AASHTO Subcommittee on Personnel and Human Resources (SCOPHR) Meeting Notes
May 19, 2014
Welcome
Amanda Holland opened the meeting with announcements, handed out a copy of the Subcommittee’s bylaws in
preparation for our breakout sessions tomorrow morning.
Diversity &Transition in the workforce – The practice of Inclusion – Effenus Henderson, CEO of Henderworks
What does Diversity & Inclusion have to do with DOT’s?
Activity: Q1: Everyone in the room who believes they represent a part of diversity stand up. Q2: What do you
represent? i.e. gender, race, socioeconomics, culture, veteran, age (Everyone should stand, everyone brings something
unique)
The evolution of Diversity & Inclusion
Where did it begin? In the 80’s with Compliance and Affirmative Action, then Diversity and Valuing Differences,
Diversity and Organizational inclusion, the strategic imperative, Diversity and Inclusion beyond the workforce, workplace
and organization – Monetizing the value of D&I to stakeholder relations, sustainable development and bottom line
results.
When did business start to focus on D&I work? In the state of Washington Senate Bill 200 changed the way businesses
saw the issue.
The Business Imperative





Business, profitability, innovation, market development, globalization, product design, supply chains, quality
Economic, demographic changes, sustainable development, license to operate, regulatory and public policy
People, recruitment, engagement, development, retention, satisfaction, innovation, perspectives
Leadership
Work systems, organizational development, Organizational trust, succession, performance outcomes.
Growing Complexity


Civil society, reputation, governance, license to operate, sustainability, employment, investment, public policy
supply chains, Social Media, Human Rights, Cultural identity, Social justice etc.
In the past we focused on the workforce and workplace, now we think about suppliers, community,
stakeholders.
Stakeholder issues





Employees – engagement, satisfaction, productivity, retention
Investors, transparency decisions, ethical Conduct, business results
Customers, market penetration, demographic impact, customer satisfaction
Communities – License to operate, human rights, Volunteerism, sponsorships
Communities now offer a “license to operate” in their area. Businesses have to earn the right to be there. I.E.
Walmart in the Tacoma area had to be a business the community wanted.
Regulators – Public Policy, Regulatory Change, Emerging civil society trends
1|Page



The importance of context setting
Alignment with mission vision and values
Integration of diversity into the overall business strategy
Development of a multi-year change agenda/strategy
Do we have a strategy in place? What are you doing? Connecticut has a diversity council and internal education,
employee resource groups to help change the culture.
Leadership Role Modeling – How the leader sets the tone for the work
Governance and Compliance – Effective harassment prevention policies and procedures
Progressive Outreach - Minority cultures are relationship based. You have to think through how to approach them.
People are careful about who they work for.
Culture and Climate - Checking in with how people feel at work, retention
Talent Management - Where are you going to recruit? How is your online hiring process working? Does it presort
people out of the recruitment? An online hiring tool shouldn’t be your only source for talent.
Henderworks Assessment Framework – Henderworks developed a tool to look at big companies who ended up in class
action lawsuits or big court battles… where did they “go wrong” in their D&I work? They assessed these categories:









Workforce Utilization
Governance and Compliance
Work Climate and Culture
Rates of Participation in HR processes and systems
Rate of rise of women and people of color
Understanding the level of interest of employees in development
Outreach and community relations
Alignment with organizational values
Employee retention and talent management
Action Taken:









Collect data on risk areas
Work with leaders to assess gaps
Use effectiveness barometer to identify levels of effectiveness
Treat data as confidential and share on a need to know basis
Develop action plan to address issues
Alignment with workforce plans
Understand external influencers and internal driveers
Identify critical workforce issues and gaps ID Mission critical skills and roles, assess employee value proposition,
define targeted future workforce
Develop and execute strategic actions, resourcing, development, recruitment, retention diversity & inclusion,
pay and benefits, work design, managed entry, knowledge transfer
The importance of leadership commitment: The work should start and end at leadership’s door. The leader will drive
the success of this effort. It’s not about HR, People leave leaders not companies. These are things that leaders need to
do on a regular basis.

Clearly understand the demographics and composition of workforce
2|Page









Make diversity leadership a personal priority
Expand recruitment efforts through targeted outreach
Build diversity and inclusion into business planning process and stakeholder relations
Make a personal commitment to develop the pipeline
Sponsor mentoring efforts and diversity network groups
Sponsor and participate in diversity education
Become personally involved and support diversity outreach efforts
Ensure leadership behaviors are inclusive and demonstrate a value for diversity
Create and maintain a diverse and inclusive culture
4 areas of leader behavior that drive the organizational culture:




Trust
How they communicate their expectations,
Circle of influence- who they bring to the table to start solving problems, Do we always bring engineers to the
table, or do we include a diverse group to problem solve?
Equal opportunity for growth and development – Mr. Rooney, the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers is credited
with the “Rooney rule”. He said “I don’t care who you select at the end of the day, I just want you to have a
diverse candidate pool to select from.”
Q&A: How to take this back to your organization?
Break it into smaller chunks, have a conversation with leadership team, leaders may be apprehensive-this may not seem
to be an important business priority to them, and secondly, do they have commitment to the issue. Weyerhaeuser’s
management team did a scatter gram of their personal commitment… then asked, is this good enough? The team said
they wanted to do more and set 2-3 goals. There isn’t a cookie cutter approach.
How did Weyerhaeuser change from the company of the 90’s to today? Leaders had to take hold of the issue, it
evolved, HR helped raise the awareness and helped decomplicate the issue for leaders. HR helped integrate the issue
into business practices. They never got complete buy in, there are still issues in mid management, don’t see leaders as
outside the work, but part of the solution.
How do you measure leadership?





