change management, conflict management, dealing with difficult people, and delegation. Online training utilizes outside vendors that offer an array of online training opportunities which, once completed by an employee, must be validated by a test that is printed and submitted to the Human Resource department. These courses are generic and not transit specific. The Port Authority hosts outside training offerings such as those presented by the NTI as well as sending employees to external training courses in a variety of areas. The Authority also has a strong tuition refund program for course work through colleges and universities. Training and development resources made available through APTA and CTAA are utilized, including “Leadership APTA.” The Authority is developing a new labor relations course to be offered in-house to managers. In the past the Authority has utilized a “Walk in Your Shoes” program in which non- represented employees requested to walk in the shoes of another supervisory or managerial position. This provided an opportunity for cross-functional development and career advancement and had obvious mentoring opportunities.

Transit Case Studies 185 Retention The Authority does not have a significant retention problem and experiences very minimal turnover. The agency is considered a very good place to work and those who leave do so primarily to advance their career at another transit agency, to advance their career in a professional technical discipline within the private sector, or strictly because of compensation concerns. The major challenge is retaining managers in the engineering and IT fields. Lessons Learned The CEO and HR leadership team recommend making extensive use of social networking and ads on websites to recruit for hard to fill jobs. They have had great success using this approach. It is the wave of the future. The private sector uses it, and transit needs to do the same in order to be competitive. The younger generation does everything on line, including looking for employment. The job description must be the seminal document of all Human Resource activity. Extremely high managerial retention levels are not necessarily an organizational positive. The organization tends to become stagnant and there is always a need for new energies and new vision. The future of transit is dependent on that.

186 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems 16. Souris Basin Transit Participant Information Transit System: Souris Basin Transportation, Minot, ND Interviewee: Darrel Francis (Executive Director), (701) 852-8008, sbtransit@srt.com Transit System Profile Souris Basin Transportation (SBT) is a stand-alone transportation agency that is a registered nonprofit organization. SBT offers deviated fixed route service in seven counties over a 12,000 square mile area, and it offers ADA paratransit within the city of Minot, North Dakota. The agency operates 20 vehicles, 14 of which are body-on-chassis and 6 are vans. SBT has a total of 32 employees with 5 of those positions being managerial or supervisory in nature. SBT contracts out approximately 75% of its maintenance activities. Recruitment The human resource function is carried out primarily by the Executive Director. SBT has 3 major recruitment challenges: Low unemployment rate in the area; Competition from energy based companies, including oil fields and wind farms; and Competitors offer larger salaries. SBT meets its recruitment challenges primarily by offering a very competitive benefit package that follows State guidelines and includes health care, dental and vision, with 100% of premiums paid by the employer for single coverage and a smaller percentage paid for employees with family coverage. The agency advertises job openings in newspapers state-wide, on its own website, through the North Dakota State Job Service, and through the Dakota Transit Association. It also advertises at vendor transit shows and annual state fairs. SBT has filled 4 of its 5 management positions in the last two years. These positions became available partially due to a recent merger with the City of Minot transit system. SBT focuses on attempting to hire employees who present the prospect of longevity of em ployment with the agency. Transit experience is considered extremely important in the hiring process. However, lack of transit experience is not a disqualifier for some positions. Leadership and management skills are heavily considered in the hiring process. The agency often hires employees from the City bus transit system, the public school system, and those who have recently retired from other positions. Training and Development SBT relies heavily on external entities for management and supervisory development support. It utilizes the CTAA’s management and supervisory certification programs. It also sends managers to a three-day class offered through North Dakota State University in Fargo. This class focuses on small urban and rural transit management issues including human resources, operations, scheduling and dispatching, and developing policies, procedures, and handbooks. Training challenges include a limited internal training budget and difficulty in finding time for managers to attend training. The RTAP has been extremely helpful in supporting training opportunities. The Dakota Transit Association has begun to offer specialized training for supervisors and front line employees at state association conferences.

