Streamlining and Strengthening Bus Operator Hiring

Current bus operator hiring processes are often lengthy, and when months pass between the initial application and the start of paid training, many of the best candidates drop out of the process to pursue other opportunities. Fortunately, there are ways of simplifying and shortening it to retain more candidates, reduce repetitive tasks, and ultimately employ more qualified operators, more quickly. The Transit Workforce Center (TWC), supported by the Federal Transit Administration, undertook a research effort to identify these strategies, involving an industry survey, interviews, and case studies of transit agencies’ operator hiring practices. 

This webinar outlines the results of this research effort, as well as an overview of best practices for streamlining hiring processes, including insights into tracking where the best candidates come from, monitoring attrition, expediting background checks, and making training timelines more efficient. The webinar also features an expert panel of transit agency officials, who share their experiences of the kinds of challenges their agencies faced in hiring bus operators and how they responded to these challenges to attract and retain more high-quality candidates. After sharing their insights, the panel responds to audience Q&A.