AASHTO Subcommittee on Personnel and Human Resources

Annual Conference Meeting Notes

May 19-21, 2013

5/20/13 - Welcome

Amanda opened the meeting with announcements

Lamar provided welcoming remarks from Alabama

Introduced sponsors who were “responsible for the fun”

Details about food, meals activities planned

Transportation vans

Thank you’s to those who helped put on the conference

Slide show about Alabama and famous people from Alabama.

Door prizes throughout the conference, most of which were made by Lamar

Mickey Knudsen MODOT – 5 year direction and restructure

The plan was big and bold. They had to do a massive reorganization. *Source documents are available. Access to the documents will be sent to participants via email with a link. If you miss the window to the link you can contact her and get the documents.

Key to Success: Perfect Timing - MODOT closed multiple locations at the same time. This reduced the “pain” and complaining as it was happening across the state, not just to one group. They held an open competition for all jobs. They conducted 5 implementation rounds. The rounds were completed for the following groups in this order: Managers, Professionals, Maintenance Supervisors, Technicians and Office Support. 3900 people competed for 2700 jobs.

They published a complete timeline with each deadline included on their website and stuck to it. They held weekly implementation calls for leadership and the HR staff to resolve issues as they went along. At the start of each round they had a video conference. These informed staff of what was next and when interviews would be held.

They offered employees the opportunity and training to transition to maintenance, including assistance in getting their CDL.

The final group of layoffs included 130 employees. They provided message saturation to this team and the agency. They advised the employees two months early that they would get a layoff note and would then have 2 weeks to transition out. Employees were then paid 2 months admin leave while they were home after layoff.

Q&A: Why do it so quickly vs. a longer timeline?

Construction work had dropped, had to transition to a maintenance organization. They expect to save 512m over 5 years and 117m every year thereafter. They have already saved 364m

Lessons learned:

Some push back by people who were appointed to their jobs thinking they were “more safe”.

FHWA’s Knowledge Management System – Anne Audet

DSS Discipline Support System – an integrated way to transfer knowledge from current employees to new ones. The problem statement: How do you get the person in Arizona to learn from the one in Alaska? i.e. transferring learning across states.

19 disciplines have been identified so for, including, not limited to: Admin, civil rights, construction, freight, environmental, structures, air quality, planning, safety and project management. They are working to develop an HR discipline.

Discipline Elements Include:

Sponsor champion(s) for each discipline area

Workforce MANAGEMENT, COMPETENCIES, Membership, Recruitment

Networking – Communication, SharePoint site

Learning and Development, monthly webinars, seminars every 3 years

Role and Job expectations

Policies, Guidance

Strategic Planning

Challenges:

Consistency across disciplines, a discipline council meets monthly to help with this

Involvement of the organization at the division level

One employee, multiple disciplines

Fiscal constraints on seminars and Learning Development, emphasis on virtual technology, reducing the frequency of actual gatherings

Outcomes – greater communication between discipline members

Workforce Management System – Crystal Woods, Arkansas

Prior to 2012, Arkansas had a paper based system and had a need for more accuracy. They did an RFI for vendors and selected Kronos. They fully implemented their new system which includes, analytics and time and attendance in October 2012.

Maintenance employees use biometric check in systems with their fingerprint. Office employees log in using their computers, State Police use laptops with air cards and wireless, as do construction employees. Supervisors carry a Passport device to enter tasks completed by the crew.

They track federal ID numbers, equipment numbers, and multiple types of information for cost accounting. The system allows searches for “wild card” entries if you don’t know the correct code.

The Equipment Management System, EMS tracks the records needed for equipment

Maintenance employees really like the Passport device, it is very user friendly. The device screen has drop down boxes for employee names, equipment and materials.

The device then does the calculations and uploads into the system every night. Now managers and crews have “real time” information for the press or anyone who needs to know current expenditures on an activity.

As the roll out continues Arkansas DOT anticipates savings of 12 employees through attrition due to the significant savings of paper processing.

They are already seeing significant improvements in accuracy of data in the system.

Employees are punching in and out, so they have eliminated their “theft of time” issues.

Q&A:

Union concerns about punching in and out? No unions in Arkansas.

Acceptance? Communication? They did a baseline survey regarding culture change and provide updates in the employee newsletter.

They had some pushback. 1-2 maintenance supervisors retired rather than implement the new system. They were used to having a payroll clerk do the work for them.

Arkansas and Alabama have both put GPS on most of their equipment to track it.

