SILICON VALLEY FEBRUARY 2017 | MassTransitmag.com | Mass Transit | 13 Grow Their Own VTA is in a position that many agencies are facing: 40 percent of its workforce could retire at any time. Chief Operating Offi cer Inez Evans said looking at the retirements VTA had coming up, “40 percent of my operators, light rail operators, supervisors, could all walk away and all of that institutional knowledge could walk out with them. We had to come up with a diff erent strategy.” She said Tom Fink, a former VTA employee and member of the local Amalgamated Transit Union, came up with the concept of the Joint Workforce Investment (JWI) program. She said he was prompted to come up with this because they were seeing so many people not completing the training process. “Th ey were seeing the massive amount of investment VTA was making in training all these people and they weren’t staying.” With today’s program, when a new operator comes on board they go through a 9-week training course. Th e graduation for that is on a Wednesday, then Th ursday and Friday are JWI classes. Th ursday they meet with their mentors, learn about the program and learn what the year ahead in the apprenticeship is going to look like. Friday they ride on the mentor’s route, splitting the time driving. Jamaine Gibson, JWI apprenticeship coordinator, said the new operator can see how the mentor deals with everything while driving and then the mentor gets a chance to observe and evaluate the new operator. Part of the program includes getting college credits for classes they go through, with everything from customer service to transit leadership. Gibson said it’s the things operators have always done, but now it’s to the point it’s recognized as a skill. “Most people talk about coach operators, they don’t see the value in it. You’re just ‘driving a bus.’” He continued, “Really, you’re carrying those people’s lives in your hand, those family’s lives. Th at’s a big responsibility.” Gibson came to VTA in 2011 aft er being laid off from his manufacturing job. He started as an operator, went through the apprenticeship program and now is the JWI apprenticeship coordinator, which includes putting together the meetings, doing the paperwork for the college piece of the program, all while still driving a bus. He said that’s the unusual part that other agencies oft en ask about, as he’s a union member and coach operator. “Th ey’re like, ‘Who’s watching you?’” he said. “It’s the trust we’ve built between the union and the VTA. We really do it because we want to see the people come in, succeed and that’s going to make VTA successful.” A huge part of the success for the operators is the mentor component. At the end of the initial training, they are assigned a mentor for a year, though from talking to staff , the mentors go beyond that offi cial timeframe. Mentors have a patch on their uniform and oft en when any operator needs someone to talk to, they know they can approach any mentor to get support. Th ough Gibson’s been with VTA six years now and is a mentor himself, he said he still talks to his mentor every week. “It never stops,” he stressed. “You end up building this relationship; they never go away.” Th e biggest hurdle in starting the conversation about a program like this. Evans explained they look at the data to show the value of the program. Customer complaints, accidents, attendance, overtime and retention are some of the data points she mentioned and said that they’ve all seen a positive change. Regarding retention, Evans said they have seen the dropout rate signifi cantly decrease to the single digits. Evans agreed the biggest challenge is getting buy in from both management and the union because it’s a diff erent concept. “It’s not typically the marriage that is thought of, but I think we’ve been able to prove … we’re all on the same side. We all have the same goal to put serviced out,” she said. “We’re not here to talk about our contract; we’re here to talk about our primary goal, which is serving our community. “You have to get the union and management to understand you have to leave all of what happened at contract negotiations behind because the community doesn’t care about that.” “Management has to come to the table with the understanding that it’s a roundtable, everyone is equal, and the union has to be the same way.” Trust is key in a successful program. While oft en operators are getting direction from management that doesn’t have fi rsthand experience of what it’s like on the operator end, Gibson said, “Now we have the voice to say, ‘We know what you want, but this is what it looks like on the other end.’ Th e trust to be able to say as a manager, ‘I’m OK listening to your idea; it may not be what I thought of, but let’s try it your way.’ Th at’s huge.” Technical Training Supervisor Maurice Beard agrees that trust is a huge component in the success of the program and that both sides of the equation have to be fl exible and have an agreed upon end goal. “Realistically, there has to be coaches on the road; revenue service has to trump everything,” he said. “We can be as touchy feely about all this as possible, but if we don’t have enough people to cover revenue service, that JWI meeting may get cancelled because we have to go do the job.” He emphasized, “Th ere’s an understanding on both sides. Th e fl exibility is a big thing.” By the Numbers The BART 16 mile extension 6 stations Part 1 Berryessa 10 mile extension 2 stations Part 2 6 mile extension 2 stations 5 mile subway SSH
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