They had a number of measures… looked at employee’s engagement survey, teased out the data by
demographic groups by race, gender, age to sense where satisfaction suffered. Also looked at placements
against opportunity – substantial underutilization. IF you have 100 job openings-looked at availability of job
candidates, management measured against closing that gap. Also measured whether those people stayed.
Respectful behavior – all employees took annual harassment prevention and education training. Online
Rate of Rise – Checked to see if we were getting more traction, results
Every facility had an affirmative action plan renewed by the first quarter of every year and reported through the
board of directors.
20% weight on management bonus payouts related to their success in improving D&I.
Veterans Outreach in Washington State - Robert Humes,Washington State Department of Revenue
Veterans were attracted to state jobs, but they were not staying when they got the job. They also had a hard time
translating the skills they learned in the military into tasks in the workplace.
3|Page
Military Skill and Experience Translation Tools
How to hear “Navy Yeoman” and realize they may have experience in HR if you haven’t been in the military yourself.
Ways to use these tools:

Review applications – look for similarities in keywords located on the job announcement and the veteran’s
application materials. Use the tools to search these works and phrases to establish whether or not the applicant
is competitive.
 Target job announcements for veteran population. i.e. Veterans strongly encouraged to apply; “army
___specialists” strongly encouraged to apply.
Source potential applicants



H2H.jobs Hero 2Hired is a job board sponsored by the Department of Defense, good place to find people, IT,
Safety, Mechanics. Read between the lines, resumes are not always the best.
ACAP.Lewis@serco-NA.com,
Linked In – linkedin.com
o NW Edge Program, actively helping veterans find positions and learn to interview well. Includes resume,
interview skills, meeting state workers and seeing what it would be like to work for state government.
Military Employee Populations
Enlisted service members, noncommissioned officers make up 80% of the military workforce. They’re the backbone and
may have college degrees.
Officers-Commissioned, educated, may have gone to military academies, or regular universities… as the military draws
down many have masters’ degrees.
Guard/Reserve vs. Active Duty – These people live in two worlds. DOD doesn’t look at them the same, resources are
different. They may be transitioned home/out of the military with fewer resources than active military. Guard
members are “low hanging fruit”. They’re already in your community!
My nextmove.org/vets ( Robert’s preferred website) includes KSAs for positions-HR can search through the site and look
for where military jobs that include the skills you’re looking for are located and figure out which base has the job types
they’re trying to fill
Military.com (Good, but doesn’t offer a lot of explanation about the military assignment)
Home Depot has a translation tool from their jobs and the specialties in the military. Wouldn’t it be great if Neogov did
that for us?
For classification purposes it is important to understand that everyone in the military has additional assignments, often a
huge part of their work, but not mentioned in their job assignments
Veterans Fellowship Program
NW Edge is a prerequisite for the program, Targeted job shadow opportunity, 40 non-consecutive hours; no more than 8
hours in one agency, 4 hours with one coach; Fellows develop meaningful information to close gaps; build networks 25
fellows (pilot phase); 5-6 per quarter, all applications screened and vetted
Camo 2 Commerce


Community Partnership
OJT Non-permanent, direct employment opportunities, 50% wage reimbursement
4|Page



Union Partners notified
MOU being prepared for signature
WSDOT is an active participant
Contact Information: roberthH@dor.wa.gov 360 725 7496
Telework at WSDOT – Changing a Mindset – Kimberly Britton, Human Resources Manager, WSDOT
Drivers: State commute trip reduction law (1991) , Sustainability, 2012 Executive order – sustainable business practices
Future Drivers: Real-estate reductions, COOP continuity of operations programs. How do we get people to work to
keep our business running, even in light of a disaster or other situation preventing people from getting to work.
Telework Pilot: Buy-in
Identifying fans, Champion managers, Internal team
Making the business case:


Current policy
Strategy for multiple initiatives


Benefits for agency and employee
No new investments – (no funding available)
Establishing a goal: 30% of employees in eligible positions teleworking at least one day per week
Participation requirements and expectations:




Regularly telework at least once a month, but no more than three days a week (more than 3 days per week
employees do lose productivity)
Report data for six months report on days lost, cost savings, office/lease space, commute savings, employee
morale, productivity
Submit accountability tool
Follow communication protocols
Use your champion manager to create “fans”









Understand the culture
Have an open discussion, getting managers to think about it
Conduct training
Determine eligibility together, determine which job classifications could support a telework situation, is there a
way we can structure the work assignments to allow telework.
Report progress throughout
Supervisor engagement
Host an information session
Direction from management
Gauge interest/comfort, went after the people
who were on the fence and helped them see it
differently.
Midpoint check-in





