National Academies Press: OpenBook

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

Chapter: Chapter 6 - Promoting Existing Staff

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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Promoting Existing Staff." 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 6 - Promoting Existing Staff." 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 6 - Promoting Existing Staff." 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 48
Page 49
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Promoting Existing Staff." 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 49
Page 50
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Promoting Existing Staff." 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 50
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Promoting Existing Staff." 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 51

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46 Chapter 6: Promoting Existing Staff Companies often jump on the “recruitment bandwagon” when vacancies occur, failing to identify untapped talent within the organization. Instead, organizations should look for opportunities to promote existing staff. In this chapter, we present challenges, stra tegies, and workforce practices related to “Promoting Existing Staff.” Exhibit 6-1 provides a snapshot of the chapter. Exhibit 6-1 Snapshot of Chapter 6 Chapter Road Map Concept and Definition Many transportation organizations are developing and promoting existing staff. The benefit of promoting internal staff is two-fold: (1) it saves recruitment and training dollars and (2) it contributes to retention of staff by helping them to see opportunities for advancement and their value to the organization. Workforce Challenges …..….....….. 47 Misperceptions of Advancement Potential Lack of Organizational Commitment Industry Strategies .…………….… 47 Recruit Existing Employees Develop Employees and Maintain Employee Career Paths Create a Job Rotation Progra m Develop a Staffing Plan Workforce Practices …...…………. 49 North Carolina DOT Supervisor Academy Definition of Promoting Existing Staff: Involves identifying high-performing employees who are likely to succeed at the next level within the organization. The goal of these efforts is to help or- ganizations effectively, efficiently close workforce gaps. 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 Promoting Existing Staff Chapter 6 Target Area TRANSPOR ATT ION WORKFORCE PIPELINE

6.1 Workforce Challenges. Programs related to “Promoting Existing Staff” are typically designed to address challenges associated with closing workforce gaps and selecting the most qualified individuals who are likely to succeed at the next level within the organization. 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: Misperceptions of Advancement Potential. Over one-half of participants in one study indicated that lack of awareness regarding advancement potential has at least some impact on why young people are not pursuing jobs in transportation (Cronin et al., 2007). The misperception is that new employees will always be performing entry-level tasks. This was also suggested as the greatest challenge for recruiting ethnic minorities. Lack of Organizational Commitment. In an attempt to broaden their skill set, our findings suggested that individuals from younger generations feel that they must leave an organization to gain new experiences. Many companies focus their talent-management programs on employees when they are first hired and then on their senior leaders, leaving a gap during the early and prime career years. A serious loss of key talent, however, takes place during this in-between time. (Galinsky, Carter, and Bond, 2008). Organizations also indicated that the younger workforce is not as interested in staying with one organization or working longer hours without additional compensation. While employee desire for positions with greater responsibility dipped in 1997, it has rebounded in recent years and is now the same for both women and men, but both men and women are seeking flexibility and a supportive work environment for balancing their other priorities (Galinsky, Aumann, and Bond, 2008 ). The seniority- based model for success has been challenged by many organizational initiatives (e.g., diversity), yet organizations are often challenged with getting younger workers to look at their job as a long-term career instead of a temporary stepping stone to a more prestigious position. Furthermore, older managers who see younger workers as less committed to their jobs may avoid investing in a mentoring relationship with a younger employee out of concern that the younger worker may leave the organization at any moment. Organizations are challenged with training managers in how to productively lead and work with younger employees. Thus, while younger workers are believed to have higher turnover intentions at any given point in time than older workers, this belief itself may result in behaviors (e.g., failure to mentor) that only further perpetuate the problem of retaining younger skilled talent. 6.2 Industry Strategies. Researchers and program managers identify the following programmatic strategies when describing industry efforts in “Promoting Existing Staff” (see Exhibit 6-2). 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 6-2 Industry Strategies: Promoting Existing Staff Strategy Strategy Description Recruit Existing Employees When it comes to filling vacancies, especially for management positions, participant organizations are looking at existing employees first before looking to outside sources. The idea behind selecting applicants from within an organization is that these individuals already understand many facets of the organization and will require less on-boarding and training. Some participants noted that as many as 85 to 95% of their senior management/directors are Promoting Existing Staff 47

