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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B - Synopses of Modules." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22489.
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Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

B-1 This appendix presents a synopsis of each module in the guidebook. Each synopsis pres- ents abbreviated approaches for smaller transit agencies or transit agencies with limited time and resources to assist them in implementing the guidance contained in Module 1 through Module 4. Note that some of the suggestions in this appendix are new and not discussed in the full modules because the approaches included here suggest alternate or abbreviated ways for resource-constrained systems to respond to workforce challenges. Basic Steps and Abbreviated Process for Module 1: Tailor Effective Strategies into Workforce Practices Note: Please refer to Module 1 of this guidebook for an explanation of the purpose of these recommended strategies and more detailed and comprehensive approaches to implementing their elements. Recruitment Strategy 1: Host Career Days for Students • Contact local high school administrators to explore the possibility of making presentations to students about the opportunities for employment with your transit agency. • If the previous step meets with success, designate staff to create a PowerPoint presentation, and provide presentations at schools about what your agency does and the types of career opportunities available. • Develop a short handout that speaks to your transit agency’s mission, explains opportunities for employment, and provides contact information for follow-up questions. Distribute these handouts at presentations. • Conduct a Q&A session after the presentation and provide a transit vehicle for students to tour. • If at all possible, follow up with attendees and provide further information at a later time. Strategy 2: Develop and Implement Internship and Scholarship Programs • Analyze whether there are any jobs within your agency that may benefit from an unpaid internship that could range in time from 3 months to 1 year. • If so, develop a job description for internship positions. • Assign an employee or employees to supervise, evaluate, and mentor interns. • Contact career guidance counselors at local universities and community colleges to solicit support in advertising intern positions. • Interview and select referred individuals based on qualifications and interest. • During and after the internship period, evaluate intern capabilities for moving into full- time employment within the transit agency. A p p e n d i x B Synopses of Modules

B-2 Building a Sustainable Workforce in the public Transportation industry—A Systems Approach Strategy 3: Implement Employee Referral Programs • If feasible, establish a small budget that will subsidize a bonus for employees that refer individuals to apply for jobs at your transit agency. • Develop the rules for providing bonuses, and explain these rules to all incumbent employees and new hires. The rules should include a description of when a bonus is awarded (e.g., referring an applicant that is hired and passes the probationary period). Strategy 4: Recruit Nontraditional Applicants • Based on a review of your existing employee pool, identify demographic groups that are underrepresented within your transit agency within different job categories (e.g., females in management roles). • Reach out to key stakeholders within the community that are respected by and have access to members of any targeted group(s) you have identified as underrepresented within your agency. These stakeholders could include church leaders, educational institutions, human service agencies, or other social or professional organizations within your community. • Develop a brochure that highlights the opportunities for and advantages of employment within your transit agency (consider the aspects of the job that will be meaningful to this group—e.g., flexible work schedule) and distribute these pamphlets to these stakeholders to pass on to individuals from targeted groups. • If this targeted recruitment effort is successful, provide positive feedback to the stakeholders that assisted your agency. Strategy 5: Establish Applicant Screening Process • Work with your agency’s managers, supervisors, and frontline employees to identify the personal qualities and professional skills needed to be successful in each job. • Based on these qualities and skills, develop questions that help illuminate whether applicants possess the personal qualities and professional skills required for job success. • Use these questions during interviews to help select applicants that have a greater probability of succeeding on the job. Strategy 6: Incorporate Realistic Job Previews • Work with managers, supervisors, and frontline employees to define the specific tasks and positive and negative job aspects of each job within your transit agency. • Based on this input, create brief, written descriptions of the aspects of each job to supply to all candidates that are interviewed. • For applicants of administrative jobs, include a walk-through of the transit work areas and opportunities for informal discussion with potential co-workers. • For applicants of operational jobs, include a ride on a transit bus in revenue service as a part of the recruitment and selection process. • For applicants of maintenance jobs, include a walk-through of the maintenance shop and opportunities for informal discussion with potential co-workers. • During this entire process, highlight positive aspects of each job that are likely to interest candidates. Strategy 7: Highlight Employee Benefits • Informally survey current employees for their opinions on the most attractive and valuable aspects of the employee benefit package. • Determine if any changes can or should be made in the benefit package to enhance its attractiveness. • In all advertising of transit employment opportunities, highlight the benefits that were determined most attractive to employees.

Appendix B: Synopses of Modules B-3 Strategy 8: Use Social Networking • Identify appropriate social networking sites (e.g., Facebook) to advertise the transit agency and job openings. • Post job descriptions and benefit information on social network sites as a part of the overall recruiting strategy. Strategy 9: Develop Student Curriculum or Training Programs • Identify local community colleges and technical schools that could be potential partners in preparing students for frontline transit jobs. • Contact these educational institutions about the possibility of working in partnership to prepare their students for transit careers. • Provide interested institutions with lesson plans and materials they could incorporate into their curricula to better prepare students for possible transit operations and maintenance employment. Strategy 10: Use Structured Interview Protocols • Conduct a job analysis to identify knowledge, skills, and abilities that are necessary for success in each job at your agency. • Develop a standardized interview protocol that is designed to help determine whether job applicants have the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities. • Train all interviewers on using this structured interview process effectively. Strategy 11: Target Candidates from Other Industries • Identify jobs in your agency that could be successfully filled by candidates from industries other than transit. • Identify appropriate methodologies for reaching out to employees or ex-employees of these other industries to advertise transit job openings and encourage individuals to apply. • If there are any military installations within reasonable proximity to your transit agency, contact appropriate personnel at these installations to facilitate recruitment of individuals with operational or maintenance skills that are retiring or leaving active-duty military service. Retention Strategy 1: Create Dual Career Tracks for Managers and Technical Experts • Analyze the managerial and technical jobs at your agency to identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for success within these jobs. • Based on this analysis, determine ways to enhance employee career opportunities for advancement from one job to another where knowledge, skills, and abilities are similar. • Meet with employees to discuss career opportunities and upward mobility tracks. • Provide cross-functional training when possible so employees are in jobs where they can move to other jobs when opportunities arise. Strategy 2: Create Advancement Within Positions • Analyze operations and maintenance supervisor, dispatcher, trainer, driver, and mechanic positions to determine if there is a possibility to create tiers within these positions based on job proficiency and employment tenure. • If a tier structure is possible, establish performance criteria for moving from one tier to another, and set multiple wage and salary levels accordingly. • Provide opportunities for training and development that facilitate employee upward movement from one tier to another within their jobs.