Alicia Garrett is the contact in Arkansas DOT on the Kronos WMS program

Chris Hedges, Senior Program officer NCHRP

The Workforce Challenge report was published recently. The workforce Toolkit is an online interactive tool available at NCHRP. A handout was provided with other resources.

NCHRP is looking for good research projects from HR.

Projects should be cost achievable 3-500k

Implementable

And take about 18 months to complete

Chris sees the committee as his “boss” because funding for his program comes from the states. They do an annual solicitation for synthesis projects. A small area of their department can do legal research on a shorter time frame.

Open discussion of Best Practices – Open Forum

Indiana has a booklet on their four core values; they are using it for culture change.

Alabama – Using a company called Southern Link they have put GPS on all vehicles/equipment and are using that for herbicide application to track and document where they spray. The units cost 300$ and then require a $30 per month The first year these units were in place they drove one million miles less as an agency, they’re reduced idle times and saved the entire initial investment in $300 units. The system sends managers an email if someone goes over a set MPH.

Michigan is using the same system and their units serve as mini weather stations as each truck or snowplow sends weather information back to the central office. Other states attach cameras so they can see the weather conditions, “what the plow sees”.

Pennsylvania asked what other states are doing for a safety program, safety culture. They don’t feel that they are seeing a lot of results in this area.

Washington – Safety and Health program. Executives go to the field to talk about the culture. Washington is doing something close to a lean process on the activities performed. They are copying Weyerhaeuser’s program on safety excellence. Washington’s representative is happy to share their materials.

A New NCHRP research project is coming regarding safety in the work zone.

Some states are disciplining for safety violations within a unionized environment. Others find that difficult/problematic.

Bring Your Own Device/BYOD –

  • Employees now want to bring their own device because state isn’t providing the latest equipment or most current, so employees want to bring their own to work on. How are others responding to that? Difficult situation for ISB security, be cautious
  • If you use your own device it is subject to public disclosure
  • There is some work in Oregon regarding installing a program which puts a “container” on your device to compartmentalize data. Be aware that if it’s your own device it could be taken while they get data for an investigation or resolve a security breach.

Question: How are we getting applications developed for employees or the public? Public wants apps for their devices. Most states indicated that was being contracted out.

Question: Is anyone partnering with community colleges? Several states indicated yes.

Courage Under Fire Presentation

Describe someone you think of as professional what word would you use to describe them?

Calm, honest, positive, engaging, respectful, competent, visionary

We also know what it is not:

Arrogant, jealous, etc.

Maisters Definition:

Believing passionately in what you do, never compromising your standards and values, and the courage to care about your people, your clients and your career.

Why does it take courage?We are under multiple attacks. Pay cuts, Organizational change, job cuts, hard feelings, sickness, stressetc. And then there’s the “So What” attitude that some people bring into the workplace. “They don’t pay me for my attitude”.

And yet, ordinary people are doing ordinary things with extraordinary care. Example: “Jessica” a waitress who received a 10k tip. What if we didn’t have people pulling against each other? What if this was your business? What if you were on camera? Would you do the same things?

Courage is:

Character

Overcome

Unity

Respect

Attitude

Growth

Excellence

Character is a combination of qualities that distinguish you as an individual. How you treat those who can do nothing for you.

Qualities of good character – Integrity, honesty, forthrightness, trustworthy, responsible, dependable

We have to overcome – stuff happens.

Stay committed, stay the course, get back up, don’t quit, never be defeated

Example: Giraffe being born process: The mother giraffe keeps kicking the newborn baby until it’s no longer wobbly and can get up quickly. This keeps the baby alive as danger is ever present and the baby has to be able to run.

Unity – Every player must put the team first. Ahead of personal glory – Paul Bryant, Alabama Coach

Cream of the crop employees are in high demand. Credibility, cooperation, communication, complianceare critical attributes. True professionals are leaders. You don’t have to be the expert but you have to have good leadership qualities to be able to get people to follow you. Great leaders bring out the best in others.

Reference: Tony Dungy’s book “Quiet Strength”. Tony Dungy is a Class Act, Man of Valor, Courageous leader and a Role Model. He said, “When the game ends, win or lose, it’s time to prepare for the next one….practice well and the game takes care of itself.” It’s about you and me on the journey.

Respect

Be tolerant of differences, handling a jerk with jerk behavior=2 jerks

You have to give respect to get it. People are watching.

Attitude

The power of attitude

Why people get jobs…85% attitude, 15% knowledge

We all have difficult private lives. Positive attitude is a powerful personality trait. It is reflected in everything you do. Negative attitudes are draining, contagious energy suckers. “I don’t, I can’t…” “Why do they always…” Things that contribute to bad attitude include events, people, change and stress. Be sure you’re not contributing to workplace stress.