Employee engagement
Information session, web and email
communication
Gauge interest/comfort
Self-assessment
Midpoint check in
Phase 1.0: Start small and “safe” - HQ Public Transportation Division was in a very expensive lease. By starting there
they were able to have employees share cubicles and work in less space.
This pilot was aligned with the public transportation mission; Targeted 34 employees; some had previous telework
experience; similar job functions all were planners. 21 employees applied and were approved.
5|Page
Results: All participants reported they were just as, or more productive while teleworking. 33% of supervisors reported
lost productivity, after research, this seemed to be cultural, not used to not seeing employees daily. Since then manager
scores are changing. i.e. phase 2 only 25% of managers reported a loss in productivity. 73% of all supervisors reported
telework boosts morale, Participants saved $6500. After the pilot more employees applied. Approximately 292
telework days logged.
Phase 2.2 more diverse job functions, regional project offices, 76 employees, no telework experience, heavy computer
applications. 18 employees applied and were approved.
Only one supervisor reported a loss in productivity, 82% of participants reported they were just as or more productive
while teleworking. 68% of all supervisors reported telework boosts morale and helps employee concentrate.
Participants saved 7200 (18 people)
Participation benefits: Improved work life balance, saved money, happier on the job, feel productive and accountable
Agency benefits: Fosters a more efficient and satisfied workforce, increases office morale, improves workload
organization and prioritization, fits within the culture, reduces participant commute travel and office energy
consumption, reduces participant personal leave use, retains employees. This also helped employees be away from the
stress in the workplace due to layoff situation at WSDOT.
Participant comment: “The program is very clear about expectations and is well defined and organized”. “You turned a
dragon into a zealot”.
Lessons learned











Bring the right players to the table at the beginning
Using a formal approach and an accountability tool works
Management support affects participation; the pilots were more successful when division administrators were
passionate and supportive of the project and participated in the communication and employee information
meetings. Areas where managers were not big fans of the idea noticed less participation as employees felt less
comfortable signing up.
Messaging impacts employees understanding
Employees need more IT guidance;
Supervisor training is essential; helping supervisors communicate their expectations improves success
Non-teleworkers benefit too; less people in the office means fewer distractions for the people who are there.
Telework helps reduce space needs, WSDOT is continuing to move people into smaller cubicles to save money
which helps reduce their need to do layoffs, and ensures stewardship of funding.
You can modify your goal.
Original participants are now the change agents promoting the project.
Communication is key - WSDOT has an internet page devoted to telework,
Expectations of participants
 A telework report outlining planned tasks presented to supervisor prior to each telework workday.
 Post telework email sent at the end of the workday, here’s what I accomplished, what wasn’t accomplished
etc.
 Outlook calendars reflect telework days and phone number,
 Voicemail message must state contact information for telework days or forward phone to local number
 Effective communication, email, video, IM, phone, Lync meetings) on telework days with coworkers and
supervisor/manager
6|Page