B-4 Building a Sustainable Workforce in the public Transportation industry—A Systems Approach Strategy 3: Implement Employee Mentoring Program • Identify management, supervisory, dispatch, and mechanic positions within your transit agency that lend themselves to a mentoring program. • Identify and recruit transit managers and supervisors that are high performers and have strong interpersonal skills to serve as mentors. • Develop standards for mentoring activities that include methods for carrying out the mentoring program, mentoring schedules, and evaluating mentoring success. • Train mentors on these standards, pair mentors with mentees, and institute the mentoring program. • Either formally or informally, periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the program through surveys of or discussions with participants. Strategy 4: Offer Alternative Benefit Packages • Meet with or survey employees to determine their opinions on the most desirable benefits package the transit system could offer. • Based on this input, determine if popular benefit alternatives could be cost-effectively offered to employees. • If alternatives prove cost-effective and feasible, develop a benefit program that offers employees the possibility of tailoring individual benefit packages to meet their own needs. Strategy 5: Assess/Improve Organizational Culture • Assess the positive and negative impacts of your agency’s organizational culture through surveys or confidential discussions with employees. • Based on this assessment, determine if there is a need to implement a program to enhance the positive aspects of your agency’s working environment. • If such a need exists, develop a strategy to improve the organizational culture. This strategy could focus on team building activities; enhanced communication up, down, and across the organization; and a better conflict resolution process, particularly between management and frontline employees. • Through surveys and employee discussions, monitor on an ongoing basis the effectiveness of these efforts in improving the working environment. Re-engineer the effort as necessary. Strategy 6: Implement a Rewards Program for High Performers • Discuss with your management team ways that formal performance evaluations could lead to awards for high-performing employees. • Examine the budget to see if end-of-the-year bonuses could be awarded to high- performing employees. • If cash bonuses are not feasible, explore other options such as time off from work, plaques or badges, complimentary dinners negotiated with local restaurants, or other creative noncash rewards. Strategy 7: Improve Existing Work Schedule and Allow Flexible Schedules • Examine employee work distribution and work schedules by job. • Think creatively about ways to create flexible arrangements for jobs not traditionally thought of as flexible (e.g., job sharing where two individuals perform one job). • Discuss with employees the types of flexible work schedules they find most appealing. • Evaluate the types of jobs for which flexible work schedules could be a success, minimizing impact on your transit agency’s mission achievement. • Based on the previous two steps, offer flexible work schedules on a position-by-position basis where it is practical and if it does not interfere with your transit system’s mission achievement.

Appendix B: Synopses of Modules B-5 Strategy 8: Promote Current Employees • Determine the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for each job in your agency. • Create an internal training and development program that allows current employees to develop the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities required for promotion. • Give priority to internal employees as candidates for job vacancies, and only recruit from the outside if qualified internal candidates are unavailable to promote or if seeking to promote diversity. Strategy 9: Establish Diversity Goals and Policies • Assess your agency’s employee demographics to determine if women, minorities, and persons with disabilities are reasonably represented at all organizational levels. • If there is a need to enhance promotional opportunities for employees with diverse backgrounds, develop training, mentoring, or other programs that offer the knowledge, skills, and abilities that can help these employees compete for advancement. Strategy 10: Emphasize Job Enrichment • Discuss with employees ways they believe they can receive a greater sense of reward from their jobs while successfully performing within their jobs. • Based on these discussions, look for opportunities to provide greater flexibility and independence in carrying out individual work assignments. • Explore ways to give employees feedback on the links between their individual performance, your agency’s success, and improvement in the quality of life for transit customers. Training and Development Strategy 1: Leverage Existing Training and Development Programs and Opportunities • Through discussions with employees and supervisors and observations of job performance, identify skills or knowledge areas in which employees could benefit from further training. • Identify existing programs within or outside the transit industry that meet training needs. These programs could be offerings from the NSC, Smith System, TSI, CTAA, NTI, or RTAP. • Ensure that internal trainers are qualified and have received proper train-the-trainer instruction. • Consider sending employees to training programs offered by national and state transit associations and transportation research institutes. Strategy 2: Explore Available Funding for Training • Leverage RTAP funds within your state to make it possible for employees to attend outside training courses. • Research other possible sources of training funds through the FTA and your state department of transportation. Strategy 3: Make Training Attractive • Ask employees and supervisors what types of training they feel are necessary and would appeal to them. • Build role-playing, case studies, breakout discussion groups, and hands-on skill development activities into training curricula as much as possible to increase learning. • Explore the possibility of scheduling employees for online transit-specific and non– transit-specific training opportunities. • Build training experiences into team and safety meetings.

B-6 Building a Sustainable Workforce in the public Transportation industry—A Systems Approach Strategy 4: Address Training Needs in Conjunction with Performance Appraisals • Implement a performance appraisal process for all jobs on at least an annual basis. For transit drivers, this process should include observing behind-the-wheel performance. • Based on the results of performance appraisals, ensure that managers and supervisors create a training plan to correct performance deficiencies. Strategy 5: Create a Corporate College for On-the-Job Training and Certification • Conduct a job task analysis of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform each job at your transit agency. • Based on this analysis, for each job, create a training plan that includes both new-hire training and ongoing refresher training. The plans should have mandatory training curricula as well as voluntary training options. • Manage the training plan to ensure that training and certifications are accomplished in a timely and effective manner. Strategy 6: Adopt Means of Supporting Employees in Higher Education and Training • If the budget allows, consider developing a program to reimburse or subsidize tuition for employees to attend college or technical school. • If this is not feasible, work with local colleges and technical schools to identify possible scholarship opportunities to assist employees. Strategy 7: Institute Internship or Apprenticeship Programs • Analyze whether there are any jobs within your agency that may benefit from an unpaid internship that could range in time from 3 months to 1 year. • If so, develop a job description for this internship position or these positions. • Assign employees to supervise, evaluate, and mentor interns. • Contact career guidance counselors at local universities and community colleges to solicit support in advertising these intern positions. • Interview and select referred individuals based on qualifications and interest. • Incorporate aspects of standard pre-hire training into the internship experience. • During and after the internship period, evaluate intern capabilities for moving into full- time employment within the transit agency. Strategy 8: Development Partnerships with Other Organizations • Identify other transit systems in your region that would be willing to partner with your agency on training opportunities. Also, consider non-transit organizations with similar skill development needs as possible partners. • Work with any agreeable partner agencies to schedule and share the cost of joint training and development activities. This partnering approach could be particularly beneficial in the areas of driver, maintenance, and supervisory training. Strategy 9: Develop a Job Mentoring Program • Identify management, supervisory, dispatch, and mechanic positions within your agency that lend themselves to a mentoring program. • Identify and recruit high-performing transit managers and supervisors with strong interpersonal skills and a desire to serve as mentors. • Develop standards for the mentoring program that include methods for carrying out the program, mentoring schedules, and evaluating mentoring success. • Train mentors on these standards, pair mentors with mentees, and institute the mentoring program. • Either formally or informally, periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the program through surveys of or discussions with participants.

Appendix B: Synopses of Modules B-7 Strategy 10: Ensure That the Transfer of Training Occurs • Based on a training needs assessment for each job and the training curriculum that supports each job, develop a process to verify the success of training in terms of enhanced employee knowledge, skills, and abilities. • When possible, use a pre-training test instrument to measure employee knowledge, skills, and abilities prior to training. • Always build into the training experience a post-training assessment of trainee knowledge, skills, and abilities to measure training effectiveness. • Post-training assessment strategies can include written tests and observation of post- training job performance immediately following training completion. • Monitor trainer performance to ensure that trainers have the required technical, interpersonal, and training delivery skills to effectively provide instruction on the training topics they are delivering. If trainer skills are deficient, consider providing them with more train-the-trainer instruction or replacing them with more qualified individuals. • Have trainers or supervisors conduct follow-up monitoring of training effectiveness from 1 to 3 months after training is completed. • Modify training programs as necessary to ensure that the training experience leads to the highest level of transfer of knowledge, skills, and abilities. Strategy 11: Place a High Priority on Safety- and Security-Related Training • Conduct a hazard and threat assessment based on job responsibilities to identify safety- and security-related subjects that require training. • Based on this assessment, develop training plans and curricula that focus specifically on safety- and security-related knowledge, skills, and abilities for each job. • Deliver safety- and security-related training at hire and on an ongoing basis thereafter. • At a minimum, safety- and security-related operations training should include the following training components: − Defensive driving. − Vehicle inspection. − Hazardous conditions. − Passenger assistance. − On-vehicle emergency response, including handling accidents, passenger incidents, fires and evacuation, and dangerous passengers. • Maintenance training should include skills required to perform effective preventive and corrective maintenance activities, maximize shop safety, and work with hazardous materials. • Safety- and security-related organization-wide training should include procedures for identifying, responding to, and reporting suspicious people, behavior, items, and vehicles. • Among other sources, resources for this training are available through TSI, NTI, CTAA, RTAP, and the FTA Bus Safety and Security Program. Professional Capacity Building Strategy 1: Develop a Management University/Academy • Meet with your agency’s management team to identify the leadership competencies of transit managers and supervisors required for job success. • Identify available external training resources for delivering training on these leadership competencies. These external resources may include local colleges, universities, and transit research institutes, or state transit association workshops and national transit association training and certification programs.

