September 11 Seven Years Later: Lest We Forget*

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4 Workforce Development Takes on Culture Change By Tracy Thorne, Director, TIS ACall to Action: In a January 2008 letter to all employees, MTA Executive Director and CEO Elliot G. Sander coupled his goal of service improvements with improved employee satisfaction. “One of my top priorities for the MTA is to support and develop our workforce in an environment that fosters career growth and professional fulfillment,” he wrote. To that end, he had assembled a Blue Ribbon Panel on Workforce Development – experienced professionals charged to “help us identify ways to create an organizational culture that values, engages, and supports its employees.” In January, Sander released the Panel’s report, Engaging, Recognizing and Developing the MTA Workforce, which emphasizes 61 recommendations. His specific goal: “a work environment that allows for the greatest level of individual fulfillment and growth. “ I have seen the transformative nature of these values in my previous work and am confident we can create a similar environment here,“ he wrote. Nine months later, under the guidance of NYC Transit President Howard H. Roberts, Jr. who shares Sander’s vision, a budding Workforce Development Department (WFD) reports to Roberts, and traces of cultural change are in place. The department is led by VP Thomas M. Webb, a transit veteran with more than 30 years experience. He began his career as a bus operator in Boston with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, moved into management and to other transit properties, notably as chief labor relations officer for Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority in Philadelphia. A graduate of Salem State College and New England School of Law, he worked most recently as a consultant on organizational and cultural change in transportation and other industries. Citing the difficulties of cultural change in any organization, Webb says he is excited to be here “because we have the leadership. Sander and Roberts are solidly behind this program and want what we do here to be an industry model.” He also cites a dramatic culture change that dates to April 2007, the month Roberts returned to NYC Transit as president. After two tragic track-worker deaths in five days, Roberts reached out to TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint, reversing years of past practice. He invited the union to join the Board of Inquiry that investigates accidents. He and Toussaint established joint track safety inspection teams, safety stand-downs and a Joint Track Safety Task Force. Says Webb, “Safety can transform the dynamics of conflict. These steps have had significant residual effects on the agency’s labor relations ever since.” New Team Based at 2 Broadway on the 20th floor, Workforce Development absorbed Employee Recognition Programs (ERP) and Operations Training. Its staff includes ERP pros Joe Loperfido and Larry Sampson, Bob Darino from Operations Training, Mark Hellman and newsletter editor Karen Belin from Human Resources and Bonnie Lee, MaryAnn DeCarmine and Rosetta Kirkland from At Your Service August/September 2008 Organization Development. Chief of Staff Sally Librera came from Operations Planning and Executive Assistant Carmen Lugo from President Roberts’Office. Their adopted mission: to establish a sustainable culture of investment in people and continuous improvement of process and service. Webb’s group has defined six “elements” as cornerstones for implementing their programs. With Training and Development and ERP as core elements, the others are Special Projects, Task Teams, Coaching and Communications. The goal for each is to stimulate the kind of dialogue across employee ranks that will identify perennial employee and customer-related issues, and seek innovative solutions. From Goals to Application As an initial Special Project, WFD employed the agency’s new partnering with labor to confront a chronic benefits issue -routinely passing on rising prescription drug costs to employees. “This year we said ‘no,’” says Webb. “President Roberts included the union in the RFP review process [Request for Proposals] for the next Prescription Drug Benefit Plan. With the union, we found a consultant that will help us push back. “This is huge,” VP Webb asserts. “It shows that this administration will not back down and do what most other employers do. It also reinforces that we are truly committed to protecting employee benefits, and building a bargaining relationship.” Another area of concern for Webb is alleged incidents of discrimination at Subways’ Coney Island Shop. “These issues are usually symptoms of a greater problem; no one wants to work in a hostile environment.” He is hopeful that a sensitive team approach in the right setting will lead to “ more appropriate responses to workplace problems, and greater appreciation of the department’s diversity. We are off to a slow start,” he admits, “but we will not be discouraged from growing a value-based culture.” Task Teams and Training Task Teams will focus initially on assisting Subways’ new Line General Managers (GMs), and resolving operational and workplace conflicts associated with reorganization. The work will start with the 7 and L Lines, realigned in December 2007. “Such problems could run the gamut of operational and customer-service issues,” notes Sally Librera. “Good solutions could be applied systemwide,” she adds, now that the next phase of Subways decentralization is set. With bus operations, Webb believes SVP Joe Smith’s realignment of his department with MTA Bus and Long Island Bus has great opportunities for cultural team involvement. “This is great timing,” he says, “for collaborative initiatives in an expanded, seamless system.