Consistent or improved productivity while teleworking based on feedback from the teleworker, supervisors,
coworkers and customers
 The telework handbook will be reviewed prior to teleworking
 Telework days and commute mode tracked at Rideshareonline.com
Pilot to Program:
Director/Secretary support
Pilot summary with action items
New policy components and goals include:
 350 employees by 2015, 550 employees by 2017, 1000 employees by 2020
 Determinations, who/what job types can do this?
 Requirements, not a substitute for elder care, or child care etc.
 reasonable accommodation,
 inclement weather, entire HR staff could be sent home with work for snow days
 information security, out of state telework
 Union negotiations, Governor’s position is that agencies “will”, and working to protect management’s right
to assign the tool or not based on employee suitability.
 Training
o Human Resources, protocol developed for documenting performance issues, i.e. removing person
from telework when they are not productive. It’s not an employee right, it’s a management tool.
o Appointing authorities,
o IT, how to be sure that your computer and phone system work from home. (WSDOT did not buy any
equipment for employees to use at home) Some of the people are disgruntled because they cannot
work at home due to the nature of their work, or the lack of ability to access computer systems. IT
has the ability to remote into employee’s home computer.
 Messaging
 Measurement & Reporting
Kimberly has materials available regarding their project. Check the AASHTO website.
NOTE: There is a workforce toolkit on the AASHTO website. NCHRP put this together as part of a research
project. You can send tools you are willing to share to them and have them uploaded to the website.
WSDOT – Alaskan Way Viaduct Mega Project – Brien Nielsen, Director of Engineering
Lunch presentation (See Handouts)
Healthy Workplace Fundamentals Communications, Stress and Proactive Management– Jim Webber
Contact Information: Jim Webber Training – Consulting - Investigations jim@jcwebber.com 206.601.9242
and Evil Skippy at work www.evilskippyatwork.com “Making workplaces great, one snarky comment at a time”.
1. The manager and supervisor’s role in creating great workplaces
2. Stress at work – Common causes and how to reduce it
According to the World Health Organization workplace stress is estimated to cost American companies more
than $300 billion a year in poor performance, absenteeism and health costs. The disability caused by stress is
just as great as the disability caused by workplace accidents or other common medical conditions.
Workplace stress happens when the challenges and demands of work become excessive. The pressures of the
workplace surpass workers abilities to handle them. Satisfaction becomes frustration and exhaustion.
Managed stress can become useful and healthy i.e. challenge vs. problem. Unmanaged stress can physical
symptoms.
7|Page
Common causes of workplace stress
Feeling out of control, feeling direction-less, guilt over procrastination or failing to keep commitments, more
commitments than time, Change, especially changes you didn’t initiate or institute, uncertainty, and high
expectations of self. Sometimes people just don’t have the technical or organizational skills to complete the
tasks.
Physical workplace: i.e. firefighters have to enter burning buildings
Workplace Change: Fear of layoff, employee turnover, lack of preparation for technological change, poor
chances for advancement or promotion, or tension brought about by greater workplace diversity.
What can employers do?
Stress management programs and training for employees. EAP programs designed to help workers with
personal problems that may be adversely affecting their on the job performance.
 Organizational changes that improve
 rewards and incentives,
working conditions.
 cultivating a friendly social climate.
 Improved communication,
 Individual 1:1 meetings with
 consulting with employees,
manager/employees
Disincentive: Stuffed animal of shame when you had the lowest billable hours within the department.
3. “Big Stress” – bullying, harassment, rumor mills and conflict
Sometimes we have to ask people to not share at work…
4. Communication skills
Share information with employees to reduce uncertainty about their jobs and futures. Clearly define
employee’s roles and responsibilities, make communication friendly and efficient, not mean spirited or petty.
“We don’t want to compare employees to children because that’s not fair to children.” “Some of the best rules
for the workplace can be pulled from books on dog training.”
Rewards and incentives: Praise good work performance verbally and institutionally. Provide opportunities for
career development. Promote an “entrepreneurial” work climate that gives employees more control over their
work.
Cultivating a friendly social climate, provide opportunities for social interaction among employees, a zero
tolerance policy for harassment, make management actions consistent with organizational values. “Everyone
should have the expectation that all people communicate with each other in a professional and respectful way”.
The harassment policy will be still be there for the big issues.
One way to reduce stress is to eliminate self-defeating behaviors. Resist perfectionism, clean up your act, flip
negative thinking.
“Some people say the glass is half full, others half empty… the engineer says the glass is too big”.
Common ways to reduce stress
Get time away. If you feel stress building, take a break i.e. 5 minute break, get up and get away from your work
area. At least 5 minutes every few hours.
Talk it out. Sometimes the best stress reducer is simply sharing your stress with someone close to you.
Cultivate allies at work. Just knowing you have one or more coworkers who are willing to help will reduce your
stress.
8|Page
Find humor in the situation. When you or the people around you are too serious, find a way to break through
with laughter
Add balance to life. Don’t overdo work or play.
Get a physical exam. While stress can cause illness, illness also causes stress.
Get a massage.
Exercise regularly. A little goes a long way. Exercise increases the body’s production of endorphins while
improving the brain’s oxygen supply and releasing tension from the muscles.
Watch your breathing. Are you holding your breath? Don’t.
Beware of technology. Cell phones, email and texting streamline work but sabotage and stress you if they take
over your work and personal life. Check messages at preplanned times rather than addressing each message as
it arrives. Don’t let technology rule you. Rule it.
Inappropriate Workplace Conduct. Managers are responsible for proactive supervision in this area. Don’t
ignore it. Conduct regular reviews and training on the subject. Not boring training. Consider playing a
“jeopardy like game, if you don’t pass you have to play again. If you win you don’t have to do role play or listen
to the lecture. 
Effective Communication is much more than being able to talk. It is also the ability to listen and understand
others, read and interpret body language and know the best ways to get our points across.
#1 skill is listening. Successful listening means not just understanding the words or the information being
communicated. It involves paying attention, withholding judgment, reflecting, clarifying and summarizing. It
demonstrates that you care about what the other person is saying and maximizes the likelihood of clear
communication.
#2 Nonverbal communication – The way you look, listen, move and react to another person tells you more than
words can ever say. Be aware of individual differences. People from different countries and cultures tend to
use different nonverbal communication gestures. It’s important to take age, culture, emotions and other
personal factors into account.
#3 Manage your own stress –
5. Handling difficult discussions (“Do it from a distance and delegate” is the wrong answer!) Managers should use the
“Candid” approach:
Compartmentalize – Plan a neutral opening.
Break your message into its “safe” and “unsafe”(non-critical) parts
Areas where the other person will not disagree with you. Have the other person describe what happened. Ask
the other person how he or she is doing when you have noticed a change in the person’s behavior or
performance. Make a neutral observation, use the “I”message.
Ask Questions – to gather information about the viewpoint and feelings.
Be curious, not furious. Don’t be
critical or condemning. Questions lead to data. Questions give the other person a voice, questions ensure that
you do not present a monologue. Avoid irrelevant questions, or questions that are not really questions i.e.
“what were you thinking” or “why”.
Normalize – Make it safe for the other person to talk about the subject, Acknowledgement, recognize the other
persons feelings, validate
Discuss Incentivize Disengage It’s a scripted process that has nothing to do with being nice, or criticizing the employee. It is coaching. The
focus is on changing conduct rather than making employee feel bad about this initial individual issue.
6. Being a “change agent”
7. Homework. Don’t be scared.
9|Page
Personal leadership questions
What is the happiness level in my work group?
How happy am I?
What types of workplace stress have the greatest impact on me?
What types of stress have the greatest impact on my work group?
Are there any ongoing issues or situations that are especially challenging?
Do I generate stress in my workplace?
Is there a stress “carrier” in my group?
When stress arises at work, do I make the situation better or worse?
Brainstorm:
List five ways you could make your workplace less stressful.
List five ways you could make your workplace more happy.
Pick one of those 10 things and deal with it
What actions will you take?
By when will you start/complete them?
How will these actions help you obtain your goals?
What might stop you from following through on your commitment?
What support might you need to follow through?
Rate yourself on a 1-10 scale (where 10 is absolutely sure) regarding the degree of certainty you have that you will
follow through on your commitment. If the rating is less than an 8 ask the questions again.
Nebraska’s Leadership Program and Progressive Trends in HR – Sue Larson, Human Resources Division Head,
Nebraska Department of Roads
NDOR Leadership Development Program, Building Future Leaders Video Carrie Williams HRM, NDOR
Manager Readiness, Level 1 - Individuals working to become a supervisor within the next year; Entry level supervisors;
