Resource Center

Streamlining Operator Hiring Practices — Union Involvement

While hiring new transit operators is typically the purview of the transit agency or contractor responsible for operations, in some cases frontline labor unions have a role in the recruitment, hiring, and training process. Partnering with frontline labor can be a particularly effective strategy for expanding the pool of eligible candidates through pre-employment training. This brief, part of TWC’s Streamlining Operator Hiring Practices initiative, includes strategies for union involvement in hiring initiatives and features two mini case studies.

Transit Workforce Center

August 2026

Streamlining Operator Hiring Practices — Heart of Iowa Regional Transit Agency Case Study

HIRTA’s leadership has implemented a variety of strategies to ensure robust recruitment and retention, including creating an efficient hiring process with minimal non-essential requirements and quick turn-around times. This mini-case study, part of TWC’s Streamlining Operator Hiring Practices initiative, summarizes HIRTA’s process, highlighting key strategies intended to expedite hiring timelines and expand opportunities for applicants with non-traditional credentials or gaps in employment history.

Transit Workforce Center

August 2026

Streamlining Operator Hiring Practices — Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority Case Study

Like many agencies, GCRTA experienced hiring challenges following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This case study, part of TWC’s Streamlining Operator Hiring Practices initiative, describes how GCRTA’s human resources division worked to streamline processes and engaged in extensive community outreach to recruit and onboard strong candidates more consistently.

Transit Workforce Center

August 2026

Streamlining Operator Hiring Practices — Measuring Your Progress

This webpage, part of TWC’s Streamlining Operator Hiring Practices initiative, provides suggestions, based on real-world examples, of ways transit agencies can evaluate their hiring processes through simple analyses of workforce data.

Transit Workforce Center

August 2026

Streamlining Operator Hiring Practices — Summary of Bus Operator Hiring Steps

This overview table presents each step of the bus operator hiring process, as well as, for each step, common practices that transit agencies are using, possible bottlenecks and challenges, staff members and external vendors involved, and best practices.

Transit Workforce Center

August 2026

Streamlining Operator Hiring Practices — Pre-Employment Steps

This checklist, part of TWC’s Streamlining Operator Hiring Practices initiative, provides best practices for streamlining pre-employment steps like drug and alcohol testing, medical examinations, criminal background checks, and motor vehicle record reviews, as well as verification of prior employment.

Transit Workforce Center

August 2026

Hiring Disabled Veterans

This page from the Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability (EARN) provides information and resources about hiring and recruiting veterans with disabilities. Veterans can offer organizations a source of qualified and committed job candidates who have many transferable skills from their time serving.

Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability

Streamlining Operator Hiring Practices — Transit Agency Practices for Operator Candidate Assessment

This webpage, part of TWC’s Streamlining Operator Hiring Practices initiative, presents four ways of collecting information about applicants: interviews, assessments, references, and application screening practices. It describes common practices and best practices for each, based on our research with transit agencies.

Transit Workforce Center

June 2026