Exhibit 6-2 (Continued) Industry Strategies: Promoting Existing Staff Strategy Strategy Description internal promotions. One organization in particular sets hiring targets (e.g., 50% internal hires, 50% external hires) in order to have a mix of new talent with strong leadership skills, and internal hires with strong technical skills. In some organizations, when a supervisor leaves the organization, their highest potential subordinate is promoted into the position. This sets off a similar chain of promotions until an entry-level position is left vacant. With this method, the hiring manager and recruiter are responsible for filling a lower skill level (e.g., entry-level) position instead of a skilled supervisor position. The organization reports there is less risk and a larger applicant pool at the lower level making it easier to fill the position. Develop Employees and Maintain Employee Career Paths As transit systems have discovered, DOTs should consider making in-house recruiting a priority to promote from within and ensure that growth opportunities are available to employees (KFH Group, Inc., 2008). Results of a recent study indicate that career paths improve job satisfaction, employee motivation, and employee commitment (Griffin et al., 2000). Furthermore, results from analyses of 21 turnover studies indicate that receiving promotions is directly related to less employee turnover (Carson et al., 1994). To prepare employees for advancement, agencies need to implement structured employee development practices. Create a Job Rotation Program Job rotation programs allow employees to increase their understanding of the larger operations of the agency and to prepare for cross-functional roles and/or management jobs that require a great breadth of knowledge. Develop a Staffing Plan Participants suggested that hiring managers are meeting with executives and human resource professionals to identify ideal candidates (i.e., those who have the knowledge, skills, and abilities required) for each critical position in the organization. The organization then determines the factors that will recruit, train, and retain this type of individual. Finally, they attempt to determine where these individuals are located so that they can begin to recruit them. Organizations are also looking at recruiting as an annual or cyclical process as opposed to hiring for a specific project or immediate need. Ongoing hiring cycles are successfully being used in the oil industry for oil rig workers. For example, recruiting for summer projects occurs in the winter, on-boarding and training of new employees happens in the spring, and evaluation and revamping of recruiting initiatives occurs in the fall. These ongoing recruiting initiatives help companies avoid incurring the cost of repeating their recruiting efforts for positions that were successfully filled the year before. They can also interview high potential candidates several months before there is a need. This helps to avoid rushing through a recruiting process to quickly fill the position of an exiting incumbent. 48 Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce

6.3 Workforce Practices. Three workforce practices that were designed to assist in making the process of “Promoting Existing Staff” within transportation agencies efficient and effective were reviewed, and we identified one workforce practice that was the most noteworthy within this context: North Carolina DOT Supervisor Academy 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. Promoting Existing Staff 49

North Carolina DOT Supervisor Academy. The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) employs roughly 13,000 people, of which 7,500 work within the Division of Highways. In 2000, NCDOT conducted needs assessment focus groups to identify reasons for employee morale issues. One thing NCDOT discovered is that employees did not feel supervisors were adequate in their roles due to many of the supervisors transitioning from a technical, worker role to an oversight position with little to no training. Thus, in 2002 NCDOT conducted the first pilot of the Supervisor Academy with transportation supervisors from all the divisions. For the initial pilot, 24 transportation supervisors from across the agency were hand picked based on their aptitude, attitude, and willingness to provide feedback about the program. The list of Professional Attributes addressed in the Supervisor Academy include leadership, people skills, job competency, organizational knowledge, personal growth, group dynamics, delivering services to the public, managing diversity, communication techniques, organizational skills, managing conflicts, changing roles of supervisors, personnel action, hiring/interview process, stress management, contract supervision, and dealing with on-the-job adversity. The Supervisory Academy is a two-level progressive program where participants have to go through Fundamentals of Supervision first and some, depending on their supervisory level, move to the advanced course. The first class, Fundamentals of Supervision, is for all supervisors. The next level is called Advanced Supervisory Technique. The second course goes into the agency’s administrative role for supervisors in greater detail and is only open for the agency’s “journey supervisor” and “advanced supervisor.” The fundamentals course is 2 weeks, and the advanced is 2 weeks for a total of 4 weeks. To prevent employees from being away from their work for too long, NCDOT has structured the Academy so that Week 1 includes the first session, Week 2 is off, which lets the supervisor go back to the field, and then the final session is held in Week 3. The majority of costs are design and implementation costs, which were charged by the trainer, a retired NCDOT employee. These costs were approximately $180,000. The average cost per person has been $843 since 2002. Costs include the travel; coordinating facilities; administrative cost for materials, printing, and text books; trainer-retired employee; meals; and lodging. To assess improvement of participants, the participants and their immediate supervisors complete a pre- Academy survey and post-Academy survey. On both surveys, supervisors who participate in the Supervisor Academy provide self ratings on a scale of 1 to 10 on items such as efficiency, effectiveness, and relationships with employees. The agency has seen improvements for supervisors on these measures. While perceptions of the Supervisor Academy or other quantitative measures have not been collected, the agency reports that supervisors and employees have shown improved morale and improved responsiveness to safety and emergency concerns as a result of the program. North Carolina DOT Supervisor Academy Job Type: All ROI: Short-term Generation: All Key Program Highlights: o Two-level progressive program, consisting of Fundamentals of Supervision and Advanced Supervisory Technique o Both courses are 2 weeks long, for a total of 4 weeks o Participants and immediate supervisors complete a Pre- and Post-Academy Survey to assess improvement 50 Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce

Other Example Practices To serve as an additional resource for agencies interested in “Promoting Existing Staff,” 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. Keystone Transit Career Ladder Partnership SonicPerform 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. Promoting Existing Staff 51

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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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