Transit Case Studies 187 The North Dakota State Non-Profit Association provides some leadership training opportunities through workshops presented 2 or 3 times per year in the state. The agency does not use local community colleges as a training resource. SBT does not have a formal mentorship or succession planning program, but the organizational culture encourages the cultivation of training and development opportunities. Retention SBT faces a serious retention challenge. This challenge is created by other companies, particularly those in the energy field, offering significantly more compensation than the transit system’s budget allows. The primary reasons employees leave SBT is retirement or because they can earn a higher salary in another place of employment. The agency is attempting to meet its employee retention challenge by emphasizing the following strategies: Gaining approval for an increase in base pay. Em phasizing an open door policy that allows employees to discuss their employment and career goals with management. Offering flexible work hours, including a four day work week. Accommodating an employee’s personal needs, including time off the job. Emphasizing that employment with SBT provides individuals with the personal satisfaction of knowing that the results of their efforts improve the quality of life of individuals in the community. The requirement during the employment selection process that candidates ride SBT vehicles, thus giving them an opportunity to either embrace the SBT mission of quality service to others, or to deselect themselves as candidates because of lack of comfort with the job. Lessons Learned SBT understands that it must keep pace with pay scales offered by other employers in the community. However, beyond the issue of pay alone, the Executive Director believes that it is important to talk to applicants about why they are interested in transit employment and to positively emphasize the supportive, flexible, and less stressful atmosphere that SBT represents. The Executive Director truly believes that offering the opportunity to help others, to be a part of a flexible work environment, and to be a member of a supportive team represents an extremely successful strategy in offsetting pay differential concerns.

188 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems 17. South Lane Wheels Participant Information Transit System: South Lane Wheels, Cottage Grove, OR Interviewee: Tara Sue Salusso (Executive Director), (no longer employed at South Lane Wheels ) Transit System Profile South Lane Wheels is a not-for-profit system that operates 3 main service delivery models: (1) deviated fixed-route within Cottage Grove; (2) door-to-door demand response program with South Lane County, which serves 8 small rural towns, getting people into town or back home. The door-to-door demand response service was initially established for medical purposes but legal regulations state it cannot be restricted so this service has expanded for use for any purpose; (3) organized group trips like those for senior centers, Special Olympics, and low income groups. The system does not have a specific paratransit arm; every mode is available to the general public. While South Lane Wheels does not work for Lane Transit District (LTD), LTD has presented a ridership challenge by offering a fixed route service in the same areas that South Lane Wheels services. South Lane Wheels typically maintains 10 vehicles and will be adding its 11 th vehicle this year. The additional vehicle will be a “low access vehicle” that has a ramp and allows all passengers to access through one entry point. The system consists of 12 staff, two of whom are management staff. The bookkeeper will soon be considered a management job as that position takes on the responsibilities of office manager and begins to collaborate on human resource decisions. Recruitment South Lane Wheels Human Resource recruiting function is completed by an operations manager/assistant for drivers and dispatchers and the Executive Director recruits and hires office staff (e.g., management jobs). The system does not have a formal way of screening or ranking applicants. The Board of Directors has been invited to participate in the final interviewing process for one management job. Factors that are reviewed on resumes include: years of applicable experience, relevant education, skills that are related to the job (e.g., human resource experience, management experience, QuickBooks knowledge), and nonprofit experience. The Executive Director believes a for-profit mentality is very different from a not-for- profit. The system’s greatest recruitment challenges include: low compensation and insufficient benefits. LTD and the School District are highly competitive for drivers and some management jobs. LTD also has a union for employees. Both agencies provide higher compensation and benefits which South Lane Wheels does not offer. Specifically, South Lane Wheels does not offer healthcare benefits for staff. All compensation decisions mu st be presented and negotiated before a Board of Directors. To address their recruitment challenges, South Lane Wheels has marketed the management jobs as ones that offer potential for increased responsibilities and increased compensation as the individual builds capability. The system highlights the growth potential of the job since the initial compensation is low. The Executive Director suggested that past recruitment processes have been too lengthy (over 4 months) resulting in a potential loss of great talent who are “snatched up” by other firms. Since South Lane Wheels has a very limited budget, the system uses 4 primary sources to recruit workers: Craigslist website (free), local newspaper, United Way, and the State’s

