National Academies Press: OpenBook

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

Chapter: Chapter 3 - Developing Future Applicant Skills

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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Developing Future Applicant Skills." 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 3 - Developing Future Applicant Skills." 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 23
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Developing Future Applicant Skills." 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.
×
Page 23
Page 24
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Developing Future Applicant Skills." 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.
×
Page 24
Page 25
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Developing Future Applicant Skills." 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.
×
Page 25
Page 26
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Developing Future Applicant Skills." 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.
×
Page 26
Page 27
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Developing Future Applicant Skills." 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.
×
Page 27

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Chapter 3: Developing Future Applicant Skills The transportation industry has experienced recruitment challenges within specific work areas, in part due to the significant reduction in the number of students entering fields important to transportation such as engineering, construction, and maintenance. In response, innovative organizations are working to develop the skills and interests of future potential applicants as a part of their recruitment practices. In this chapter, we present challenges, strategies, and workforce practices related to “Developing Future Applicant Skills.” Exhibit 3-1 provides a snapshot of the chapter. Exhibit 3-1 Snapshot of Chapter 3 Chapter Road Map Concept and Definition Innovative Transportation organizations are developing career interests among high school and college students. Workforce Challenges …..……....….. 22 Lack of Skilled Applicant s Failure to Invest in Talent Pipeline Industry Strategies .………………… 22 Conduct Internship/ Fellowship Programs Partner with Schools for Youth Development Develop Student Curriculum and Educational Academies Adopt Scholarship Programs Workforce Practices …..……………. 23 Oregon DOT College Internship Program (CIP ) Minnesota DOT Seeds Student Worker Program Definition of Developing Future Applicant Skills: Involves identifying avenues for developing the skill sets of youth during the K-12 years as well as at the undergraduate level. The goal of these efforts is to prepare these students for future employment in the transportation industry and as a result, these practices help to establish a solid pipeline of future talent for transportation jobs. 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 T R A N S P O R ATT ION WORKFORCE PIPELINE Developing Future Applicant Skills Chapter 3 Target Area 21

3.1 Workforce Challenges. Programs related to “Developing Future Applicant Skills” are typically designed to address challenges associated with developing capable and competent applicants in the workforce pipeline. 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: Lack of Skilled Applicants. Organizations have noticed that fewer people are enrolling in engineering schools and trade schools as more students are selecting traditional four-year schools to continue their education. Furthermore, once enrolled at colleges and universities, students tend to focus on white collar or service-based industries (e.g. office or retail) instead of production-based industries, like construction or factory work. Failure to Invest in Talent Pipeline. When organizations sacrifice important programs during tough economic times that would otherwise help to build their talent pipeline (such as internship programs), they often struggle to find talent when needed. For example, during prosperous times many transportation organizations have internship programs for students that encourage students to join the organization while finishing school and allow the organization to prepare the students for future full-time employment once the students graduate. This type of program often builds commitment in younger workers. Agencies that invest in local student populations through these types of programs can quickly become known as a preferred employer, which results in increased attraction of candidates and improved retention of younger workers. On the contrary, employers who sacrifice these types of internship programs during times of budgetary constraint may find that their organizational stature declines and future recruiting becomes harder. 3.2 Industry Strategies. Researchers and program managers identify the following programmatic strategies when describing industry efforts to “Develop Future Applicant Skills” (see Exhibit 3-2). While these strategies represent the general direction of human resource 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 3-2 Industry Strategies: Developing Future Applicant Skills Strategy Strategy Description Conduct Internship/ Fellowship Programs Organizations sometimes conduct summer apprenticeship programs where students are paid for their services while developing skills. They also offer internships and part-time positions to potential applicants who are currently in school for a transportation-related field (such as civil engineering). Organizations benefit from the inexpensive but informed employee and the employee/intern benefits from the real world experience obtained. Potential applicants can develop relationships and professional experience in these situations that may convince these individuals to pursue job opportunities once they have graduated. Organizations such as the Transportation Construction Foundation and the Academy of Construction Technologies are helpful in supporting these types of programs. Partner with Schools for Youth Development Agencies have begun partnering with schools to create centers, host conferences, or deliver programs where students can gain hands-on experience in the industry jobs. 22 Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce

Exhibit 3-2 (Continued) Industry Strategies: Developing Future Applicant Skills Strategy Strategy Description Develop Student Curriculum and Educational Academies DOTs, University Transportation Centers (UTCs), and other organizations sometimes work with engineering departments at colleges and universities to develop or tailor courses to address the technical needs of the industry. The recent inclusion of context-sensitive solutions is one such example. At times, contractors give presentations as guest speakers or provide scholarships with an emphasis on the transportation side of engineering. Organizations have also begun to work with elementary, middle, and high schools to develop math and science examples that involve transportation content. Guidebooks and brochures are being provided to teachers to help them develop their own transportation-related science lessons. The previously discussed “TRACPAK” develops these materials in order to raise awareness of the transportation field as a potential career. Since education is closely connected to individuals who influence job decisions (such as teachers or school counselors), transportation organizations need to consider ways to support education including grants for night school, scholarships for degrees in transportation, and certification classes during off-peak times. Adopt Scholarship Programs Scholarship programs provide an opportunity for students to obtain the skills they need to be successful in future transportation jobs. Agencies often partner with universities to provide scholarships to students, sometimes targeting minority students with the goal of increasing the future diversity in the workplace. Some scholarship programs have a contingency of future employment with the sponsoring agency, thereby establishing a contractual arrangement that helps the agency with recruitment of talent. 3.3 Workforce Practices. Thirty workforce practices that were designed to “Develop Future Applicant Skills” within transportation agencies were reviewed, and we identified two workforce practices that were noteworthy within this context: Oregon DOT College Internship Program (CIP) Minnesota DOT Seeds Student Worker Program For these two practices, we conducted a case study. Summaries of the two case studies are presented below. The full case studies 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 descriptions detail each practice’s background, implementation, maintenance, evaluation, and transferability. Developing Future Applicant Skills 23

Oregon DOT College Internship Program (CIP). Oregon Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) College Internship Program is one of the largest in Oregon. ODOT’s internship program was initially designed to introduce interested engineering students to the agency and enable them to get hands-on experience on actual projects, which would help the interns determine what aspects of engineering they like most and want to pursue. ODOT’s strategy in building the agency and its recruitment base is to pursue a diverse set of perspectives and skill sets, and to help interns recognize aspects of the job that are important beyond just pay. ODOT invested in marketing the program and advertised the opportunity as one where interns could work on large projects with smart and creative people. The initial step in implementing the internship program is the collection of internship projects and positions from various managers around the state within the highway division. These managers complete a summary of the project and intended outcomes, and identify measurable activities and goals. Available internships and locations are posted on-line, and then the ODOT Human Resource (HR) personnel and interested managers and specialists perform a nationwide, in-person recruiting effort at colleges and work fairs in the West, South, and Midwest. ODOT has between 65 and 70 internship opportunities each summer, with over 200 highly qualified engineering students applying each year. The initial requirements to intern include maintaining a Grade Point Average (GPA) of over 3.5, presenting references from two professors, and providing answers to essay questions on their reasons for interning and what they expect to gain from their internship. ODOT HR implements an interview process with those applicants that qualify after the first hurdle. Based on these conversations and submitted records, HR works with the managers to understand what type of candidate and qualifications they are seeking. HR then chooses four to five candidates and presents these candidates to the managers. This program has now expanded to include not only recruiting interested engineers, but also recruiting potential candidates with backgrounds in Information Systems and heavy equipment operators and mechanics. ODOT is now also doing some recruiting for Right-of-Way (ROW) and geotechnical positions and is continuing to expand its internship program to cover other areas, such as accounting and finance. ODOT sees student interns as their greatest marketing tool, especially when these students return to their schools and courses and converse with other students about the agency. ODOT further supports the program with an off-site orientation and mid-summer engineering conference for networking and the sharing of projects and lessons learned. The program also feeds ODOT’s Graduate Engineer program, a rotation program available to both internal staff and recent graduates. In addition to paying the salaries of 1.5 full-time employees, ODOT spends money each year to sustain the internship program’s success. The agency budgets around $150,000 to $200,000 per year for the program’s marketing and national outreach efforts. The agency also hosts a couple of “engineering days,” which cost about $20,000 to $30,000 per day, at the beginning of the summer as an orientation and kick- off and at the end to share projects and lessons learned. This includes the costs associated with renting a center to host the event in a special, off-site location. Oregon DOT College Internship Program Job Type: Engineers ROI: Short- to mid-term Generation: Younger Key Program Highlights: o Interns are mostly college students o 65 to 70 Internships per year o Provides students hands-on experience on real-world projects while also establishing relationships between student and organization that could result in potential employment 24 Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce

