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90 Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce
12.1 Workforce Challenges. Programs related to "Leadership Development" are typically
designed to address challenges associated with developing supervisors' communication and management
skills needed to maintain healthy relationships with their employees. Furthermore, identifying and
implementing training that teaches these skills to supervisors is a major challenge due to their expense in
time and resources, stringent training budgets, lack of buy-in from top management, and resistance to
change. 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:
Interviewing Skills. Participants indicated that some supervisors at their organization do not possess the
skills necessary to determine whether a candidate is qualified for the job or to compare candidates in
different skill areas. Organizations struggle to ensure that applicants are getting an unbiased and valid
evaluation.
Difficulty Choosing Leaders. Our findings suggested that poor management or relationships with
supervisors can force employees who like their job and perform well to leave an organization to seek
better leadership. Poor management often results from internal recruitment practices that place individuals
in supervisory positions based on technical skills rather than managerial skills. While it is helpful for
individuals in management to have institutional and technical knowledge, this knowledge does not
substitute for effective leadership skills.
Lack of Training for Leaders/Supervisors. The phrase "employees don't leave companies, they leave
supervisors" was commonly mentioned among focus group participants. Organizations struggle to
convince supervisors that they must communicate in a way that each can hear or to improve skills. This
issue of mismanagement is not only concerned with the frequency of direction or feedback but also
related to the clarity and applicability of the communication. Participants indicated that their
organizations do not provide enough training programs that specifically teach supervisors how to
communicate, motivate, and lead employees. Some supervisors do not have regular one-on-one
conversations with their employees because the supervisors do not realize the benefit of communicating
and motivating employees differently when needed. Organizations are challenged with evaluating
managers and finding ways to transfer "soft skills." The organizations also struggle to get managers to
frequently recognize, and in some cases not feel threatened by, employees who exceed performance
expectations. Exit interviews show that the majority of employees decide to leave because they feel
under-appreciated, while still others feel they are being overworked without recognition.
12.2 Industry Strategies. Researchers and program managers identify the following
programmatic strategies when describing industry efforts in "Leadership Development" (see Exhibit 12-
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 12-2
Industry Strategies: Leadership Development
Strategy Strategy Description
Provide Leadership Organizations have begun to provide new managers with not only technical
Training training, but also training regarding how to motivate, evaluate, and provide
recognition to employees. These courses convey to supervisors that the
organization wants to provide them with the right skills necessary for success