Transit Case Studies 189 employment department. For a management type job such as bookkeeper, the system has found the United Way and State Employment Department to be less effective sources. The interviewee suggested that these agencies may tend to attract individuals with lower skill sets whereas individuals with management potential tend to network with other managers for jobs. For a recent opening, the system received 9 applicants within 24 hours on craigslist.org. One recruiting strategy used by the system is to train and develop individuals from within for future management jobs, even when there is not a current vacancy. For example, the Executive Director identified a volunteer who was very active for the system, working 20 hours a week. As the volunteer requested additional responsibilities, the Executive Director saw this as an opportunity to groom the individual for employment by training the volunteer in maintenance and drug testing. The volunteer was then offered a part- time job administering the drug and alcohol program and the maintenance program. As soon as a full-time slot became available, the employee was offered a full-time position providing oversight to the Maintenance program. While in that job, the employee was trained and prepared to take over the operations manager job. As soon as the Operations Manager left, the employee was moved into the new job. The employee is now being trained to step into the Executive Director role if that position ever needs to be filled. A strategy the system has used to increase diversity in ridership but has yet to use for recruitment is to leverage contacts with local agencies with whom they work to serve the community. For example, the system works with agencies that provide support to special groups through parenting resources, low-income support, and food provisions. With these agencies, the system has a Hispanic outreach plan and develops training plans to teach these agencies about the system’s services so the agencies can speak in Spanish and teach community members about the ridership options available to them. To support diversity, the system also has a Spanish section on their website that provides “more about us” information on South Lane Wheels. Another approach that could be used in recruitment is the use of employee personal profiles and reports about their job. For example, the system uses profiles of individuals to attract riders, i.e., a youth talking about her experience using the service. Training and Development Essentially 100% of training for managers is conducted off-site. There is ample time and money available in the system’s budget to support training. Training is highly valued by the system. RTAP reimburses for most of transit offsite training and travel. To determine the type of training and support needed by managers, the system holds weekly management meetings to discuss “what is working well,” “where help is needed,” “the critical mass,” “what resources are needed to succeed,” and “where we can grow-as individuals.” At all levels of the system, intervention training is conducted. This entails sitting with employees and managers to: (1) identify issues; (2) put steps in place to provide needed support; (3) set goals; and (4) schedule times for check-in and review of goals. The system leverages community associations and financial support for training managers. In Oregon, the Ford Family Foundation puts resources into the development of leadership (leadership training is available yearly for free). The system leverages opportunities provided by the Ford Family Foundation. The Technical Assistance for Community Services (TACS) also has great training to help nonprofits build capacity – financial, leadership, employment practices. All 3 managers are planning to attend that training.

190 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems Retention The system has especially high turnover for one management job, the Bookkeeper. To address this issue, the Executive Director decided to recruit individuals for management jobs who currently have employment as opposed to those without a job. The rationale is that those with a job are leaving their current job due to real interest in the South Lane Wheels job; however, someone without a job may be desperate to find anything and may be planning to move on quickly as soon as he/she finds something better. The system believes its training and support plans (e.g., intervention training) help to retain employees. The Executive Director believes one of the weakest areas is the low compensation and absence of health insurance. For example, one bookkeeper left to go to an organization that offered more comprehensive employee benefits like health insurance. After 6 months of employment, employees begin to accrue vacation and sick time for a maximum of 4 weeks of vacation (20 days). Vacation is allocated based on tenure as follows: 2 yrs (1 week), 4 yrs (2 weeks), 8 yrs (3 weeks). Employees also receive 2 personal days per year. Lessons Learned The system believes that employee benefits are critical to offer when compensation is low. Training managers, leveraging existing community resources, and funding for training is beneficial to smaller systems with few resources.