“ WFD is a big player in Training and Development with Operations Training now its largest division. Its solid, skill-based courses have mainly served Subways; i.e. Safety and Security; Electrical and Electronics; Service Delivery and Operations Training; Track Infrastructure/Maintenance Support, and Car Equipment/Supply
Logistics. But now this is changing, with the addition of “valuebased” teaching so “instructors can also impart the culture.” As Webb explains, “The ability to go through instructors is central. They can present the culture you’re striving for to new employees in their first courses. And they reach thousands of incumbents schooled in the old culture during annual refresher courses.” Among other innovations: Track Safety and Flagging Refresher courses mandated by the Track Safety Task Force; Line Management training for Subways’ new GMs; monitoring Pres. Roberts’ Subways “delay statistics” initiatives; and goals orientation meetings with instructors. The point, says AVP Bob Darino, is to understand and incorporate the new administration’s values, and “find ways that Training can help those programs mature. If employees understand that the purpose of being here is not just for their job but to stay versed in how they can bring service to a higher level, they are more likely to work as a team and the TA ends up with a better workforce.” Dynamic Debut Communication is another critical element. To drive a sweeping culture change, the team needs to reach the community it was created to serve. In August, Webb and his team held orientation sessions at 2 Broadway and Livingston Plaza. They have added a newsletter and a Webpage, and plan to take their orientation show on the road -- all to promote the mantra that “every individual has a role and can make a difference.” A form of Executive Coaching is also in WFD’s plans, perhaps as the mainstay for everything else. It will seek to orient senior managers toward more inclusive and interactive behavior with employees, to understand and resolve workplace problems and enhance their own leadership skills. Beefing up Employee Recognition Programs (ERP), the widely regarded labor management initiative, is a more familiar priority. ERP dates to the 1980s when it began as Buses’ Depot Assistance Teams, a priority for Howard Roberts, then a Buses VP, and Lee Sander who reported to Roberts. The current goal is a wider scope of employee recognition scenarios. “Employees should be recognized with much more than an annual banquet; they deserve ‘real-time’ recognition,” says Webb. ERP helped plan NYC Transit’s 9/11 recognition ceremony in Battery Park and the Transit Veterans Association’s initial events (pages 1-2), an expanded Volunteer Chaplains Recognition event and this year’s Medals of Excellence Awards. “Think of Workforce Development as an internal consultant that supports employees and all departments in their efforts to improve the workplace and provide customer service we are proud of,” sums up VP Webb. Behind the MTA Workforce Report After taking office in January 2007, MTA Executive Director and CEO Elliot “Lee” Sander visited worksites and his workforce extensively. In his initial overview, he told a State Legislative committee: “There is one overriding conclusion I want to share. We have an incredible workforce, 66,000 strong, men and women who are up to whatever challenges lie ahead.” At the same time, facing such challenges as reduced funding sources, soaring ridership, system expansion and improving customer service, Sander called for workplace improvements and organization change. As he put it in his March 2008 State of the MTA remarks: “To fully realize the potential of the MTA workforce, we also need to address critical flaws in organizational structure and values. The organization of the MTA has changed little since 1968.” Hence, the Blue Ribbon Panel on Workforce Development he established in May 2007 -- public and private sector specialists under former MTA Chair Richard Ravitch and mediator/arbitrator Hezekiah Brown as co-chairs. Their initial research included interviews over five months with a range of MTA employees and union representatives. The Panel also studied workplace issues through data analyses, field visits and reviewing industry best practices. Workforce Crew: (from left) seated – Bonnie Lee, Mark Hellman, Karen Belin and Sally Librera. standing – Larry Sampson, Joe Loperfido, Bob Darino, VP Tom Webb, MaryAnn DeCarmine and Carmen Lugo, (not pictured) Rosetta Kirkland.
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September 11 Seven Years Later: Lest We Forget*

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