B-8 Building a Sustainable Workforce in the public Transportation industry—A Systems Approach • Create a management development strategy for all management and supervisory positions. Aggressively pursue opportunities to encourage managers and supervisors to attend training offerings that become available consistent with the development plan. • Monitor the progress of this effort on an ongoing basis and revise the development plans when new, appropriate offerings are identified. Strategy 2: Establish Regular Management Retreats, Workshops, and Leadership Events • If the budget allows, consider holding management retreats on at least an annual basis. • These retreats can be designed to accomplish three goals: − Develop and monitor a transit agency strategic plan. − Build the management team. − Enhance managerial and supervisory skills. • Generally, management retreats are most effective when held off-site, facilitated by outside experts, and scheduled for a minimum of a full day. Strategy 3: Use Competency-Based Leader Selection and Training • Meet with your agency’s management team to identify leadership competencies required for successful performance in managerial and supervisory positions. • Develop a strategy to identify individuals who have met these competency requirements and build that strategy into the annual performance appraisal process. • Use these leadership-competency–based evaluations when selecting supervisors and managers from the outside or when promoting from within. Strategy 4: Implement Mentoring/Coaching Programs for Leaders • Identify and recruit high performing senior managers with strong interpersonal skills and a desire to mentor junior managers and supervisors. • Establish guidelines for the mentoring program that include methods for carrying out the program, mentoring schedules, and evaluating mentoring success. • Identify junior managers and supervisors to participate in the program and initiate the process. • Monitor the effectiveness of the mentoring program on an ongoing basis through confidential mentor/mentee feedback and mentee performance evaluation. • Re-engineer the program as may be necessary. Strategy 5: Institute a Job Rotation Program • Meet with your senior management team to determine the frontline, supervisory, or junior management positions that might be appropriate for a job rotation program. • Establish job rotation program parameters that include length, work schedule, and positions that each job class will rotate into. • Create training and development initiatives required to support the job rotation program. • Recruit candidates to participate in the program by explaining program parameters; initiate job rotation. • Monitor the program for ongoing effectiveness and re-engineer as necessary. • Ideally, senior leaders should rotate into frontline jobs to gather perspective at all levels of the organization. However, if resources are limited, these are examples of transit job pairings that lend themselves most easily to job rotation: − Driver/dispatcher. − Dispatcher/supervisor. − Supervisor/trainer. − Manager/manager. − Supervisor/supervisor.

Appendix B: Synopses of Modules B-9 Strategy 6: Use Cross-Training or Shadowing • Meet with your senior management team to determine the frontline, supervisory, or junior management positions that might be appropriate for cross-training or shadowing. • Establish parameters for cross-training or shadowing that include length, work schedule, and jobs that will be involved in this effort. • Create training and development initiatives required to support the cross-training or shadowing program. • Recruit candidates to participate in the program as trainers and trainees and implement the program. • Monitor the program for ongoing effectiveness and re-engineer as necessary. • Examples of transit job pairings that lend themselves to cross-training or shadowing are: − Driver/dispatcher. − Dispatcher/supervisor. − Supervisor/trainer. − Manager/manager. − Supervisor/supervisor. Strategy 7: Develop Formal Career Paths • Examine personnel records and meet with your senior management team to determine typical upward-mobility career paths for the jobs in your transit agency. • Identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by employees to be promoted within these identified career paths. • Create mentoring, coaching, and training experiences for employees to take advantage of or to enhance these identified knowledge, skills, and abilities. • Meet with employees who fall within the scope of the career path effort to explain the program and its benefits. • Monitor the program’s progress over a 5-year period and re-engineer as necessary. Strategy 8: Use Individual Development Plans • Meet with your management team to identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities that your agency’s employees will need for success over the course of their careers. • Based on identified knowledge, skills, and abilities, develop a model template of an IDP that managers and supervisors can use in guiding the professional growth of their direct reports. The structure of a very simple and basic IDP would list the competencies required for an employee’s career development and the work activities and developmental experiences that have the potential to lead to achievement of each competency. • Train managers and supervisors on creating an IDP for each of their direct reports. Emphasize to managers and supervisors that they have the responsibility to assign work and provide coaching and training that will stimulate the professional growth of their direct reports consistent with the goals of the IDP. • Monitor the effort on an ongoing basis and re-engineer as appropriate. Strategy 9: Implement Workforce/Succession Planning • Meet with senior management to project the direction and growth of your transit organization and identify future management and supervisory resources. During this process, take into account projected personnel competency losses that may occur through retirement or voluntary resignation. • Identify strategies to fill future personnel competency gaps through a combination of external recruitment efforts and internal development initiatives. • Create an action plan for long-term implementation of these identified recruitment and development strategies. • Monitor this action plan on an ongoing basis and re-engineer as necessary.

B-10 Building a Sustainable Workforce in the public Transportation industry—A Systems Approach Strategy 10: Develop a Knowledge Management System • Develop a methodology to capture, organize, and house data essential to transit mission achievement and individual job performance. These data might include such information as administrative, operational, and maintenance reports; operational and maintenance performance data; policies and procedures; strategic goals and objectives; problem- solving approaches and techniques; and informal strategies to facilitate individual job or overall mission achievement. • Encourage internal knowledge sharing between employees and attempt to capture and record this knowledge in a knowledge management system database for future reference. • Use this database to fill information gaps that may be created through future employee turnover and loss of employee competencies. Basic Steps and Abbreviated Process for Module 2: Evaluate the Impact of Workforce Practices Note: Please refer to Module 2 of this guidebook for an explanation of the purpose of the metrics and more detailed and comprehensive approaches to using the metrics. If your agency faces significant resource constraints, you may find it difficult to simultaneously measure all of the aspects needed to complete the metrics scorecards in Module 2 across the four organizational process areas of recruitment, retention, training and development, and profes- sional capacity building. However, agencies are strongly encouraged to think of how implement- ing a practice in one area may affect another area. For example, the impact of a recruitment practice that targets younger workers from outside the transit industry needs to be considered in light of ongoing internal succession planning efforts to develop and retain current talent within your agency. For an agency that simply cannot measure and complete all the scorecards at once, we recom- mend the following steps: 1. Determine the order in which you need to complete the scorecards based on the work- force development practices that first need to be addressed. Priority should be deter- mined based on which area of focus is most critical for mission achievement. − 1a: Identify which of these areas should be first, second, and so forth in priority: recruitment, retention, training and development, and professional capacity building. ▪ For example, if there are vacant mission-critical positions for which internal talent is not available, recruitment may need to be your first focus. − 1b: Isolate one workforce development practice you wish to evaluate within the area you identified in the previous step. This could be a practice already underway or one that is being contemplated. Note: It may be the case that the order you initially select is dictated by practices you are already implementing and urgently need to evaluate. If this is the case, it is important to keep in mind that the process of completing the scorecards may lead you to determine that your area of focus is not the most critical in terms of workforce implications. 2. Review and familiarize yourself with the descriptions of all metrics across all four scorecards. (Note: This is the content listed under the “What this metric is” subsections in Module 2.) 3. Complete the top-priority scorecard. The numeric rating you give on each metric of the scorecard should be what you project or know to be the outcome of implementing a workforce development practice you have in mind.