Transit Case Studies 191 18. Transfort Participant Information Transit System: Transfort, Fort Collins, CO Interviewee: Marlys Sittner (General Manager), 970-416-2113, msittner@fcgov.com Transit System Profile Transfort is a department of the municipal government of Fort Collins, Colorado. The transit General Manager is a direct report to the Planning, Development and Transportation Director of the city. Transfort is defined as a large urban transit system (over 200,000 population) because it is part of a Transportation Management Area (TMA) and receives FTA section 5307 funding. The fleet consists of approximately 40 buses and the agency operates both fixed route and ADA paratransit services. Transfort has a total of 85 employees including 5 individuals in management/supervisory positions. Recruitment Generally the recruitment and selection process is supported by City Human Resources but is carried out by Transfort. The Transfort General Manager completes a Job Analysis Questionnaire (JAQ) that provides the details of the position to be filled, and then City Human Resources develops a recruitment brochure and advertises in jointly agreed upon media. Human Resources does not screen applicants, but will participate in interviews if asked to by the Transfort General Manager. As a model of the recruitment and selection process, an Assistant General Manager position was recently filled. The position was advertised nationally in APTA Passenger Transport, CTAA Community Transportation magazine, through the State Transit Association, on a local public works type website, in the Denver Post, and in the local Fort Collins newspaper. Response to this advertising campaign was relatively limited in terms of applicants with the appropriate transit background and experience. Generally, people were not interested in an Assistant General Manager position as opposed to a General Manager position, and many applicants expressed concern about the salary level. The salary level, however, seemed to be appropriate given that it was based on a JAQ and the APTA Compensation Manual. The initial communication with qualified applicants was a telephone interview. Based on the telephone interview, three individuals were selected and flown in from out of state for personal interviews. The individual who was ultimately selected for the position first accepted but then later declined due to family issues. Finally, a Senior Transportation Planner from the City, with some transit planning experience, was selected for the position. Two out of three of the Operations Supervisor positions have been filled by the promotion of bus operators. The General Manager believes that if forced to choose between an individual with strong leadership skills and limited or no transit background versus an individual with a strong transit background and limited leadership ability, the choice is clearly hiring based on strong leadership skills. The teaching of transit nuts and bolts can occur once an individual is hired. An actual interview for a manager or supervisor position at Transfort lasts between one and two hours with an interview panel that includes a cross section of Transfort staff representing supervision and front line. Once a candidate has been selected, background checks and resume checks are then undertaken.

192 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems Training and Development In-house supervisory/management training is offered through the City of Fort Collins. The City has a program called the “Supervisory Summit” in which all supervisors and managers attend a set of required classes on different subjects over a two year period. These classes are instructor led and are generally not transit specific. The classes address such topics as discipline, sexual harassment, fair labor standards, ADA, performance management, etc. The City also offers basic leadership training in which attendance is voluntary or can be mandated by one’s supervisor, and the curriculum is generic. Department heads and their supervisors within the City Government are formed into a group called the Leadership Link. This group meets for a half day on a quarterly basis and during these sessions focuses in a variety of ways on leadership development concerns. Up until recently, Transfort encouraged participation in national and state sponsored transit trainings and conferences. However, due to present City budgetary constraints, restrictions have been placed on travel and training, and therefore external training opportunities are limited. Transfort takes advantage of online and conference call training through the City, as well as national online training through such organizations as NTI. The agency recently agreed to be host city for NTI training on “Project Management for Managers” and in return for hosting that event received 10 free seats in the training. Retention The agency has not experienced any significant retention issues recently. Unfortunately, due to financial stress on the City budget and the possibility of more difficult financial times ahead, retention could become a problem down the line. Inevitably financial stresses increase workloads, often involve freezing of wages, and have the potential to impact organizational morale. Lessons Learned The General Manager believes that one of the primary tools in recruiting, developing, and retaining transit supervisors and managers at any agency is the impact of the CEO’s leadership style on agency staff. The CEO must set the example for others and support them in carrying out the transit mission. Regardless of external forces, managers at every level can and must model positive behavior and provide support for employees who are putting service on the street. Working in transit is often cause and mission based. People get into the field by accident and then find it hard to leave. It is always good to get new blood into transit. This infusion can bring the energy and excitement that is needed for a high performing work force.

