Workforce Planning and Professional Development Task Force - Final Report

Appendix A

2010 FHWA PROGRAMS

The Federal Highway Administration continues to have a robust program. The FHWA niche in the transportation industry is: (1) its leadership role in providing and implementing a national perspective on the management and operation of the transportation system, (2) its ability to facilitate Federal requirements, (3) its development and/or standardization of system features that are key to a safe and continuous system, (4) its role as national coordinator of highway standards to improve highway safety and enhance interstate commerce, (5) its management of international transportation and economic issues, (6) its function as a focal point of long term/high cost research, (7) its ability to provide technical services to Tribes and Federal agencies to improve transportation access to and on Federal Lands, (8) its ability to deploy new technology, and (9) and, its ability to protect and enhance the environment.

The focus of the program will be: (1) provision of a limited number of major new or capacity expansion facilities to adjust transportation infrastructure for areas of growth, (2) to provide support in the delivery of major reconstruction on interstate and urban freeways and rehabilitation of the remaining highway system, (3) integration of system/modal planning, (4) integration of system improvements to national and state economies including travel and tourism economies; (5) strong environmental planning consideration in the transportation planning process, (6) integrated operation of transportation facilities, (7) improved safety and operations of facilities, and (8) deployment of new technology.

2010 FHWA ROLE

The FHWA's role in 2010 will be one of leadership in maintaining a continuous transportation system that stays current with the public's needs and values. The FHWA will accomplish this role through: (1) expanded leadership in development and implementation of new technologies in infrastructure and operations (services), (2) oversight of all Title 23 programs (little, if any, reduction of Title 23 oversight is expected) and non-Title 23 requirements applicable to program and project delivery, (3) increased technical assistance both in new technologies and in traditional skills to meet customer and partner expectations and improve program performance as mandated by GPRA, (4) expanded leadership in transportation planning to implement environmental planning at transportation planning stage and to achieve integrated intermodal planning, (5) continued leadership in quality management through the application of Baldrige criteria, (6) continued leadership in policy promulgation as an independent reviewer/arbiter to obtain a nationally equitable, coherent transportation service, and (7) continued leadership in establishing design standards and systems architecture for safe and efficient operations.

Key differences in the FHWA programs and roles of the Interstate Era and the Possible FHWA of the early 21^st century are summarized in the attached table.

Staff Trends and Directions

During the peak years of Interstate construction in the early 1970's, FHWA staffing reached a peak of about 5,400 employees. Since that time, the number of employees has steadily declined until today¯there are about 2,900 with the recent loss of 600 employees to the FMCSA. These reductions occurred despite significant increases in program size and complexity.

A more detailed look at the impacts of these staffing reductions shows trends not dissimilar to private industry during this same time frame.

Whole layers of secondary management/oversight were removed with abolishment of the nine FHWA Regional Offices. Many mid-level management positions (Division Chiefs, Regional Office Directors, District Engineers, etc.) were abolished or combined to reflect increased empowerment and increase span of control.

Similarly, first level supervisory positions were reduced through more flexible team approaches and reduced numbers of assistant positions (e.g., Assistant ROW, Bridge, P&R, Area Engineer, etc.).

Finally, many support service positions were abolished or outsourced to further hone office efficiency. Areas targeted for reductions and outsourcing included clerical support, personnel, information technology, training development and support, and Research and Development Operations.

Today, FHWA finds itself a much leaner and more flexible organization with a larger and more diverse program than ever before. FHWA is a highly empowered organization with minimum levels of management and maximum levels of delegation. The program future is sound with the steady growth of its Trust Fund and the assurances of Trust Fund usage provided by TEA-21.

With more and more attention being paid to the critical correlation of infrastructure to the economy and FHWA's strategic planning performance being recognized for excellence throughout Government, FHWA's future prospects appear secure.

If FHWA is to continue to deliver its program in a continuously improved manner to reflect increased customer expectations, it must plan for the work force of the future and design programs of professional development to achieve it. The first step in this process, is recognizing where we are today.

Several trends regarding today's work force have major ramifications for FHWA:

• FHWA, like others in the transportation field, is a greying organization:
  • Fifty percent of the career SES are currently eligible to retire as of this writing and 80 percent within 5 years.

  • About 40 percent of FHWA's remaining career leadership is currently eligible to retire and another 30 percent or so within 5 years.

  • An estimated 15 percent of our technical expertise is eligible to retire and a like amount is eligible in 5 years.

  • Secretaries and technical/clerical support have the highest turnover rates (12-23 percent). ROW, Engineers and Planners (9-11 percent) are the highest in the professional series.

  • After hitting a 20-year separation rate high of 13.4 percent in 1995, FHWA dropped to 7.1 percent in 1998 and a 9.0% in 1999. The rate is increasing once more and is expected to be increasingly higher over the next 5 years.
  
  
  
• The demand, overall, for engineering disciplines and information specialists is rapidly outstripping the supply making recruitment more difficult.
  
  
• The high demand, portable retirement plans, and volatile industry is such that retention rates may drop significantly in the future.
  
  
• Talent attraction and retention will be much more competitive in the future.
  
  
• Some one-deep technical experts could jeopardize FHWAs ability to respond to sensitive customer needs in the near future through separation or retirement.

STAFFING REQUIREMENTS TO FULFILL THE 2010 FHWA MISSION AND ROLES

The FHWA will need a broad mix of program knowledge in all areas--not only for oversight and program assistance but also for technology delivery and training activities. Skills mix will include increases in those specialties needed for environmental coordination, planning, information management and electronic technologies, especially communications technologies, to support internal administration and improved traffic operations and facility management. Although some of these functions could be supplied by the private sector, a cadre of highly trained specialists to set policy, establish standards, and administer contracts will be needed within FHWA. Also, a slight increase in more traditional specialists may be warranted to assure continuity of operations during times of high Government turnover.