Appendix B: Synopses of Modules B-11 4. Total all of the numeric ratings you give on the scorecard to reach an overall score for success for that practice. 5. Go back to the descriptions of the metrics across the remaining three scorecards and think about whether implementing or continuing to implement the practice could have a negative impact on any of the remaining three organizational process areas. The steps for completing the scorecards in each of the relevant areas are noted in the following. Steps for Using the Recruitment Practices Scorecard If your agency’s recruitment practices are negatively affecting mission achievement, then you should focus your attention on completing the Recruitment Practices Scorecard. Before you start, keep in mind that it is important to review the descriptions for the metrics on the other three scorecards so that you are aware of these other areas of impact as you evaluate the overall effectiveness of the practice. The steps that follow describe specifically how to complete the Recruitment Practices Scorecard. 1. Use the Recruitment Practices Scorecard to evaluate recruitment for each job you wish to address. a. For frontline positions, use the scorecard for frontline positions. b. For positions other than frontline, use the scorecard for management/advisory/ administrative/technical positions. 2. Examine your agency’s personnel and budgetary records and other pertinent data referencing recruitment activities for the job(s) you have selected to evaluate. 3. Based on your examination of records and data in Step 2, determine the average amount of time in days the recruitment process takes, from receiving the approval to hire for a position to receiving a formal acceptance from a candidate. • Abbreviated process – Metric 1 – Time to fill position: Review personnel records to determine the amount of time it takes to fill a given position from the time the position becomes vacant until the new employee recruited to fill the position comes on board. 4. Based on information gathered in Step 2, determine the percentage of employees within the specific position(s) you are evaluating that leave the organization either voluntarily or involuntarily during the first year of employment. • Abbreviated process – Metric 2 – New-hire turnover within the first year: Review personnel records to determine the percentage of employees in a given position that leave the organization within their first year of employment, either voluntarily or due to termination. 5. Based on your examination of records and data in Step 2, determine the percentage of frontline employees that leave the organization either voluntarily or involuntarily during the initial new-hire training period. • Abbreviated process – Metric 3 – New-hire turnover during initial training – Frontline positions: Review personnel records to determine the percentage of employees that leave the organization during the initial training or probationary period. This percentage should include employees that voluntarily resign and those that are terminated.

B-12 Building a Sustainable Workforce in the public Transportation industry—A Systems Approach 6. Based on information collected in Step 2, compare the performance ratings of employees during and at the end of their first year of employment with the performance ratings of experienced employees in the same job. • Abbreviated process – Metric 4 – New-hire performance rating – Management/ advisory/administrative/technical positions: If your agency conducts formal performance appraisals, review the performance ratings of employees during and immediately after their first year of employment. Compare these new-hire performance ratings with those of employees with 2 or more years of employment to determine a percentage between new-hire employee performance and the performance of experienced employees. If your agency does not conduct formal performance appraisals, informally gather the information through confidential discussions with the managers/supervisors of the employees in the positions under evaluation to establish performance comparison percentages between new- hire and experienced employees. • Abbreviated process – Metric 4 – New-hire performance rating – Frontline positions: Review formal training evaluations or probationary period performance evaluations of employees at the same job level to determine whether new-hire employee performance is satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Additionally, through a discussion with trainers and supervisors, estimate the level of one-on- one remedial coaching that is generally required for new-hire incumbents in a given position. 7. Based on your examination of data in Step 2, determine whether the costs incurred to recruit an employee into the position(s) being evaluated is higher than budgeted, lower than budgeted, or at budget. • Abbreviated process – Metric 5 – Recruiting cost ratio: Review budgetary and financial records to determine the total cost involved in recruiting and filling a given position and compare that cost with the budget to fill that position. If a formal budget target was not previously established, informally estimate what your agency considers an appropriate cost for the recruitment activity and compare that with the actual cost. 8. Based on your examination of records in Step 2, determine the percentage of job candidates for management/advisory/ administrative/technical positions that accept offers of employment compared to the number of job offers extended. • Abbreviated process – Metric 3 – Offer-to-acceptance ratio – management/ advisory/administrative/technical positions: Review personnel and recruitment records to determine the number of job applicants that are offered a position within the organization and compare that with the number of applicants that accept job offers and become employees. 9. Examine the Recruitment Practices Scorecard to determine if the sample anchors listed under the rating scales can be reasonably applied to your agency. If the anchors are not satisfactory, change them to reflect your agency’s reality. 10. Use the Recruitment Practices Scorecard to rate the specific recruitment metrics for your existing recruitment practices based on the information captured in Steps 3 through 8. 11. In addition to the recruitment metrics, use the five generic global metrics to assist in assessing the extent to which this workforce practice can be effectively implemented within your agency. (See section entitled Directions for Scoring Global Metrics.)

Appendix B: Synopses of Modules B-13 12. Total the scorecard numbers determined through the previous steps to decide if existing practices for recruiting a given job meet your agency’s standards for success. a. If they do, you may not need to change your approach. b. If they do not, you may want to explore alternative recruitment practices using the tools and information provided in this guidebook. Any alternative recruitment practices can be evaluated using the same strategies defined in Steps 1 through 12. Steps for Using the Retention Practices Scorecard If your agency’s retention practices are negatively affecting mission achievement, and you determine this to be a priority area for focus, you may follow the steps that follow to improve organizational effectiveness. (Note: To consider overall implications of the practice, be sure to review the metrics descriptions across the other three scorecards prior to completing these steps.) 1. Use the Retention Practices Scorecard to evaluate retention for each position you wish to address. a. For frontline positions, use the scorecard for frontline positions. b. For positions other than frontline, use the scorecard for management/advisory/ administrative/technical positions. 2. Examine your agency’s personnel and budgetary records and other pertinent data referencing retention activities for the job(s) you have selected to evaluate. 3. Based on your examination of records and data in Step 2, determine the number of employees that voluntarily leave your agency as a percentage of the total number of employees in a given period. • Abbreviated process – Metric 1 – Employee voluntary turnover rate: Review personnel records to determine the number of employees in a given position that voluntarily leave the organization in 1 year compared to the total number of incumbents in that position. Retirees should not be included in this calculation. You can also calculate percentages by grouping positions together using the following categories: − Management positions. − Administrative/technical positions. − Supervisory positions. − Driver positions. − Mechanic positions. 4. Based on information gathered in Step 2, determine the budgetary impact of filling a vacant position or positions due to employee turnover as a percentage of the annual wages for the position(s). • Abbreviated process – Metric 2 – Cost to fill open position: Review budget and financial records for the costs of recruitment, new-hire training and orientation, and lost operations productivity to determine the budgetary impact of an employee leaving the organization. Compare the total cost to fill a given position, including training an employee to proficiency, with the budget targets that were established for this process. If a formal budget target was not established, informally estimate what your agency considers an appropriate cost to fill an open position. 5. Based on data from Step 2, determine the percentage of employees in a minority, race, gender, or other protected category that leave the organization voluntarily within the first year of employment and compare this to the total number of employees within