Transit Case Studies 193 19. UMASS Transit Participant Information Transit System: University of Massachusetts Transit Interviewee: Glenn Barrington (Operations Manager) Note: This system was interviewed mostly as a potential source for management talent (i.e., a student run bus system) whereas other systems were interviewed for the practices in recruiting, developing, and retaining managers. Transit System Profile University of Massachusetts Transit started in 1969 as Student Senate Transit. Other than management staff, the system is entirely student-run. The system provides transportation around campus, with about 85% of ridership comprised of students. The system also provides paratransit services for the disabled and the temporarily disabled (with doctor’s note). This paratransit arm, Special Transportation Services (SpecTrans), has been a part of UMass Transit Service since 1986. SpecTrans provides free transportation service around the Amherst campus to students, staff, and faculty with disabilities. The system has 37 buses and 8 special transportation vans. The workforce is approximately 150 to 170 employees but fluctuates based on student interest each year. The system has 6 full time office staff. The student jobs are 3 temporary positions with the exception of the student-staff management job. This job is reserved for a veteran student driver who moves up to Driver Supervisor and then into a sub-management role and contributes to department work. There are 8 management jobs and 5 mechanic jobs. While the system does not offer management opportunities to students other than the student-staff management job, systems such as First Transit partners with this system to identify high potentials for future management jobs. Recruitment The Operations Manager performs the Human Resource recruiting function for management jobs whereas the Safety & Training Coordinator is responsible for assigning shifts to students each semester. All recruitment is done through “Word of Mouth” by students. Students are given $50 for each driver referred. Since students cannot receive management jobs (and no one leaves the management jobs at UMass Transportation), the system refers top students to First Transit (Hartford branch) for employment. When a job comes open, there is a specific University protocol that must be followed. For example, the first two steps include: (1) on campus advertising (must submit “yellow sheet” and advertise to all current University employees); and (2) posting notices in APTA Passenger Transport magazine. The system’s greatest recruitment challenge for drivers is that there are no assigned shifts or knowledge of who is returning other than the core 50 employees at the beginning of each new semester. The system relies on students telling other students about the jobs. On the first Friday of the semester, shifts are assigned. Two weeks prior to start of semester, a list is posted of shifts and students select which they want. Then the students have to provide their class schedule and interests so that shifts can be assigned during the first week of classes. The system relies on high morale and a positive reputation to recruit new students each year. The year 2000, due to a new Safety & Training Coordinator, was the only year that the system was not able to fill all driver positions. The system has not had to recruit for a manager job in over 10 years.

194 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems If advertising for management jobs, this system would consider postings on the buses once the steps required by the “university protocol” for job postings have been attempted. Training and Development Given the University resources, training is readily available to managers so training challenges are limited for this system with the exception of finding time to participate in the programs. The Workplace Development Center on the University’s campus provides core competency training to all managers. The General Manager attends management training, group meetings and operations conferences through the APTA. Drug and Alcohol Training is obtained through the FTA. Managers are also provided tuition wavers to take any UMass class they can justify would be beneficial for professional development. Retention This system had no turnover or change in management personnel in over 10 years. Approximately 10 years ago, a new Safety and Training Coordinator came on board. The biggest challenge for this person was to adjust to the way in which the system staffs for drivers each year. Up until the first week of school, management does not know how many drivers they will have. Drivers are all staffed by university students who must choose if they want to come on board each semester. Thus, maintaining high morale amongst current drivers and a positive image, the student community is especially key for ensuring staffing each semester. Compensation for drivers increases each semester. To boost employee morale, the system offers special recognition such as employee appreciation days/pizza days. The workplace culture and generous leave time benefits are considered aspects that promote retention among managers. Managers get state employee benefits of 4 weeks of vacation and 6 personal days. There is a professional staff union. They have 13 state holidays. During the summer, work is reduced and more flexibility is allowed. The system goes from 27 buses at peak to 10 during the summer. Lessons Learned The interviewee mentioned that as a young manager, he felt very isolated because he was given his first job in a remote location. The interviewee suggested that if systems are planning to send a young person to a remote location (e.g., an outpost running school bus operations), they should consider ways to provide support for that youth who will suddenly have limited social contacts, given the individual likely has come from a very social environment such as a school setting. Important to consider in promoting and supporting diversity: When hiring former students or youth that are around 23-24 yrs of age, the system needs to consider issues that may come up for those youth supervising seasoned drivers who are much older. The system needs to train youth and older workers to prepare for generational differences in work ethic and attitudes about work, so that multiple generations can work together effectively.

