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122 Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce
17.1 Workforce Challenges. Programs related to "Work-Life Balance" are typically designed
to address challenges associated with assisting employees in maintaining their work and personal
responsibilities. These challenges should be carefully considered before selecting the program that would
best fit the needs of your agency. For example, these are common challenges agencies face:
Different Career Decision Making. In terms of careers, younger generations are tending to lean toward
"engineering" more than "surveying" majors in college because engineering jobs pay more and are more
appealing, as they offer a variety of concentrations. As a result, organizations are challenged with
promoting transportation surveying as a viable and important career.
In terms of organizational culture, younger generations are more interested in organizations that support
work-life balance and educational opportunities than stability and benefits. Organizations struggle to find
ways of implementing these preferable elements into traditional transportation jobs. Younger generations
are also attracted to companies that emphasize giving back to the community and having a commitment to
ethical practices. Organizations struggle to find ways of engaging in community activities in limited time.
Competing on Benefits. Some partners indicated that their competitors use work-life balance benefits
(e.g., days off, flexible schedules) to retain employees who have the option of leaving for higher salaries.
Impact of Children. Slightly less than one-half of the survey participants in a study for Florida DOT
identified people who are "married, with children" to be most difficult to recruit (Cronin et al., 2007). On
the other hand, people who are "married with no children" were identified as the easiest to recruit with
less than 10 percent of the participants selecting this group as "difficult to attract."
17.2 Industry Strategies. Researchers and program managers identify the following
programmatic strategies when describing industry efforts in creating a positive "Work-Life Balance" (see
Exhibit 17-2). While these strategies represent the general direction of human resource (HR) departments
across the nation, it is important that the specific needs of your agency are used to guide the development
and implementation of a program in your agency.
Exhibit 17-2
Industry Strategies: Work-Life Balance
Strategy Strategy Description
Improve Existing Work Organizations have received feedback that one of the reasons employees
Schedule choose to stay employed with them is that they are not expected to work more
than 40 hours in a week and that they can expect to work approximately 8
hours in a day if working 5 days a week. Employees are looking for a work
environment that does not infringe upon their life outside of work--an
environment that allows them to make plans outside of work and a schedule
that helps them feel confident their personal plans will not have to be adjusted.
One way they are doing this is by studying work distribution and work
schedules. After determining how work is ultimately distributed and how
schedules are designed, the organizations have implemented policies to ensure
that one employee is not receiving more work or a more challenging schedule
than other employees at similar levels. If this is occurring due to the nature of
the job, organizations are looking at ways to ensure that stressful work
environments are temporary and those duties are rotated among all team
members. Work distribution and scheduling are typically evaluated quarterly.
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Work-Life Balance 123
Exhibit 17-2 (Continued)
Industry Strategies: Work-Life Balance
Strategy Strategy Description
Allow Flexible Organizations have looked at the positions and related tasks in their workforce
Schedules and Days Off and considered which of the positions do not require an individual to be at a
certain station at a specific time. For example, employees who are gathering
information from the internet and preparing weekly reports do not necessarily
have to perform this duty between 9AM and 5PM. Not being confined by a set
schedule allows employees to conduct non-work-related business and solve
non-work-related problems (e.g. children, laundry, home repair, financial
transactions) that are difficult to solve after 5PM on weekdays or on the
weekends. Some organizations are offering flexible extra days off during
periods of low productivity. For example, if an organization is aware that
business will be slower over the next month they may allow their employees to
choose 5 days during which they would like to take leave. These days off do
not count against their vacation.
Other organizations have introduced flexibility into certain positions through
job sharing. Job sharing is a situation where two people are responsible for the
equivalent work of one employee and are generally each paid one-half the
normal salary. Jobs that tend to require physically demanding work and jobs in
which tasks can be more easily distinguished may be the ideal jobs for job
sharing. This is a great solution for two employees simultaneously pursuing an
education as well as caregivers who want to divide their time between work
and personal commitments.
Establish a Breadth of Innovative policies that do not meet the needs of employees may be futile.
Policies to Support Organizations must ensure their work-life policies cover a range of employee
Different Employee needs and interests. The conduct of a thorough needs assessment ensures that
Needs policies are aligned to the employees' needs and that dollars are not wasted on
creating innovative yet ineffective practices.
Allow Telework for Organizations have looked at positions and related tasks in their workforce and
High Performers considered which of the positions do not require an individual to be physically
present at work. For example, employees that are making phone calls regularly
may not necessarily have to be physically present at the office. Even if they
have questions, the employee can simply email their questions and have them
answered without much delay. Employees who live further away from their
employer and find their commute consumes much of their personal time or
who are forced to move for a non-work-related reason may be retained if they
are permitted to work from home 1 to 5 days a week. Telework benefits are
usually reserved for high performing employees as determined by their
supervisor.