First level supervisors; Helping the manager transition from peer to manager
Manager effectiveness, Level 2 - 2+ years supervisory experience; May still be in a front line supervisory position, or
second level supervisory position Creating vision and empowerment of a team
Manager proficiency, Level 3 - 4+ years Supervisory/Manager Experience; Served in multiple supervisory positions within
NDOR and/or other organizations; Mid-Level Manager position After a self-assessment managers select from a wide
variety of courses.
Each level requires 5-8 of classroom and/or online courses for completion along with a mentoring relationship of
employee’s choice. Classes generally are related to Business acumen/Results driven, Building
coalitions/communications, Leading people, Leading change, Strategic thinking.
Manager Maturity, Level 4 - Advanced level supervisors and managers; Section Heads; Existing Division Heads and
District Engineers; Individuals are selected by NDOR Director and Deputies
Managerial Maturity consists of 3 online courses, Vision, strategic planning and business presentations
Classroom training and topics relevant to current business needs, i.e. NDOR is currently working with Nebraska Business
Development Center on courses regarding Professional Ethics and Strategic thinking The fourth level training is ongoing
with no particular end to the program. The other programs are generally completed within 18 months. A new
development cycle starts every two years.
10 | P a g e
Follow-up:
Iowa has a program which involves bringing in a contractor for a 1-2 week training with follow up.
Connecticut has two similar development level trainings. Similar to 1 and 2 of NDOR’s program. They use internal
resources. They are planning to implement training similar to level 4 in coming months.
Nevada has two programs run by their internal training office, one is more “leadership and vision focused and the other
is how to manage.
Oregon has regional leadership academies and a centralized Transportation Leadership Institute in addition to
participating in several programs sponsored for all state agencies. Including ASCENT, a program designed to help
leaders with their own internal development which helps them become better leaders.
Alaska has a program not run by HR, but by the Department. They attempt to keep people form being out of the office
for more than a day at a time. They do some online training, and individualized coaching as part of the program.
If a state has materials they are willing to share, please send them to Amanda Holland who will put them on the website.
A good suggestion is to involve your ex-military employees in developing leadership programs. They have good
experience in this area.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Amanda opened the meeting with an OSHA video on generational differences in the workplace.
Regional Breakouts and Reports
Arkansas – Testing a talent acquisition program, selected Kronos to go forward. It appears to be very user friendly for
the applicants.
When Washington launched NeoGov they found that it wasn’t as user friendly for applicants as they had hoped. They
are still using paper applications. They then enter the paper application on behalf of the applicant. They have about 1718 people in a unit that do the entering.
Arkansas and Washington both indicated that they use “knock out” questions although Washington reported that some
people complain that they don’t understand the questions.
Alaska recently went to Neogov, managers now complain that they can’t see anything until after the HR office closes the
recruitment and sends the list to the hiring manager. People in HR are spending a lot of time checking for veteran’s
preference points and other things prior to submitting to the managers.
Wyoming still struggling with manager satisfaction with Neogov. Brian and Lon mentioned that their HR forwards
applications one at a time to managers as they come in.
Connecticut struggling with Neogov and lack of customization. One of the benefits of Neogov is that once an applicant
applies on Neogov, they can save their profile which makes it easier to apply for other jobs.
Nevada is struggling to get strong candidates. Employees with CDLs seem to get trained on heavy equipment and then
go to work in the mining industry. They felt fortunate to get one strong candidate for a civil rights position.
In Oregon we have a maintenance training program targeting diverse candidates. Hired two coordinators to reach out
and find diverse candidates. The cohort will then be trained as a group. At the end of the 2 years they will be eligible for
full time permanent positions. Scaled down list of MQ’s for this program to allow people to apply who don’t meet the
MQ’s for permanent positions.
Agreement in the room that most are struggling to recruit and/or retain good IT staff.
11 | P a g e
Colorado mentioned that they target law schools and hire new civil rights positions right out of college. They are
specifically targeting recruitment for positions.
Alaska struggles to find people who are willing to apply for positions that support the airport which connects villages to
critical services such as health care. They are not applying for the DOT jobs. Also struggle to keep people who earn their
CDLs. Those workers often leave to go to the mining industry which pays much better.
Idaho has had success in going after veterans using their training program. They are now planning to expand that to
recruitment for IT positions.
Washington is implementing a time and attendance program. They are currently all on paper for their payroll so this will
be a culture change for the department. They selected Workforce as the vendor for their program. DOT is the lead in
WA State and has 17 unions so they expect the system will work for the rest of the state as the DOT is the most
complicated. They will have kiosks or terminals at which employees can record their time.
Do many people have a “point based” system? This gathers points when an employee is tardy and a certain amount of
points result in disciplinary action. No states indicate they are currently doing it, Washington and Arkansas are
considering using this option on their software.
Regarding background checks, Idaho mentioned that they are now taking off the question regarding have you had a
conviction for a felony or misdemeanor.
HI does background checks on all selected candidates for both new employees and promoting existing employees
They still use the question as part of a comparative analysis on the application. They screen two
Oregon and several other states conduct a background check all new hires. The EEOC is now focused on these checks as
they contend that this discriminates against protected classes that have a higher rate of conviction. SHRM has more
information on this.
Virginia noted that they are finding that white males are screened out due to the background checks.
Diane from Idaho mentioned that EEOC recently sent out a form tied to 503 indicating that people have to self-disclose
their disabilities if you are receiving federal funding. You have to figure out how you are going to get the information
and how to track it by type. Several mentioned that the EEOC provides guidelines, not mandates. The group was in
agreement that unless FHWA says you have to do this, it’s only a guideline. The risk of having this information seems
too high.
How to increase our meeting attendance:
Do we think it would be worthwhile to team up and meet with another committee for our meetings. Would this
increase our attendance at the meetings? Suggestion was made to partner with internal civil rights. However, it was
also mentioned that that group often feels they should not be partnered with HR at all. This may be tied to pressure
from FHWA who may be suggesting this as a best practice. A quick poll indicated that many states have the internal civil
rights within HR. A few states also have the external Civil Rights imbedded within HR.
The groups mentioned (civil rights, financial, audits) are tactical and HR is more strategic, looking at the long term. It
may be that the nature of our meetings would change if we blend with them. One suggestion was to blend with Safety,
although we also have heard that Safety doesn’t want to meet with HR.
Is there a way to get HR more in the limelight when decisions are being made?
Some states direct report to their director/secretary and are in the room. This isn’t true for all states. Dan from
Colorado mentioned that focus groups and getting known across the department as a support rather than coming in
only to fire or lay people off. It would be beneficial to demonstrate the ROI of HR to the department.
12 | P a g e
Washington suggested meeting in conjunction with the AASHTO Spring meeting. We could hold our meetings in the
same hotel and have our own breakout sessions. It would also work well to go in the day or two before or after and
learn about what they’re working on. Our President or VP could then go and make presentations at the other
conference. There was some concern that as the attendance is often limited by departments our directors would bump
us and we wouldn’t be able to attend.
The benefit of this group is hearing about projects in other states.
Is there more that you need from this group? What about quarterly web meetings? 1-2x per year.
What if we worked on strategic initiatives? We could use our quarterly meetings to keep momentum going on the
project we are working on.
Group wanted to hear more about possible close of the TRAC committee/program? (We didn’t get back to the subject,
may want to check in with AASHTO for a response on this?)
Business Meeting:
Staffing:
Jennifer LePree from Rhode Island had to step down as secretary. Jane Lee has agreed to step into the role. Her name
will be submitted to AASHTO for confirmation.
Logistics for 2015 meeting location
Rhode Island had planned to host, but will not be able to be as active as planned. They are willing, but AASHTO would
have to help them quite a bit. It was agreed to not ask them to do it.
Other alternatives, join Spring AASHTO meeting in Cheyenne, WY, it was suggested that we take the initiative to work on
a joint meeting for 2016. A number of people would not be able to attend as states tend to limit attendance at the main
meetings. However, would we have opportunity by proximity if our meetings were in the same area. Discussion ensued
regarding individuals from this group participating in those standing committees and bringing back information to this
group. Perhaps our officers could attend.
DECISIONS:



