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Screening Applicants 43
Exhibit 5-2 (Continued)
Industry Strategies: Screening Applicants
Strategy Strategy Description
physical abilities tests are beneficial for positions that require constant physical
activity. For example, if the job requires a person to lift 50 lbs. over his/her
head, organizations are asking applicants to lift this amount of weight during
the interview. One organization has their applicants cut a log in half with a
chain saw. This organization has found that some applicants, who indicated
several years of experience with chain saws, do not know how to start the saw
when asked. Organizations that have adopted these practices have also seen a
decline in their worker compensation cases.
Screen for "Fit" Organizations have also begun to focus efforts on including realistic job
previews (RJPs) in job advertisements. A realistic job preview is where
organizations, verbally or through video, provide a description of a typical
work day for a person in the open position. Organizations sometimes even
bring the person to the job site. They are careful to describe not only the good
parts of the job but also the challenging and unpleasant aspects. If an applicant
does not feel that he/she can handle the challenges and unpleasant parts of the
job that individual will either screen himself/herself out or the organization
will encourage the individual not to apply. This screening approach saves the
applicant from having a bad experience and the organization from wasting
time and money on additional recruitment efforts. Some candidates will
appreciate the honesty and perceive the organization as a forthright employer.
5.3 Workforce Practices. Fourteen workforce practices that were designed to assist in
making the process of "Screening Applicants" within transportation agencies efficient and effective were
reviewed, and we identified one workforce practice that was noteworthy within this context:
Pennsylvania DOT Civil Engineer Training (CET) Program
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.
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44 Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce
Pennsylvania DOT Civil Engineer Training (CET) Program.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) has approximately 12,000 employees, not
including consultants or contractors, of which
roughly 10,500 are engaged in maintenance, Pennsylvania DOT Civil Engineer Training
restoration, and expansion of the highway (CET) Program
system. PennDOT has created the Civil
Job Type: Engineers
Engineer Training (CET) program to identify,
recruit, and retain civil engineers by allowing ROI: Mid-term
program participants to gain 1 year of work Generation: Younger
experience rotating through the phases of civil Key Program Highlights:
engineering (CE) work at PennDOT. CET
o Trainees are exposed to different phases
participants, or CETs, are inducted in a class
of Civil Engineering work through a 12-
of 25-35 trainees; each trainee must pass
month job rotational period before full-
department tests and go through orientation time employment within a chosen area
and training programs to become acclimated
of the agency
to their work with PennDOT before they
begin their year-long rotation. After the o Class sizes range between 25-35 trainees
trainee completes all the requirements o Helps agency increase applicant pool
associated with his/her 12 months of training and retention rates, while improving
and job rotations, the candidate becomes organizational performance
eligible for full-time permanent status as a
civil engineer with PennDOT.
The CET program equips candidates with a supervisor, training coordinator, and a mentor to familiarize
them with PennDOT and guide their career development. PennDOT created a manual for the CET
program discussing the roles and responsibilities of the CET, the work phases CETs will experience (e.g.,
the planning and programming phase, design phase, etc.), the training courses CETs will take and
activities in which they will participate, and evaluation forms for CETs to track their own progress and
evaluate the CET program. Additionally, PennDOT requires CETs to maintain a daily log of activities in
the form of a journal, which serves as a record for PennDOT and for the trainee to track his or her
progress.
The CET program was implemented by the Workforce Division of PennDOT. The Workforce Division
brought Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) together from various DOT disciplines to help create the CET
manual, which gets distributed to all trainees. PennDOT's Workforce Division also partnered with the
Civil Service Commission to streamline the CET application process, which can otherwise be
cumbersome, and to ensure the validity of the CET entrance exam. PennDOT communicates the practice
to employees and to college students, the target audience of the CET program, through learning
institutions, the PennDOT website and internally through PennDOT's intranet site, job fairs, and the Civil
Service Office in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. All steps of implementing the CET program have
been performed internally, and thus the only cost to PennDOT has been in employee time and resources.
To assess the success of the CET program, PennDOT uses a number of measures: (1) surveying CETs
and their supervisors for feedback, (2) examining trainees' performance reviews at the end of each trainee
job rotation, (3) reading CETs' journals, and (4) examining CET completion rates of various markers in
the CET program. Based on the feedback from the aforementioned methods, and on the increasing
applicant pool and rising retention rates, PennDOT considers the CET program a success and credits the
program with improving organizational performance.
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Screening Applicants 45
Other Example Practices
To serve as an additional resource for agencies interested in "Screening Applicants," 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.
Decentralization of Human Resource Revision of Restrictive Recruitment Policies
Responsibility and Practices
Eliminating Restrictive Hiring Regulations Shaping Applicant Attitudes/Intentions in
Hiring Panels the Selection Process
Innovation in Recruiting and Hiring for SonicRecruit
Wisconsin's Department of Employee Step One Survey II
Relations Use of Technology in Human Resource
Internet Recruitment Processes
New Hampshire's Computerized Hiring Validating Entry Requirements and
Process Program Examinations
One Day Selection Workshops
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.
