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Streamlining Operator Hiring Practices
The Transit Workforce Center (TWC), Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) national technical assistance center for transit workforce development, has conducted a research effort aimed at documenting current transit agency hiring processes for operators and producing new resources to support agencies’ operator hiring efforts. Current hiring processes are often lengthy, causing candidates to abandon the process in favor of other jobs and exacerbating transit operator shortages. The below resources document examples of transit operator hiring processes, map typical steps and timelines, and describe the practices that lead to both shorter and longer hiring timeframes.
Want to discuss your own hiring process? Email sgleason@transportcenter.org for technical assistance or with questions.
Findings from Background Research, Surveys, and Interviews
The background research findings summarizes what prior research has found on the nature of the operator hiring problem and potential solutions.
Findings From Surveys and Interviews provides a summary of the research activities and main findings of this project. It describes the methods used in the project as well as common practices, average timelines, and main challenges faced by transit agencies hoping to shorten hiring processes.
Evaluating Your Own Process
These pages provide resources for agencies to think about their full hiring process and evaluate steps and practices. Measuring Your Progress provides suggestions, based on real-world examples, of ways transit agencies can evaluate their hiring processes through simple analyses of workforce data. The Summary of Hiring Steps provides an overview table of the hiring process steps, including common strategies and best practices for each.
Overarching Best Practices
These resources provide strategies and information that span across some or all stages of the hiring process. The first resource presents cross-cutting strategies across four major categories: simplifying and shortening job applications, prompt follow-up to job candidates, aligning hiring and training schedules, and differentiating training for CDL holders and non-CDL holders. Example Hiring Process Flows shows four examples of possible process flows and steps involved in bus operator hiring practices and indicates when steps are conducted concurrently.
Stage-Specific Best Practices
These resources cover best practices and strategies for specific steps in the hiring process. Designing Job Postings summarizes common strategies, best practices, and agency examples based on a TWC review and analysis of transit operator job postings. Practices for Candidate Assessment presents four ways of collecting information about applicants: interviews, assessments, references, and application screening practices. Pre-Employment Steps provides a checklist of best practices for streamlining steps like drug and alcohol testing, medical examinations, criminal background checks, and motor vehicle record reviews, as well as verification of prior employment.
Examples From the Field
The case studies linked below capture two agencies’ experiences with, and strategies for, streamlining operating hiring practices. The brief on union involvement in hiring features case studies of two transit locations where frontline labor unions have played a role in recruiting and hiring successful transit operators.