Moved and seconded that we hold our meeting separately next year rather than combine with the AASHTO
Spring Meetings.
Agreed to meet in Washington DC for our 2015 meeting at the AASHTO headquarters. Emily from Virginia will
function as the host state and help make the agenda work. They start working on the agenda in November for
the coming year. Crystal and Amanda will contact Emily in July to help her get started.
Vicki volunteered to host in Connecticut in 2016.
Organizational Charts:
It was requested that we have a common repository for organizational charts. Each state is structured so uniquely, it
may help us focus our questions to states that are structures like ours. Question was raised as to whether this would be
for the entire DOTs, or just HR. Greatest interest would likely be a chart that indicates how HR fits into the organization.
Suggestion that each state could respond to a checklist or survey monkey which would serve as a resource when we are
doing research. Discussion ended, no organizational charts.
Question: Does each state have a link on their website to org charts. Answer: Not all have them on external site.
13 | P a g e
Meeting Housekeeping
Question: How do we want to go forward as a group? Are we comfortable with our more informal approach or do we
want to do something differently?
Action Items








There is interest in talking about leadership throughout the year. We could use a social media designed for
sharing ideas i.e. yammer? Washington agreed to host a conference call in October
Second conference call will be in January. Topic TBD at the October call.
Be prepared to report out on your homework assignment at next year’s May meeting. 
Emily agreed to take the lead in helping sort out military codes into related state job classifications
The Washington Telework program will be put into the AASHTO Toolkit.
Do we want to do quarterly conference calls above and beyond our initiative conference calls? No.
Are we interested in writing papers for Transportation Research Board(TRB)? Amanda has templates and
helpful hints if you’re interested in writing a paper.
Domestic Scan of DOTs regarding cross training the workforce is getting started. The project wants to interview
states who have training programs.
Workforce Development Survey
Clark Martin wants to know if a survey regarding Workforce Development would be helpful. They are instituting
regional workforce centers connecting education and the DOTs. What would we as states want the centers to provide?
i.e. we need more equipment operators in 5 years. Would the center provide the training if a local university doesn’t do
that? How would we use the centers?
The group doesn’t know how this would benefit us. It’s unlikely that individual states would be looking for the same skill
sets and might not call the worker the same thing from state to state.
Discussion concluded that states are willing to fill out the survey if we can, but we don’t want to complete one every
year. We would like to see geographic region results as that would be most relevant. We agreed that we will respond to
the surveys within 60 days and we know that we may not be able to fully complete the information as we don’t
necessarily gather it today.
Business Meeting Adjourned
Trends in Safety, Health and Wellness Preserving the Precious Sense of Hearing
Corey Lane Industrial Hygiene Program Manager, WSDOT
Noise Hazards, How does noise cause hearing loss? Very loud sound (>140-16-decibels) creates immediate physical
damage. Chronic exposure to 85 decibels typically takes years or decades to cause hearing loss.
Occupational hearing loss costs an estimated $242.4M per year in disability compensation in the US. For example,
compensation for complete loss of hearing in both ears in Washington State is 93.334.53, one ear is compensated at
approximately $15,555.
Blindness separates you from things. Deafness separates you from people. Helen Keller
Do employees get the protection they need? Does each employee get the stated protection on the box? The number
on the box is an average, tested under ideal laboratory conditions where person used the device as directed. In real
world tests, the protection is much less than stated. What if, instead of getting testing done by labs, they tested in the
14 | P a g e
real world? Washington State is testing their employees and can provide info on their program.
lanec@wsdot.wa.gov
Health Management, Worksite Wellness, “Washington Wellness”
Scott Pritchard, MS, Public Employees Benefits, Washington State Health Care Authority
Why invest in wellness?