Personnel with experience and training in basic program delivery will be increasingly in demand to provide assistance to States and others in the management of systems. A mix of generalists and technical specialists will be necessary at the Division level to support increasingly decentralized State operations. As the program grows in size and complexity, increases in both technical and program assistance staff will be necessary.

For FHWA to provide financial technical assistance it will be required for generalists to have an increased knowledge of financing as well as increase the number of financial specialists in the workforce. In 2000, FHWA is seeing the beginning of totally new approaches in financing transportation facilities and leveraging funds.

Employees will need higher competencies in interpersonal skills to conduct interagency coordination, foster team building, work with multiple and new partners, and plan and manage diverse work activities. Public speaking, marketing, etc. will be required as a result of the continuing increase in the number of agencies involved in the delivery of the program and the increasing interaction between agencies due to joint activities. The broad band of knowledge employees will need to administer increased programs. Broader responsibilities will require an expanded range of technical, business and professional skills.

The FHWA Program will also require an increased ability in customer service as expectations are heightened on the need for the Federal processes to add value.

Interpersonal skills will have increased importance in evaluation/selection/promotion of employees. Also, technical staff must be more flexible in the future. They will be called upon more and more for temporary assignments, quality improvement teams, and learning assignments.

Technical knowledge will be as a result of fundamental training in an area with continued retraining on specific knowledge areas in response to technological changes at an increasing rate. The FHWA will need staff committed to continual retraining and flexibility.

More emphasis will be placed on technical exchange and networking meetings. More applications of communities of practice will be essential for knowledge sharing and advancement of the State-of-the-Practice through documentation of best practices. In addition, staff exchange programs, any assignments, and support positions to National experts will be used selectively to develop national experts of the future.

Staff positions will allow for the support of multiple offices in order to provide day-to day technical expertise for a staff at different development levels and provide for back-up in skill areas (e.g., technical experts located in the field Division Offices available on temporary assignment, or Division Office staff assigned back-up program responsibilities for neighboring states during temporary assignments or as a result of employee turnover). Team assignments and special assignments will increasingly be used for professional development.

STAFF OPERATIONS SIZE AND LOCATION IMPLICATIONS

To be a customer focused, performance-based organization dedicated to continuous quality improvement, FHWA will require modest increases in staff and very targeted professional development objectives.

We believe that such a future is consistent with the Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) as well as FHWAs own vision and mission.

We further believe that the need for some additional staffing is fully supportable given several basic assumptions. Those assumptions are as follows:

• Given the increased transportation customer base, the proliferation of transportation programs and the continued focus on donor/donee state equity, staff demands for evaluation of alternative policy options, policy development, and policy promulgation are expected to at least remain constant in the future.
  
  
• The demand for improved oversight will remain constant or decrease, except on complex, high cost projects.



• Given a parallel loss of expertise and staffing at the State level, the need for continued and improved technical and program assistance by the Division level is expected to increase at least to the level of the program increase. Improved assistance to meet customer needs is a critical GPRA component.



• If FHWA is to improve the overall performance of the services it provides as mandated by GPRA, FHWA needs to moderately but selectively expand technical expertise to fill current vacancies, provide minimum back up and meet new and expanding market areas. This will require some minor increases at each organizational level.

In Summary, if FHWA is to improve its program delivery, and enhance its development and deployment of new technology while holding oversight and policy promulgation constant, a modest increase in generalist and technical specialist positions is warranted. Increases could be spread over several years to ensure continued productivity gains. In addition, FHWA must make a concerted effort to either get low performers to improve their performance or to leave the agency. Such increases would also help to focus on emerging program issues related to defense needs, safety, ITS, communications technology, environment and inter-modal planning. Distribution should be based on an in-depth look at the Work Force Plan and should be prioritized to cover the most critical needs first; for example, a critical vacancy in an essential technical area of expertise.

With no net increase in staff, it is clear that improvements in customer service through expanded program assistance and increased technology development and deployment can only be achieved through offsetting reductions. Expanded program assistance will help offset the reduction in oversight. Given the relatively fixed demands on policy, this means a less pro-active role in oversight. Although more prescriptive and punitive regulations are generally not desired, they may be the only practical approach in connection with post-project audits to ensuring compliance. Also all possible outsourcing would be necessary. This approach will be pursued under a "no net increase" alternative.

Staff reductions in the face of increasing programs would be especially challenging. They would not only erode FHWA project oversight; but also jeopardize the ability to enhance state-of-the-art and improve state-of-the-practice. However by aggressively pursuing program assistance we can reduce our oversight role. Major reductions through devolution or turn back of Federal responsibilities would adversely impact FHWAs goal attainment capabilities in environment and safety and reduce our leverage for technology deployment. Over a longer time frame, reductions would seriously impact our ability to recruit and retain top technical staff.

The impacts to the program under the three staffing alternatives are shown in the attached staff table.

RECOMMENDATION

In order to meet and exceed our customer's expectations for valuable assistance, to expand and secure world class technical expertise, and develop and deploy State-of-the-Art technology, and provide balance decision-making, the Task Force recommends that FHWA leadership 1) pursue additional staffing as defined by the Work Force Plan 2) aggressively promote increased recruitment of a highly skilled workforce, and 3) initiate actions to identify and remove non-performers from the Agency.