National Academies Press: OpenBook

Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce (2011)

Chapter: Chapter 17 - Work-Life Balance

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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 17 - Work-Life Balance." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14475.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 17 - Work-Life Balance." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14475.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 17 - Work-Life Balance." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14475.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 17 - Work-Life Balance." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14475.
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Page 125
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 17 - Work-Life Balance." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14475.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 17 - Work-Life Balance." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2011. Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14475.
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Page 126

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121 Chapter 17: Work-Life Balance Workers of today are becoming more interested in maintaining a healthy work-life balance and reducing conflict associated with juggling multiple demands. In fact, more and more employees value work-life balance over higher salaries. In this chapter, we present challenges, strategies, and workforce practices related to “Work-Life Balance.” Exhibit 17-1 provides a snapshot of the chapter. Exhibit 17-1 Snapshot of Chapter 17 Chapter Road Map Concept and Definition Successful work-life balance helps employees effectively focus on their work since they are not distracted by competing demands. Workforce Challenges …..……........ 122 Different Career Decision Making Competing on Benefits Impact of Children Industry Strategies .……………….. 122 Improve Existing Work Schedul e Allow Flexible Schedules and Days Off Establish a Breadth of Policies to Support Different Employee Need s Allow Telework for High Performer s Workforce Practices …..…………... 124 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Alternative Duty Location Definition of Work-Life Balance: Involves consideration of creative job arrangements and policies that support employee desires to maintain a healthy work-life balance. The goal of these efforts is to help make organizations more attractive to candidates and encourage retention. Workforce Pipeline Target Area Target Career Stages K-12 Comm. Colleges 4 year Colleges Graduate School s Entry-Level Staff Mid-Career Staff Senior Leaders Retirees Work-Life Balance Chapter 17 Target Area TRANSPOR ATT ION WORKFORCE PIPELINE

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 Schedule Organizations have received feedback that one of the reasons employees 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.

Work-Life Balance 123 Exhibit 17-2 (Continued) Industry Strategies: Work-Life Balance Strategy Strategy Description Allow Flexible Schedules and Days Off Organizations have looked at the positions and related tasks in their workforce 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 Policies to Support Different Employee Needs Innovative policies that do not meet the needs of employees may be futile. Organizations must ensure their work-life policies cover a range of employee needs and interests. The conduct of a thorough needs assessment ensures that policies are aligned to the employees’ needs and that dollars are not wasted on creating innovative yet ineffective practices. Allow Telework for High Performers Organizations have looked at positions and related tasks in their workforce and 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.

124 Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce 17.3 Workforce Practices. Four workforce practices that were designed to assist in making the process of creating a positive “Work-Life Balance” within transportation agencies efficient and effective were reviewed, and we identified one workforce practice that was noteworthy within this context: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Alternative Duty Location For this practice, we conducted a case study. A summary of the case study is presented below. The full case study can be found on the TRB website at http://trb.org/Main/Blurbs/164747.aspx as part of Volume II: Supplemental Materials. The full case study description details each practice’s background, implementation, maintenance, evaluation, and transferability.

Work-Life Balance 125 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Alternative Duty Location Job Type: Professional ROI: Short-term Generation: All Key Program Highlights: o Allows managers greater flexibility when advertising positions to obtain a deeper candidate pool while also benefiting the applicant who may not be able to move to Washington, D.C., to operate out of offices in locations that have a low cost of living while working with teams and supervisors that operate out of offices in locations that may have a higher cost of living o Aimed to increase the number of qualified applicants who apply to positions in high cost of living areas o Resulted in the ability to quickly fill vacant positions, greater opportunity for advancement, higher retention rates, increased exposure to issues and policy at a national level Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Alternative Duty Location. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has approximately 2,900 employees in its workforce, the majority of which are between 40 and 50 years of age. FHWA's Alternative Duty Location (ADL) program was designed in 2007, piloted in 2008/2009, evaluated in late 2009 and adopted as a full program in April 2010. For several years, the FHWA had struggled with resource allocation issues. The depth of the candidate pool for vacancy announcements was very shallow. One of the specific resource allocation issues was that the FHWA had technical and policy positions in Washington, D.C., that remained vacant due to a lack of qualified applicants applying for those positions. FHWA struggled to convince qualified candidates to relocate to Washington, D.C., because this was a condition of accepting the position. The results of an employee survey confirmed that one of the reasons employees were leaving the agency is because they felt they could not advance without moving to Washington, D.C. Adding to the challenge of relocation was the continual spiral of the economy and the difficulty with selling a home that may have been purchased in a higher economic market. This issue, the number of positions left vacant, and the duration of time positions were vacant was used to support the idea of strategically addressing resource allocation issues. At the conclusion of the study, the FHWA executive management team met and decided to pilot the ADL concept. The Alternative Duty Location (ADL) program is an initiative of the FHWA where employees operate out of offices located where there is a lower cost of living, while working with teams and supervisors that operate out of offices in locations that may have a higher cost of living, particularly Washington, D.C. The HR department and the Information Management Services department researched existing offices to determine their feasibility as an alternative duty location. To date, 26 locations have been identified as “cost desirable” and approved as ADL. As part of the implementation of the ADL program in April 2010, the FHWA established an ADL Coordinator position to develop, manage, track, and educate the managers on the use of the ADL program. Annually, each FHWA program office will be required to look at their potential future job vacancies and assess if they should be advertised as ADLs. The manager then works with the ADL Coordinator and HR to advertise the position in one of the approved ADL locations. Once hired, the new employee performs his/her daily tasks just as if he/she were in the office with the exception of daily face- to-face contact. The major objective of this program is to increase the number of qualified applicants that apply to positions in high cost of living areas. As of July 2010, there were 38 ADL employees in the program. The majority of these are HQ employees that would have otherwise been located in Washington, D.C. Vacant positions are now being filled shortly after they are advertised. Employees have suggested that they are less likely to leave the agency because there is no longer a lack of opportunity to advance without

relocation to a higher-cost area. Employees may still be required to relocate but just not into Washington, D.C. Employees in field offices are becoming exposed to issues and policy at a national level that they would not have been exposed to before. Non-ADL employees can use ADL employees in their office as a resource to gain a more national perspective on FHWA or on the initiatives at headquarters The ADL program has proven to be a win/win for both the agency and the employees. Other Example Practices To serve as an additional resource for agencies interested in “Work-Life Balance,” we have included a list of other practices that transportation agencies have implemented for this purpose. Additional information on each of the following practices can be found in one- to two-page summaries within the supplemental materials. Google’s Recruiting Culture Instituting Worker-Friendly Personnel Policies Job Sharing The practice summaries include information, such as the lead organization, practice description, practice purpose, targeted participants, return on investment (ROI) timeline, influence of the economy, innovativeness, and resources to find out more information on the individual practices. 126 Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce

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TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 685: Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce includes straight-forward, implementable practices that transportation Human Resources (HR) managers and hiring professionals can use to help improve the recruitment and retention of qualified employees in their organizations.

The report provides information on workforce challenges, industry strategies, and detailed descriptions of noteworthy practices within each of 15 recruitment and retention categories.

Volume II: Supplemental Material is available online as an ISO image, which can be used to produce a CD-ROM. Volume II includes an introductory document summarizing the content of the supplemental materials and provides full case studies and summaries of other example practices related to the recruitment and retention practices.

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