Contribute to controlling the Medical cost trend
Workforce readiness (Productivity)
Recruitment and Retention
Health vs. Healthcare. Determinants of Health




Human Biology 20%
Environment 19%
Health Care 10%
Lifestyle 51% (smoking, obesity, stress nutrition, blood pressure, alcohol, drug use)
Washington sees employee health as a partnership:



State Health Plan
Worksite Wellness Program – Physical Activity, Food selection, Tobacco Use, Preventative care
Employee engagement in management of Health status – people are already in charge of their own health.
Some should probably fire themselves 
Average Employees in Washington State tested and found to have a health risk – and… many didn’t know.





FBG 28% (Blood Sugar) didn’t know 63%
Total Cholesterol 35% didn’t know 73%
LDL Chol 62% didn’t know 81%
Blood Pressure 69% didn’t know 75%
Overweight 63%
Although annual physicals are no cost to state employees a large percentage didn’t know their health risks.
Washington’s Investment in worksite wellness had a statistically significant positive impact on Diabetes risk factors,
Cholesterol lipid levels, absenteeism, quality of life, culture of wellness, depression, Physical Activity, Fruit and Vegetable
consumption.
New Tools




Environment and Policy vs. Individual change
Social Networking – being connected, Book to Read: “Connected” the impact social media has on us. It is a
powerful tool for creating behavior, (good or bad)
Behavioral Economics – Book to read “Nudge” “Predictably irrational” When you make a 401k program an “opt
out” program you get 99% participation, normally, 10-30% don’t participate. It makes all the difference to have
to opt in.
Technology –
Mobile – 63% of people in America are considered obese. The environment and Marketing are working against
you. If you record your food you can be successful in achieving weight loss goals. i.e. if you run or walk a mile,
you can burn 90-150 calories. If you then reward yourself with a beer the calories break even. Free app called
15 | P a g e





Lose it. It really makes a difference when you know what’s in it. This app can scan the food bar code and record
what it is.
The next app, “My Dietician” will take a picture of your food and the app will record it all.
Fit Bit automatically tracks your physical activity. 10k steps/5 miles is considered a foundational basis for good
health. The app sends you emails with encouraging messages. i.e. you only need to do 1000 more steps today
We need feedback to have behavior change. These tools automatically track our physical activity and give us
data we can use to make changes.
Sitting is now a risk factor for our health.
Online groups – If we have a friend or friends to do things with we can be more accountable and are more likely
to actually do what we intend. “IRLS” In real life meetings just don’t get it done. Online groups are more
powerful, we actually meet and gather whereas we often don’t have time for “in real life” meetings. They make
the most difference for men who often don’t participate in social groups.
Knowledge Management and Knowledge books
Context and motivations In our increasingly mobile workforce employee tenure is decreasing. Agencies need proven
cost effective strategies to navigate these changes and demonstrate the capacity to be high performing, responsive and
agile organizations. The global economy is transition from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy.
10 facets of Knowledge Management leadership and strategy
 Culture and communication
 Intellectual Capital Management
 Knowledge assessment and evaluation
 Communities and Collaboration
 Knowledge operations’
 Organizational Learning
 Knowledge Architecture
 Knowledge Technologies
 Knowledge Asset Management
Domestic Scan on Knowledge Management, TRB KM Task Force, NCHRP Study 20-98 KM Guidance Document
AASHTO Special committee on workforce planning and development. Their report is due out this summer. Begin where
you are, take opportunities, and address pain points. Industry trends and findings:
Culture Change