Transit Case Studies 195 20. Virginia Regional Transit Participant Information Transit System: Virginia Regional Transit Interviewee: Mark McGregor (CEO/President), 540-338-1610, mark@vatransit.org Transit System Profile Virginia Regional Transit (VRT) is a unique, private, not-for-profit public transportation agency. They receive grants from 17 local government jurisdictions, the commonwealth of Virginia, and the federal government. This funding arrangement allows VRT the freedom to cross jurisdictional boundaries. VRT offers fixed-route, deviated fixed-route, ADA, and demand- response services to 17% of rural Virginia. Between 112 and 115 vehicles operate per day, 60 to 70% of which are body-on-chassis buses. VRT employs between 150 and 170 employees (seasonal positions and recruitment efforts influence this number), of which 75% are full time with full benefits, and 25% are part time with limited benefits. About 80% of employees are over the age of 55, about 60% are male, and 60% are from a minority group. The agency has 18 managers, including 11 Operational Managers, 3 Senior Managers, and 4 Executive Managers. The agency competes for applicants with Washington, D.C.’s Metro, MV Transportation, private sector school bus companies, school districts, and shipping and freight companies. VRT does not believe that other rural transit systems are competitors because VRT is one of the largest and can afford higher salaries. Recruitment VRT has a Human Resources Department consisting of an HR Specialist and an HR Support person. These are management level employees who fall under the Executive Management team. The Human Resources Department is responsible for all recruiting efforts for Senior Managers and staff positions. The CEO/President is responsible for executive level recruiting. The agency has two major recruitment challenges: salary and applicant experience. To address these recruitment challenges, VRT uses these techniques: Historically, the rural transit industry has not paid people well, unlike more urban systems where salaries are often much higher. In the applicant screening process, VRT discusses salary expectations in order to quickly identify applicants who will accept their salary levels. VRT is very different from many other rural systems because of its jurisdiction overlaps. This increases the complexity of manager positions making recruitment difficult. The agency continuously recruits and hires, whether or not there are vacancies because the pool of good transit management is small and they believe it is better to hire managers before vacancies exist. The agency also identifies high potential employees and supervisors and offers them training opportunities such as (CCTS) Training through CTAA to increase their likelihood of promotion into management positions. In the past year, VRT has hired three managers. These managers were recruited from a newspaper advertisement, a transportation industry conference, and networking with another transportation company who was experiencing tough financial circumstances. VRT’s proactive networking means that the agency it always on the lookout for managerial talent. Although VRT does not have a formal recruitment strategy, this technique allows the system to operate proactively rather than reactively to vacancies, like many transit systems. VRT also has a formal applicant screening process with five steps.

196 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems The first step of applicant screening is to determine whether the applicant will likely meet the job description’s ability to perform essential functions (e.g., supervise assigned staff and ensure staff is trained in performing their duties), education requirements (e.g., Bachelor’s degree in Government, Planning, or Business Administration), KSAs (e.g., Excellent customer service skills), and potential start dates. Next, selected applicants have a screening interview with Human Resources. This screening interview serves to verify information from the applicant’s resume and ask questions about the applicant regarding: Goals and motivations Self-esteem and personal effectiveness Dedication Personal integrity Ability to get along with others Stress management How the applicant accepts direction and feedback Relationships with supervisors Once suitable applicants are identified with the screening interview, the agency discusses salary expectations with the applicants. VRT believes that it should not get excited about an applicant if they will only refuse the position due to lower than expected salary. Thus, salary is discussed before any offer is made. Next, the top four applicants are forwarded to a Senior Manager or Executive Manager who then interviews the applicants. Finally, a hiring decision is made by the same Senior Manager or Executive Manager. Training and Development Training opportunities at VRT are offered in-house and externally. The Human Resources Department and Operations Department determine what should be offered each year and then develop the in-house training when possible. Providers of in-house training are indicated when training is not developed by VRT. In-house training is mandatory and offered one Saturday a month for four hours for eight months, making a total of 32 required training hours. Although training is targeted to direct service personnel, all managers are also required to attend training. Content of VRT offered courses include training for: Leadership Passenger assistance (Transit consultant) EAP practices Fire extinguisher operation (Fire extinguisher company) Lift operation (Lift operation company) Insurance policies Accident investigation Procurement Safety and security (Transit consultant) VRT also offers external training through a number of sources. The following are some of the training opportunities VRT requires or provides on a voluntary basis: All managers are required to become CCTM within their first three years in the position. This certification is offered though CTAA. Each year VRT sends managers to TransitSCORE. All managers eventually go through this series of courses that requires three weeks of off-site training