The internship program provides students with the opportunity to obtain valuable hands-on experience and training as they work with other employees on large, real-world projects. ODOT finds the biggest benefit of this program to occur when students return to their colleges and share their positive experiences with other students. Through word-of-mouth and communication about the program, ODOT has been able to successfully brand itself as one of the leading places to work. Developing Future Applicant Skills 25

Minnesota DOT Seeds Student Worker Program. Minnesota Department of Transportation’s (Mn/DOT’s) program called Seeds is an approach to growing talent in-state, as an alternative to out-of-state recruiting. The program began with the intent to find good students, connect them with on-the-job learning opportunities, and build them into well-qualified potential job candidates. The program has a special focus on increasing ethnic, gender, and economic diversity. Mn/DOT has expanded from potential engineers to other employment classes, including the technicians that constitute 50% of the agency’s workforce. Mn/DOT has tried to make sure that Seeds students and the program are present in every part of the department as the agency has found that to be the best way to get the word out about the program. Mn/DOT has also supported program implementation through use of its community liaison program, supervisor training, mentoring support, and an annual workshop for Seeds participants and managers. Mn/DOT has developed Seeds program guidelines and presentations, which can be shared with other DOTs. Mn/DOT has measured success in the number of permanent hires the agency has made out of the Seeds program. The agency also credits a substantial percent of its total diversity to the achievements of the Seeds program. Mn/DOT has devoted 1.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff and about $500,000 annually to implementing Seeds, which accommodated 70 students this past year and about 50 students in an average year. The program manager handles the mentoring program and helps with performance reviews for the students. Part of the success of the program is the investment in the students throughout their careers such as the mentoring and shepherding to help the student navigate a DOT career. The Seeds program has a 72% placement rate, which Mn/DOT considers a worthwhile investment. Five disabled candidates have been hired in the past year as an outgrowth of the program. Candidates placed out of the Seeds program also have a higher GPA than other incoming candidates and hiring authorities express a high degree of satisfaction with Seeds candidates and hires. Other Example Practices To serve as an additional resource for agencies interested in “Developing Future Applicant Skills,” 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. Center for Advanced Cement-Based Materials’ "Concrete: What is this stuff?" Program American Society of Civil Engineers 2009 South East Student Conference Build Up! Toolkit Carl Albert Public Internship Program CityBuild Academy Kokosing Construction Company’s CO-Ops Program Cooperative Apprenticeship Program at Metropolitan Transit Authority, New York City Transit Arkansas EAST Initiative Eisenhower Fellowships for Special Groups Engineering Resource Development Program Engineering the Future: Science, Technology, and the Design Process Garrett A. Morgan Transportation and Technology Futures Program Minnesota DOT Seeds Student Worker Program Job Type: Engineers ROI: Short-term Generation: Younger Key Program Highlights: o Connects students with on-the-job learning opportunities o Focuses on increasing ethnic, gender, and economic diversity o Accommodates about 50 students per year 26 Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce

Grants for Research Fellowships Local Technical Assistance Program Minority Research Fellowship Programs National Asphalt Pavement Association Research and Education Foundation - Scholarship Program National Park Transportation Interpreters Program National Park Transportation Scholars Program South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department Student Mentor Program Tennessee Information Technology Community College Co-Op Program The Ed and Charlotte Rodgers Scholarship Fund Transportation and Civil Engineering Program TransTech Academy's Electro-Mechanical Technology Training Program University of South Florida Graduate Interdisciplinary Transportation Program University Transportation Centers West Point Bridge Design Contest 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. Developing Future Applicant Skills 27

Next: Chapter 4 - Increasing the Number of Applicants »
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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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