Establish a vision for the future state of the culture
Manage to core values
o NASA adopted Excellence, Safety Integrity and Teamwork
Alberta’s Reaching our full potential initiative
Missouri’s emphasis on performance management, teamwork and innovation
Faa’s and other’s descriptions of cultural characteristics.
Concepts for developing a mature knowledge management practice
Beginning - Limited scale, Part time staff, Independent initiatives
Mid Range - Formal responsibilities, Leadership, KM activities across silos, improved value to business functions
Best - Corporate strategy, Lead staff and senior management;, Dedicated funding, Value across the organization,
Platform for credibility and innovation
Workforce Planning and Succession Management


Workforce planning
Risk assessment
16 | P a g e


Succession Planning
Staff Retention
Employee Interviews – “knowledge interviews” Asking employees 3 2 hour interviews of employees as to how they do
their work. Really interesting to find out who they talk to and what they talk about. Longest interview was 7 hours for
one employee. Information went to university students to develop core themes. Helps find out information that isn’t
codified anywhere.
New Employee Orientation, Learning & Development:
Employee growth and development, Communities of practice-networks, Storytelling – Alberta has an official storyteller,
this person tells where they’ve come from, why they made the decision, how did we get here? All this influences where
we’re going. There is sometimes a need to do intentional forgetting. How do we help people let go of “how we’ve
always done it”.
Boeing uses “boot camps” people come in for a week to talk about the expectations, and learn about the culture.
Communities and Collaboration: Knowledge mapping – maps out how good communication could/should happen.
People are gathered and interviewed to develop the map. This worked particularly well for a remote/teleworker. This is
being done at TRB to help document how communication happens. A consultant is often hired to run the process.
Communities of interest/practice-These could be normal agency teams, but they’re specifically focused to help mentor,
learn and network. They can be very formal or informal.
Fostering collaboration – How do people get to know each other and work together. They can be in person as well as
“virtual”. Alberta has a younger workforce and perhaps more inclined ot the virtual workplace. These communities use
gamification, competitive games to help motivate people to work better together. People can earn a “collaboration”
badge for communicating well. The badge goes on their home page which others can see and recognize.
Identification, Documentation and Dissemination of Processes, Practices and Expertise
Content Management Function/Policies/Process We spend up to 30% of our time looking for information and only find
it about 50% of the time. This is a huge inefficiency.
Lessons Learned and Case Studies
Washington has a database, link will be available. Virginia connects their lessons learned to their communities of
practice. TRB will be building a database of case studies about knowledge management.
Institutional memory/Critical Knowledge Retention – Kraft chose to focus on gathering knowledge about things that are
hard to find or critical business functions. i.e. how to package the pasta so that it doesn’t break in the box. What if we
had desk manuals that worked like this?! The knowledge interview can help gather this information.
Business Process Documentation
Expertise Identification – Who do I go to? How do I get the information I need? How do we help each other find each
other? Virginia has been using a social media application to connect people.
Supporting Knowledge Management




Designated function – location and responsibilities
Role of leadership
Fostering a culture of knowledge sharing
Recognition and rewards – importance of prompt, relevant recognition to reinforce desired behaviors
Evolving Resources



Report should be out at the end of the summer
There will be webinars on specific functions of knowledge management
NCHRP 20-98 Report is estimated for completion in April 2015
17 | P a g e
Caltrans KM Model, Strategic Priorities
Shaping our future 2012 – Workforce, Partnerships, Communication, Safety
Three tasks, Knowledge transfer guidebook, comprehensive succession planning program, Informed and Engaged
workforce


Develop and maintain an informed and engaged workforce that is empowered to effectively deliver our
promised projects and programs.
Develop a comprehensive succession planning program.
75% of executive leadership is eligible to retire, 53% of regular workforce. Specific job types, such as surveyors
often stay much longer, but it’s important to prepare.
They did their own “mini” domestic scan, checking other states and agencies to determine what others are doing. They
developed a foundational building block graphic (See handout)
They recommend using Desk Manuals and Formal training can transfer specific or explicit job task information. What
wasn’t as readily available was why to choose one method over another. Knowledge transfer is most successful when
you start with a good leader.
Informed and Engaged graphic (see PowerPoint presentation)
Four Building Blocks
1. Face to face groups – Examples: Boot Camps, Tailgate meetings, In house workshops, education ommittees
2. Face to face Individual – personal interaction between two people with one person transferring the knowledge
to the other. .Examples include: cross training, peer mentoring, apprenticeship, job shadowing, formal
mentoring
3. Multimedia – leveraging technology to store specific knowledge, particularly information that many people may
want to access. Try using Wikipages or a discussion board to link people to information.
4. Rotational Programs – Establishing rotation programs to allow employees to learn various functional areas in a
discipline.
Future Goals – Training and Outreach
Caltrans is training new supervisors in this methodology, and they’re running a series of articles in their Caltrans
employee newsletter. Managers are rated on their effectiveness in transferring knowledge
Contact Information: Michelle Tucker, Chief Risk and Ethics Officer, Michelle.Tucker@dot.ca.gov
California Department of Transportation, 1120 N Street, MS#49, Sacramento, CA 95814
18 | P a g e