B-14 Building a Sustainable Workforce in the public Transportation industry—A Systems Approach other demographic groups or to organization-wide employee voluntary turnover rates. • Abbreviated process – Metric 3 – Diversity turnover: Review personnel records to determine the percentage of minority employees in protected classes that leave the organization within their first year of employment. Include voluntary resignations and terminations in these calculations. 6. Gather information on employee engagement to determine the level of emotional involvement, commitment, and satisfaction that employees feel with respect to their jobs and the organization. • Abbreviated process – Metric 4 – Employee engagement: Conduct a formal survey of incumbent employees in a given position or group of positions to collect information on how they feel about working for the organization, including their commitment to and involvement and satisfaction with their jobs. If a formal survey is not feasible, conduct one-on-one confidential interviews with a representative cross-section of incumbents in a given position or group of positions to determine their level of organizational engagement. Conduct one-on- one interviews rather than group interviews and ensure that supervisors do not interview their direct reports. Based on the formal or informal survey/interview process, determine the percentage of employees in a given job or group of jobs that express a high level of commitment and satisfaction with their organization and their jobs. 7. Determine the impact of frontline employee turnover on transit system safety, service quality, and cost-effectiveness through data from service delivery records, on-time performance, accident and incident records, customer complaints, and customer surveys over a certain time period. • Abbreviated process – Metric 5 – Impact of turnover on employee knowledge, frontline positions: Evaluate operations and maintenance data over a 5-year period to identify the impact on positive organizational performance of frontline employees leaving the organization. In smaller transit organizations, this impact may be measured based on the departure of a single incumbent or several incumbents. In larger transit organizations, the impact should be measured based on a significant percentage of incumbent employee departures. 8. Determine the impact of knowledge loss from management/advisory/administrative/ technical employee turnover through data collected from employee knowledge management assessments. • Abbreviated process – Metric 5 – Impact of turnover on employee knowledge, management/advisory/administrative/technical positions: Within a given position or group of positions, collect data on the anticipated impact of employee departures on performance. These data can be collected through a variety of strategies, including interviews with immediate supervisors of employees and in-service and exit interviews with employees. Based on this data collection process, estimate the impact that employee departure has had over a 5-year period on the overall organization or individual elements of the organization. 9. Examine the Retention Practices Scorecards to determine if the sample anchors listed under the rating scales can be reasonably applied to your agency. If the anchors are not satisfactory, change them to reflect your agency’s reality.

Appendix B: Synopses of Modules B-15 10. Use the Retention Practices Scorecard to rate the existing retention metrics for your agency based on the information captured in Steps 3 through 8. 11. In addition to the retention metrics, use the five generic global metrics to assist in assessing the extent to which this workforce practice can be effectively implemented within your agency. (See section entitled Directions for Scoring Global Metrics.) 12. Total the scorecard numbers determined through the previous steps to decide if existing practices for retaining employees meet your agency’s standards for success. a. If they do, you may not need to change your approach. b. If they do not, you may want to explore alternative retention practices using the tools and information provided in this guidebook. Any alternative retention practices can be evaluated using the same strategies defined in Steps 1 through 12. Steps for Using the Training and Development Practices Scorecard If your agency’s training and development practices are negatively affecting mission achieve- ment, and you determine this to be a priority area for focus, you may use the following steps to improve organizational effectiveness. (Note: To consider overall implications of the practice, be sure to review the metrics descriptions across the other three scorecards prior to completing these steps.) 1. Use the Training and Development Practices Scorecard for each training program you wish to address. a. For frontline positions, use the scorecard for frontline positions. b. For positions other than frontline, use the scorecard for management/advisory/ administrative/technical positions. 2. Examine your agency’s employee training records, training materials, performance evaluations, and operational records for the training program(s) you have selected to evaluate. 3. Using written tests or performance evaluations, measure both pre- and post-training knowledge and skills to determine the actual amount of learning that occurs during the training experience. • Abbreviated process – Metric 1 – Post-training knowledge/skill testing: If your agency has a formal mechanism to measure the knowledge and skill level of trainees at the end of the training experience, evaluate the training program using these records and calculate a percentage rating for training effectiveness. If your agency does not use a formal methodology to measure knowledge and skill levels at the end of the training experience, you may use other more informal and subjective approaches to successfully measure training effectiveness. These approaches might include interviews with the direct supervisors of employees that recently completed training, or observing employees performing the job in which they were recently trained. 4. Based on your examination of materials in Step 2, measure the impact of the training experience by reviewing evaluations of employee on-the-job performance that took place up to a year after training was completed. • Abbreviated process – Metric 2 – Employee performance post-training, management/advisory/administrative/technical positions: To evaluate the effectiveness of training on job performance, measure employee post-training performance. This measurement can be accomplished through a combination

B-16 Building a Sustainable Workforce in the public Transportation industry—A Systems Approach of observing the employee’s performance, reviewing the productivity of the employee post-training, interviewing the direct supervisors of employees, and directly interviewing employees. Ideally, employee performance would be evaluated immediately after training and then 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year after training so that the long-term impact of the training program could be measured. • Abbreviated process – Metric 2 – Employee performance post-training, frontline positions: To evaluate the effectiveness of the training experience on job performance, measure employee post-training performance. This measurement can be accomplished through on-the-job evaluations and interviews with direct supervisors of operations and maintenance employees. Ideally, employee performance would be evaluated immediately after training and then 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year after training so that the long-term impact of the training program could be measured. 5. Formally survey management/advisory/administrative/technical employees to capture their feelings about the relevancy of the training program under evaluation. • Abbreviated process – Metric 3 – Percent of employees rating training as job- relevant, management/advisory/administrative/technical positions: Formally survey employees approximately 1 month after the training program is completed to determine the percentage of employees that found the training relevant to their jobs. If a formal written survey is not feasible, staff not involved with the training should conduct confidential one-on-one employee interviews to obtain feedback. 6. Measure the impact of frontline employee training on transit system operations, safety, and customer service by reviewing service delivery records, accident and incident records, and customer complaints or surveys. • Abbreviated process – Metric 3 – Impact of training on system operations, safety, and customer service, frontline positions: To measure training effectiveness on operations, maintenance, safety, security, and customer service, review records of on-time performance, accidents/incidents, customer complaints, and timely completion of preventive maintenance. Ideally, post- training performance would be evaluated 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after training. 7. Survey employees within 3 months of training completion to gather data regarding trainee satisfaction with the training program under evaluation. • Abbreviated process – Metric 4 – Percent of trainees satisfied with training: Survey employees about their level of satisfaction with the content and delivery of training that they completed. This survey should be administered approximately 1 month after training is completed and can be conducted through a written survey instrument or through one-on-one interviews conducted by staff members that are not involved in delivering training. Feedback collected on training satisfaction should be kept confidential and be used to determine the percentage of trainees that expressed satisfaction with an individual training program. 8. Review all training materials that support the training program under evaluation to determine the amount of time that elapsed since those materials were last updated. • Abbreviated process – Metric 5 – Recency of training materials: Review all materials that support the delivery of a given training program to determine when

Appendix B: Synopses of Modules B-17 the materials were developed and last revised or updated. Based on this review, make a cumulative judgment about the average age of the training materials. 9. Examine the Training and Development Practices Scorecard to determine if the sample anchors listed under the rating scales can be reasonably applied to your agency. If the anchors are not satisfactory, change them to reflect your agency’s reality. 10. Use the Training and Development Practices Scorecard to rate the existing training and development metrics for your agency based on the information captured in Steps 3 through 8. 11. In addition to the training and development metrics, use the five generic global metrics to assist in assessing the extent to which this workforce practice can be effectively implemented within your agency. (See section entitled Directions for Scoring Global Metrics.) 12. Total the scorecard numbers determined through the previous steps to decide if the existing training and development practices meet your agency’s standards for success. a. If they do, you may not need to change your approach. b. If they do not, you may want to explore alternative training and development practices using the tools and information provided in this guidebook. Any alternative training and development practices can be evaluated using the same strategies defined in Steps 1 through 12. Steps for Using the Professional Capacity-Building Practices Scorecard If your agency’s professional capacity-building practices are negatively affecting mission achievement and you determine this to be a priority area for focus, you may use the steps that follow to improve organizational effectiveness. (Note: To consider overall implications of the practice, be sure to review the metrics descriptions across the other three scorecards prior to completing these steps.) 1. Use the Professional Capacity-Building Practices Scorecard to evaluate each job you wish to address. a. For frontline positions, use the scorecard for frontline positions. b. For positions other than frontline, use the scorecard for management/advisory/ administrative/technical positions. 2. Examine your agency’s personnel records, including performance evaluations, records of promotions, training records, job descriptions, operational statistics, and other pertinent data referencing professional capacity building, for the position(s) you have selected to evaluate. 3. Based on information gathered in Step 2 or by creating an employee time-monitoring system, determine the percentage of assigned tasks for management/advisory/ administrative/technical employees that are completed on time. • Abbreviated process – Metric 1 – Timeliness of task completion, management/ advisory/administrative/technical positions: Review data collected from employee time-monitoring systems. This would include deadlines for task completion that were either met or not met. In the absence of a formal data tracking system for timely task completion, interviews with management/supervisory staff could be conducted to informally estimate this metric. Once data have been analyzed, estimate the percentage of organizational tasks by job or groups of jobs that are completed on time.