Growth

Learn, small steps, stretch, keep eyes on the goal, persistence

There is no giant step that does it, persistence, lots of little steps,

Example: learning to be a public speaker, it takes time and practice.

Excellence

Never settle for less, always pressing for the best. Customer service excellence -

“We’re here to serve”, are we really? Or is it just what we say? Can we give people more than they expect? We haveour jobs because of “people”. Are we holding them hostage or helping them?

Closing Quote: The courage to care about your people, your clientsand your career.

Recruitment & Social media: What we have learned – David Corn, Recruitment Specialist, Iowa DOTLee Wilkinson, Operations & Finance Division Director, Iowa DOT

Iowa DOT Strategic Plan: Smarter, simpler and Customer driven. E Government driven

Delivery of service and products by new means, efficient, convenient, cost reduction, no forms/paper, all on line. They’re currently developing a mobile app for timesheets. “Highly valued talent who value themselves and their time won’t tolerate an inefficient application process”. Hope Gurion, Career Builder

What is Social media? Blogging, photo-video sharing, RSS feeds, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.

What the programs do:

TwitterWhat am I doing, or going to do500 million users

FacebookWhat I did1 Billion users

4squareWhere I did it

QuoraWhy I did it

You TubeLook at me doing it

Linked InI’m good at doing it275 million users

Google+Let’s all do it together500 million users

PinterestHere’s how I did it

Where it’s going:

1 in 7 minutes spent online is on social media

Mobility – 1.1 billion people use Facebook, 680k use the mobile app.

Integrated sites feed into each other

Monetized - most sites are increasing the abundance of ads.

Growing - at an eye popping rate

Engaging – allow users to comment live

Younger, - Snap Check lets you send a picture fast

Streamlining applications – allows applicants to upload their profile from Linked In to job applications. Make it easy.

Demographics:

Facebook users are almost identical to the US population

Linked In, slightly more men than women

Pinterest, 5 times more women than men. (Iowa is investing here to get more women interested in Iowa DOT)

Best Practices:

Iowa uses multiple apps.

Linked In posts all their jobs for free

You tube is marketing to professors regarding STEM curriculum for use in the classroom.

Iowa’s website recently had 200k hits, which is a huge jump. They attribute this to their intentional investment in the use of social media. 3k subscribers are now signed up to be notified when jobs post. Iowa now has a combined following of over 15k on social sites.

Twitter followers increased for those following weather and highway news. They are not using any other recruitment outreach and they’re getting jobs filled. Of the last 150 jobs filled, less than 10 needed additional advertising. They’re now getting “viral” effect of views as friends of their sites “like” the Facebook posts and others view them.

More people view Facebook on Wednesdays than any other day which makes it the best day to post.

There is huge competition for space on the internet; everything is fighting for “face time.” Quantity of posts only works in moderation. Be relevant, not annoying.

Encourage your employees to follow; you’ll get a snowball effect. They have valuable connections.

Incorporate social media into everything.

“Typepad” feeds into twitter and their website and reduces duplication.

Use feedblitz or feedburner to set up email service.

Enhance sites to include other parts of business needs.

What is Iowa doing to improve?

They’re building a mobile jobs application

Increasing subscribers

Using Facebook’s new job board,

Using social media for all recruitments

Challenges

Building a following

Editing

Security

Monitoring

Time

Engaging

What are other states doing?

Iowa checked out other state’s “social presence”….

25 of us are using Linked In, 30 DOT’s use Facebook, Almost every state uses Twitter

Q&A

Discussion about auto screening applicants

Concerns about allowing employees to access social media with their work computers

What about applicant blogs such as the “Glass Door” program where people blog about their experience applying with your DOT?

How much resource is IOWA investing? One IT person for road conditions, a recruiter handles Linked in and the website, it takes about 20% of his job to maintain it.

Are DOT’s using Skype for interviews? Most said yes it was an available option, but not using much. Washington DC and Alaska use it regularly.

If you continue to recruit traditionally you will get traditional applicants.

Resources:

Social media governance.com (great resource)

Digital Royalty University.com (or .org)

Twitter 101, the charge is $20 per class and you can pack a room with class participants

Subcommittee Business Meeting

Bylaw Revisions:

The primary driver behind our bylaw revision is to come into alignment with AASHTO standards. We also changed one position on the committee from a research coordinator to a secretary position. The purpose of the revised position is to increase interest in the committee and post information on the work tools website. That role should also connect to NCHRP.