Transit Case Studies 197 delivered in several chunks. TransitSCORE courses help participants develop skills in recruiting and training within their transit systems and skills to provide Safe, Courteous, On-time, Reliable, Excellent service. TransitSCORE is a collaborative effort of the DOTs in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and New York. Transit employees from other states are also welcome to enroll. VRT strongly suggests that supervisors become CCTS through CTAA training. The greatest challenge VRT faces in the training and development of managers is dealing with a diverse workforce. Because VRT trains all of its employees and managers annually, some senior employees and managers can lose interest in the content. This is especially true if the training is repeated. Therefore, it is difficult to strike a balance between offering training basics for new employees and keeping more senior employees and managers interested. VRT uses a unique retention program that uses a point system to keep employees and managers involved in training. If the employee or manager does not attend training, they are not eligible for an annual bonus. This retention program is discussed below. Retention In general, VRT experiences 40% turnover in the first 90 days of employment, 20% in the first year, and only 6% turnover after one year of employment. However, in the first 90 days and first year, it is typically drivers who leave the organization. VRT credits its retention success to a great be nefits package. The agency’s benefits include: Health insurance and dental 80% paid by VRT for a single plan, and 75% paid by VRT for a family plan Paid vacation leave that increases with tenure (1 week up to 5 years, 2 weeks after 5 years, 3 weeks after 10 years, and 4 weeks after 20 years) Paid sick leave of 12 days per year Paid discretionary personal leave on a case-by-case basis Paid bereavement leave (3 days for immediate family [an additional 5-10 days paid leave at CEO’s discretion] , 2 days for other family, and 1 day off for friends) A retirement system that includes a 3% employer match Short-term and long-term disability benefits An Employee Assistance Program which entitles employees and their families to professional consultations for assessment, referral, and short-term counseling for issues. The agency also offers an innovative retention program known as the Road to Reward Program. Each year, VRT’s 18 managers determine their 15 biggest problems in delivering service throughout the previous year (e.g., accidents; pre-trip inspections). The managers then identify objective measures for each of the 15 issues along with point values for each measure. Employees accrue points for an annual bonus. For example, if a driver drives 11 months without an accident, he/she will receive those points. This year’s measures for managers include: Has manager presented specific knowledge and skills at a minimum of two training sessions for employees during the evaluation period? Yes = (+5) Has manager reduced the percentage of preventable accidents and incidents in their region by at least 20%? Yes = (+5) Does manager have perfect attendance? (excluding vacation and funeral leave as defined in the Personnel Manual) Yes = (+10)

198 Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems Does manager have a current school bus endorsement? Yes = (+10) Has manager actively pursued one or more new service or department specific opportunities which was started (or is in the process of being started) during the current evaluation period? Yes = (+5) All employees and managers are provided with the year’s measures, so they know how they can earn bonus points. It is expected that managers do not give 100% of points to each employee just so that they receive the maximum bonus, thus ensuring the fairness of the award program. The employee or manager’s supervisor meets with the employee to review and discuss the total points awarded. This point total is multiplied by the year’s bonus dollar figure (e.g., $4.00). This figure is then multiplied by the employees’ years of service, up to five years. This program serves several purposes: It encourages retention of employees and managers It allows for a review of all the successful things an employee has accomplished throughout the year It is paid between Thanksgiving and the December holidays so employees do not feel that they need to get a seasonal job to pay for holiday expenses Lessons Learned VRT emphasizes spending at least 60-70% of the money transit systems receive on em ployees and focusing 90% of the attention on buses and equipment. The agency believes that a system’s biggest investment should be in its employees.

Next: Appendix D - Glossary »
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TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 139: Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems explores resources for fixed-route bus, general public demand response, and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) paratransit systems resources to assist in the recruitment, development, and retention of managers. The Guidebook is accompanied by CRP-CD-77, which provides Model Job Descriptions for 32 broad job titles that indicate the structure and content for job descriptions for manager jobs.

The CD-ROM is also available for download from TRB’s website as an ISO image. Links to the ISO image and instructions for burning a CD-ROM from an ISO image are provided below.

Help on Burning an .ISO CD-ROM Image

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(Warning: This is a large and may take some time to download using a high-speed connection.)

A separate report presenting the research methodology, the results of a literature review, and the results from focus groups held with 15 other non-transit public and private sector organizations used in production of TRCP Report 139 is available online.

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