B-18 Building a Sustainable Workforce in the public Transportation industry—A Systems Approach 4. Based on data from Step 2, in particular transit operations and maintenance on-time performance information, determine the timeliness of scheduled frontline employee activities. • Abbreviated process – Metric 1 – Timeliness of scheduled activities, frontline positions: Review data collected from employee time-monitoring systems. This would include deadlines for task completion that were either met or not met. Operational on-time performance and on-time preventive maintenance could be used as a yardstick for this metric. Once data have been analyzed, estimate the percentage of organizational tasks by job or groups of jobs that are completed on time. 5. Based on your examination of records in Step 2, determine the percentage of employees that have participated in training and development opportunities over a predetermined period of time that encompasses a time span greater than 1 year but not more than 5 years. • Abbreviated process – Metric 2 – Percentage of employees who participate in employee development opportunities: Review personnel and training records over a 5-year period to determine the percentage of employees that participate in professional development activities. Do not include new-hire training in this data collection process. 6. Based on information reviewed in Step 2, determine the percentage of management/ advisory/administrative/technical positions that are filled by internal candidates. • Abbreviated process – Metric 3 – Percentage of jobs filled internally, management/ advisory/administrative/technical positions: Review personnel records over a 5-year period to determine the percentage of positions that are filled by internal candidates. 7. Based on data from Step 2, determine the percentage of operational or maintenance supervisory positions that are filled by internal frontline personnel. • Abbreviated process – Metric 3 – Percentage of operational supervisory positions filled by frontline personnel, frontline positions: Review personnel records over a 5-year period to determine the percentage of supervisory positions within operations and maintenance that are filled internally by frontline personnel. 8. Using the information garnered in Step 2 or through formal or informal evaluation of existing organizational processes, determine the percentage of decisions for which management solicits input from employees. • Abbreviated process – Metric 4 – Employee involvement in organization’s decision making: Review organizational records and activities to estimate a percentage of how often employees within all jobs are involved in significant organizational decision making on an annual basis. Some examples of activities to review are regularly scheduled management meetings or safety meetings, preventable versus non-preventable accidents, safety committees, policy and procedural development, service design, vehicle and technology procurement, and team building. 9. Based partially on data from Step 2 and by soliciting employee input, determine the percentage of job descriptions that are relevant and up-to-date. • Abbreviated process – Metric 5 – Percentage of positions with up-to-date position description: Examine all jobs to determine the number of position descriptions

Appendix B: Synopses of Modules B-19 that have been reviewed and updated within the last 5 years. Additionally, meet with at least one incumbent within each job to determine whether the existing position description is currently relevant and defines major tasks. Based on this process, determine the percentage of all organization job descriptions that are up-to-date and relevant. 10. Examine the Professional Capacity-Building Practices Scorecards to determine if the sample anchors listed under the rating scales can be reasonably applied to your agency. If the anchors are not satisfactory, change them to reflect your agency’s reality. 11. Use the Professional Capacity-Building Practices Scorecard to rate your agency’s existing metrics based on the information captured in Steps 3 through 9. 12. In addition to the professional capacity-building metrics, use the five generic global metrics to assist in assessing the extent to which this workforce practice can be effectively implemented within your agency. (See section entitled Directions for Scoring Global Metrics.) 13. Total the scorecard numbers determined through the previous steps to decide if the existing practices for professional capacity building meet your agency’s standards for success. a. If they do, there may be no need to change your approach. b. If they do not, you may choose to explore alternative capacity-building practices with the tools and information provided in this guidebook. Any alternative professional capacity-building practices can be evaluated using the same strategies defined in Steps 1 through 13. Directions for Scoring Global Metrics To compare two or more practices that fall under different organizational processes (e.g., a recruitment and retention practice), complete the global metrics rating scales provided in Module 2. Metric 1 – Stakeholder buy-in • Identify appropriate stakeholders (either individuals or groups) for your transit system that have a vested interest in your system or the program that is being evaluated. • Interview or survey stakeholders about the practices being evaluated and determine their level of support for them. Metric 2 – Time to implement • Calculate the number of months from the time the practices were first identified through to full implementation based on up-to-date records of workforce practices. Metric 3 – Cost to implement • Identify a budget for implementing or maintaining the specific practices in question. • Track and document all costs related to implementing the practices. Metric 4 – Return on investment • Identify the goals that could be realized by implementing the practices in question. • Approximate the time that may be required for your agency to reach these goals and garner a full return on investment. Metric 5 – Sustainability • Determine whether the practices being evaluated would work in different situations or at different periods of time without revision or updates.

B-20 Building a Sustainable Workforce in the public Transportation industry—A Systems Approach Important note: If you are only evaluating one practice and not comparing it to another practice, you may not need to complete the global metrics rating scales. If you do not complete the global metrics rating scales, you will only evaluate and score the practice-specific metrics on the upper half of each scorecard using the following total metrics scores to determine the likelihood of success going forward: Success very unlikely: 0–125. Success unlikely: 126–250. Success likely: 251–375. Success very likely: 376–500. Basic Steps and Abbreviated Process for Module 3: Improve Image Management to Become an Employer of Choice Note: Please refer to Module 3 of this guidebook for an explanation of the purpose of these recommended strategies and more detailed and comprehensive approaches to implementing their elements. I. Image Management Strategies for Key Image Management Dimensions A. Approaches to emphasize social responsibility and promote transit’s environmental and community benefits. • Emphasize that transit improves air quality, reduces travel congestion, and reduces use of personal automobiles, thus saving fuel. − Post this information on transit system or oversight entity website. − Advertise this information in local media outlets. − Present this information at meetings of entities such as county and city councils, regional planning bodies, social clubs, and other appropriate community organizations. − Use appropriate external logos and color design on transit vehicles. B. Approaches to emphasize emotional appeal and associate transit with connecting people to exciting activities. • Emphasize that transit provides access to enjoyable community activities such as sporting events, events at entertainment venues, fairs, school activities, and nightlife. − Be present at fairs and community events and provide handouts of transit information, brochures, and schedules; distribute transit collateral; and have a vehicle on hand for viewing. − Supply local restaurants with posters that outline advantages of using transit and include transit schedules. − Provide transit information, brochures, and schedules to educational institutions. − Advertise transit service to sporting events and other community events. C. Approaches to emphasize financial performance and highlight the economic impact of well-run public transportation. • Emphasize that transit supports economic development, local businesses, and health care facilities, and saves passengers money. − Advertise in local media touting the financial savings for riders when using transit versus personal vehicles. − Make presentations at economic development meetings, chamber of commerce meetings, and meetings attended by health care providers. − Distribute transit financial reports to governmental entities that highlight the sound financial performance of the transit system.

Appendix B: Synopses of Modules B-21 D. Approaches to emphasize products and services and link service offerings with the needs of the local community. • Emphasize the benefits of transit’s multifaceted delivery modes, schedule of services, and safe and reliable performance to the general public, but particularly to students and the community workforce. − Post this information on transit system or oversight entity website. − Advertise in local media outlets. − Distribute transit fliers, brochures, and schedules throughout the community. − Make presentations to school administrators, teachers, and students; human resource managers of large employers in the region; local small businesses; and other appropriate community organizations. E. Approaches to emphasize vision and leadership and demonstrate ways public trans- portation is proactively planning to meet local population trends. • Emphasize that transit improves quality of life for older individuals, people with disabilities, and individuals lacking access to personal vehicles. − Make presentations to the wide variety of human service agencies that serve elderly, disabled, and economically disadvantaged individuals in the community. − Make presentations to public and private entities that assist individuals in job searches. − Distribute transit information, brochures, and schedules to senior centers, retirement communities, long-term care facilities, independent living centers, public housing authorities, workplaces employing individuals with disabilities, and other appropriate locations. F. Approaches to emphasize workplace environment and promote career opportunities in transit. • Emphasize the positive benefits of employment at your transit agency. These could include salary and benefits; possibilities for advancement; career opportunities for women, minorities, recent graduates, and retirees; flexible work schedules; chance for professional skill development; being part of a cohesive team committed to a positive mission; providing a service to the community; assisting in promoting environmental quality; and improving passenger quality of life. − Make presentations at schools, community job fairs, career days, and other venues where potential employees may gather. − Distribute transit informational materials to nearby military installations, corporate human resource managers, school guidance counselors, key minority stakeholders in the community, religious institutions, public/private employment agencies, and human service agencies. − Advertise on transit vehicles. − Encourage and train transit employees to proactively recruit applicants for transit employment. − Post this information on transit system or oversight entity website. − Advertise in local media outlets. II. Image Management Practices Scorecard Directions for using metrics to evaluate image management practices: Metric 1 – Share of employees that characterize job as having positive impact • Conduct a formal survey of employees in a given job or group of jobs to collect information on whether they make the connection that their jobs have a positive impact on individual and community quality of life.

B-22 Building a Sustainable Workforce in the public Transportation industry—A Systems Approach • If a formal survey is not feasible, conduct one-on-one confidential interviews with a representative cross-section of incumbents in a given job or group of jobs to learn whether they believe their jobs have a positive impact on individual and community quality of life. • Based on the formal or informal survey/interview process, determine the share of employees that feel their jobs have a positive impact on individual and community quality of life versus those that do not feel their jobs have a positive impact. Metric 2 – Percentage of applicants who characterize transit industry as having positive impact • Collect feedback from job applicants for a given job or group of jobs on whether they would characterize transit organizations as having a positive impact on the quality of life for individuals or the community as a whole. • Based on this feedback, determine the percentage of applicants that characterize transit as having a positive impact versus those that do not feel transit has a positive impact. Metric 3 – Proportion of community reached by positive-impact communications • Formally or informally collect feedback from key community stakeholders representing governmental entities, human service agencies, educational institutions, health care institutions, community businesses, religious institutions, and employment agencies to determine the proportion of the community that believes the transit organization has a positive impact on the community versus those that do not hold this belief. Metric 4 – Percentage of riders who consider use of transit a positive-impact choice • Conduct a formal survey of transit riders to collect information on whether they believe transit has a positive impact on the quality of their lives and the lives of fellow passengers. • If a formal survey is not feasible, conduct one-on-one confidential interviews with a representative cross-section of transit riders to determine their views on transit’s impact on personal quality of life and the quality of life of their fellow riders. • Based on the formal or informal survey/interview process, determine the percentage of transit riders that believe transit is having a positive impact on quality of life versus the percentage of transit riders that do not hold this belief. Metric 5 – Number of applicants or employees who choose transit career because job makes a positive impact • Conduct a formal survey of employees or job applicants to collect information on whether their decision to seek employment in a transit organization was based on the belief that their work makes or will make a positive impact on quality of life within the community. • If a formal survey is not feasible, conduct one-on-one confidential interviews with a representative cross-section of incumbent employees and job applicants to learn whether their decision to seek employment in a transit organization was based on the belief that their work makes or will make a positive impact on quality of life within the community. • Based on the formal or informal survey/interview process, determine the number of employees or job applicants that indicate they were attracted to transit because of its positive impact on quality of life versus those that do not indicate this as a factor.

Appendix B: Synopses of Modules B-23 Directions for Scoring Global Metrics for Image Management Practices Global metrics may also be used to compare image management practices. Metric 6 – Stakeholder buy-in • Identify appropriate stakeholders (either individuals or groups) for your transit system that have a vested interest in your system or the program that is being evaluated. • Interview or survey stakeholders about the practice being evaluated and determine their level of support for it. Metric 7 – Time to implement • Calculate the number of months from the time the practice being evaluated was first identified through to full implementation based on up-to-date records of image management initiatives. Metric 8 – Cost to implement • Identify a budget for implementing or maintaining the specific practice in question. • Track and document all costs related to implementing the practice. Metric 9 – Return on investment • Identify the goals that could be realized by implementing the practice in question. • Approximate the time that may be required for your agency to reach these goals and garner a full return on investment. Metric 10 – Sustainability • Determine whether the practice being evaluated would work in different situations or at different periods of time without revision or updates. Important note: If you are only evaluating one practice and not comparing it to another prac- tice, you may not need to complete the global metrics rating scales. If you do not complete the global metrics rating scales, you will only evaluate and score the practice-specific metrics on the upper half of each scorecard using the following total metrics scores to determine the likelihood of success going forward: Success very unlikely: 0–125. Success unlikely: 126–250. Success likely: 251–375. Success very likely: 376–500. Basic Steps and Abbreviated Approaches to Module 4: Engage in Continuous Improvement via Benchmarking Note: Please refer to Module 4 of this guidebook for an explanation of the purpose of these recommended strategies and more detailed and comprehensive approaches to implementing their elements. Benchmarking Phase 1: Planning • Do you think that using a benchmarking process with partner agencies could help improve your agency’s human resource practices? If yes, follow the next steps.

B-24 Building a Sustainable Workforce in the public Transportation industry—A Systems Approach • What are you going to benchmark? − Based on your initial informal evaluation of strengths and weaknesses of your agency’s existing human resource management practices, decide where you want to focus your benchmark activities: ▪ Recruitment. ▪ Retention. ▪ Training and development. ▪ Professional capacity building. • Who will be the benchmarking partners? − The goal is to compare one or more human resource processes within your transit agency with the processes of at least one other transit system that has similar operating characteristics and environment. − Characteristics to use for choosing a benchmarking partner could include: ▪ Geographic region. ▪ Size of service area. ▪ Comparative urban or rural service. ▪ Transit service delivery/operating modes. ▪ Total number of vehicles. ▪ Total number of employees. ▪ Total passenger trips per year. ▪ Total vehicle revenue miles per year. ▪ Total operating expense per year. ▪ Transit agency’s reputation for success. − Sources of information for these characteristics include: ▪ FTA NTD. ▪ FTA regional offices. ▪ Your state department of transportation. ▪ Your state transit association. ▪ APTA. ▪ CTAA. ▪ Direct outreach to other transit systems you might consider a peer agency. − Choose one or more transit systems to enter into a benchmarking partnership with and finalize negotiations on carrying out the partnership. (Note: The most appropriate benchmarking partner may be within another industry if a particular innovative practice is the focus of your benchmarking study.) • What data collection methods will you use to conduct the benchmarking study? − Discuss with your internal human resource staff the strengths and weaknesses of existing practices you have chosen to benchmark. − Based on internal employee input, develop survey or interview questions that the partner agency(s) will be asked to respond to concerning its parallel human resource practices. − Consider the following when creating a survey or interview tool for collecting data from benchmarking partners: ▪ What are your existing human resource practices, and how have they fallen short of success? ▪ What practices of the benchmarking partner(s) have proven successful, and how are they different from your existing internal practices? ▪ What are the procedures the benchmarking partner(s) uses to successfully implement its human resource management practices?

Appendix B: Synopses of Modules B-25 − Possible methods for collecting data from partner agencies include: ▪ A survey questionnaire for the partner agency(s) to complete and return. ▪ One-on-one meetings and interviews with representatives of the partner agency(s), conducted either face-to-face or via telephone. ▪ On-site visit to the partner agency(s) that allows for interview meetings, observation, and records review. Benchmarking Phase 2: Analysis • What does your transit agency’s performance look like for the practices you have included in the benchmarking study with the partner agency(s)? − Using the recruitment, retention, training and development, and professional capacity-building metrics previously described in this guidebook, formally collect information on your human resource processes that you feel need improvement so that these processes can be compared with information collected from the partner transit agency(s). • How do your transit agency’s practices differ from the successful practices of the partner agency(s)? − Through comparative analysis of your transit agency’s practices against parallel practices of the partner transit agency(s), identify practices of the partner agency(s) that appear to be more successful than your own in achieving targeted human resource management results. − Write a synopsis of each successful human resource practice of the partner agency(s) that could possibly benefit your agency. • Are there best practices others use that your agency can implement to bring about improvements in performance? − Based on the list of benchmarking partner’s successful practices created, discuss with your management team and human resource employees which, if any, of the partner agency’s practices can and should be implemented within your agency. − Examine your budget, time, and staffing resources to ensure that the selected practice(s) can be realistically implemented and have a reasonable possibility for success. Benchmarking Phase 3: Integration • How can you make your employees aware of the benchmarking findings to help explain the new or updated processes and create employee buy-in? − Develop a strategy paper on the new/updated recruitment, retention, training and development, or professional capacity-building processes. At a minimum, this paper should address the following: ▪ Existing human resource practices that have been identified as less than successful and the negative organizational impact of these practices. ▪ A brief overview of the benchmarking process, including the reason partners were chosen and the results gained by this process. ▪ The specific new/updated human resource management practices identified for implementation and the intended positive impact. − Distribute the strategy paper to all levels of your organization. − Discuss the strategy paper with management and frontline employees through staff, team, safety, or other organizational meetings. − If your transit agency is unionized, ensure that union leadership is included in this dialogue.

B-26 Building a Sustainable Workforce in the public Transportation industry—A Systems Approach − Gather feedback from employees, up, down, and across the organization on their reaction to the human resource management changes and modify those changes as appropriate based on that feedback. • How will the new or updated practices be implemented in your transit agency? − Create functional goals for implementing the new/updated human resource management processes, including timelines, specific milestones, and measurable results. − Communicate these goals throughout your transit organization. − Develop an action plan for implementing the new/updated practices that includes step-by-step procedures and identifies roles and responsibilities in the implementation process. Benchmarking Phase 4: Action • How do you implement your action plan for the new or updated human resource management practices? − Assign action plan implementation to the appropriate employees and empower them with the responsibility for carrying it out. − To gain employee support, communicate the steps you will take to implement the new or updated practices, and assure employees they will be informed of the results of these changes. • How is the implementation of the new or updated practices progressing? − Anticipate future objections employees may have with the new/updated processes and proactively communicate with employees to address and overcome these objections. − Monitor the progress of implementation on an ongoing basis and track changes in outcomes to ensure that the practices are having the envisioned level of success. Successful outcomes can be determined through: ▪ Tracking human resource budget. ▪ Tracking recruiting and retention records. ▪ Evaluating training and development program effectiveness. ▪ Discussing with managers, supervisors, and frontline employees the impact of change on professional capacity building. • Do any of the new or updated processes need to be redesigned? − Based on your assessment of the outcomes of the new/updated human resource management practices, re-engineer these processes as necessary. − Ensure that your transit organization does not continue to embrace practices that have become outdated or have lost value due to changing external environments, marketplace demand, or revised employee knowledge, skill, and ability requirements. Benchmarking Phase 5: Maturity • How can your transit agency close performance gaps and communicate its successes? − Continue to communicate with the benchmark partner agency(s) to compare your new or updated recruitment, retention, training and development, or professional capacity-building practices. − As your transit agency begins to show positive movement when compared with partner performance, you will be able to validate that negative performance gaps are being or have been overcome. − After determining that the benchmarking process has successfully assisted you in human resource management mission achievement, vocalize that success as

Appendix B: Synopses of Modules B-27 appropriate with your state department of transportation and through your state transit association. This will allow your agency to enhance its reputation and leadership position while encouraging your employees to become more engaged in your agency. • How do you integrate benchmarking into overall organizational change? − Once benchmarking in the human resource management area has proved to be a successful organizational development strategy, consider using the same benchmarking and partnership strategy to improve mission achievement in other organizational areas of your agency. These areas could include administration, operations, and maintenance. − Examples of administrative, operations, or maintenance processes and practices that could be enhanced through partnering and benchmarking with other peer transit agencies are: ▪ Financial and grants management processes and practices. ▪ Relations with boards and oversight entities. ▪ Marketing strategies. ▪ Team building, communication, and employee empowerment strategies. ▪ Operations safety and security-related processes, practices, and strategies. ▪ Service design and delivery strategies. ▪ Vehicle and technology procurement strategies. ▪ Vehicle maintenance management processes and practices. ▪ Preventive and corrective maintenance processes and practices. ▪ Emergency community response plans, processes, and practices. ▪ Any other internal transit practice, process, or strategy that has been identified as needing improvement and that lends itself to enhancement through using a benchmarking process.

Abbreviations and acronyms used without definitions in TRB publications: A4A Airlines for America AAAE American Association of Airport Executives AASHO American Association of State Highway Officials AASHTO American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials ACI–NA Airports Council International–North America ACRP Airport Cooperative Research Program ADA Americans with Disabilities Act APTA American Public Transportation Association ASCE American Society of Civil Engineers ASME American Society of Mechanical Engineers ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials ATA American Trucking Associations CTAA Community Transportation Association of America CTBSSP Commercial Truck and Bus Safety Synthesis Program DHS Department of Homeland Security DOE Department of Energy EPA Environmental Protection Agency FAA Federal Aviation Administration FHWA Federal Highway Administration FMCSA Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration FRA Federal Railroad Administration FTA Federal Transit Administration HMCRP Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ISTEA Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 ITE Institute of Transportation Engineers MAP-21 Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (2012) NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASAO National Association of State Aviation Officials NCFRP National Cooperative Freight Research Program NCHRP National Cooperative Highway Research Program NHTSA National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NTSB National Transportation Safety Board PHMSA Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration RITA Research and Innovative Technology Administration SAE Society of Automotive Engineers SAFETEA-LU Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (2005) TCRP Transit Cooperative Research Program TEA-21 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (1998) TRB Transportation Research Board TSA Transportation Security Administration U.S.DOT United States Department of Transportation

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TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 162: Building a Sustainable Workforce in the Public Transportation Industry—A Systems Approach provides a guidebook that addresses contemporary issues in workforce development, retention, and attraction, and public transportation image management.

The guidebook provides practical tools to transit agencies on a variety of workforce issues including workforce strategies that enhance organizational processes, performance metrics to evaluate the impact of workforce strategies, image management techniques that improve perceptions of the public transportation industry, and benchmarking processes that allow for continuous organizational improvement.

The guidebook is separated into modules that may be used independently or together in the form of the fully integrated guidebook.

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