Transportation

Agency Management/Agency Services - Transportation

Statewide Outcome(s):

Agency Management supports the following statewide outcome(s).

Sustainable options to safely move people, goods, services and information.

Context:

Agency Services provides executive leadership, sets policy, and determines strategic direction to ensure that the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) delivers a safe and effective transportation network. Agency management directs the department’s administrative, financial, human and capital resources, and serves all of MnDOT’s approximately 4,800 employees.

Agency Services ensures that MnDOT’s workforce is skilled, productive, and diverse so that it can effectively serve citizens. Department leadership provides an array of planning, policy and administrative services, including financial, communications, government relations, transportation ombudsman, internal and external audit functions, and management of partnerships that make the transportation system responsive to stakeholder needs.

Financial services provided include planning, forecasting, analysis, budgeting and management of federal and state funds, and innovative finance initiatives. Communication services help MnDOT gather customer input for improved decision making, and provide transportation-related information to the public. General administrative support incorporates a wide range of services including materials management, contracting accounting, payroll services, administrative rule-making, occupational safety, health services, and business processes. Corporate services staff coordinate technology products and services with Information Technology for Minnesota Government (MnIT) and oversees agency IT management.

Key issues include recruitment and retention of a skilled, diverse workforce, due to a lack of competitive advantage with the private sector, and effective knowledge transfer as large numbers of experienced employees retire from the agency.

Agency Services is funded by direct appropriation from the Trunk Highway Fund.

Strategies:

Staffing:

·        In response to concerns about the retirement of many experienced MnDOT employees along with a shrinking applicant pool, Human Resources staff developed and implemented innovative staffing strategies, including student worker and internship programs, and the Graduate Engineer and Land Surveyor program.

·        District offices have developed and implemented strategic staffing plans to identify skills and competencies that match the current and future needs of the agency.

·        To recruit more diverse candidates, MnDOT has developed partnerships with other entities. This includes MnDOT's Community Advisors on Recruitment and Retention Solutions (MnCARRS), a community partnership composed of MnDOT employees and community leaders representing minority communities, women, veterans and people with disabilities. The group was created to build recruitment partnerships between MnDOT and communities underrepresented in MnDOT's workforce to assist the agency in recruiting and retaining qualified candidates from a variety of backgrounds. (Key technical positions are critically evaluated when they become vacant to assure that the agency is making the right hire at the right location at the right time.)

Knowledge Transfer:

MnDOT has a dedicated Business Process section that assists the department in streamlining and managing various processes, records, and administrative policies. To date, the group has facilitated 7 LEAN Kaizen events and 18 process improvement workshops Finance:

·        In response to ongoing financial constraints and recent state legislation, MnDOT has initiated an Efficiency Measures project to identify and/or create, track, and report on the efficiency of MnDOT’s products and services. The outcomes of this project will assist MnDOT in continuing to provide the public with the most effective and efficient transportation system possible.

·        MnDOT is also in the process of implementing a more formal and robust internal control program, called Safe¬guarding MnDOT. This includes conducting financial risk assessments, staff training and certifycation, the creation of an internal control board, and the development of a three year program plan.

Ombudsman:

·        MnDOT offers an external ombudsman service to ensure fairness when businesses or members of the public cannot resolve a dispute with the agency through other processes. These strategies for engaging stakeholders and responding to citizen needs are designed to increase transparency and build public trust.

Results:

Key factors affecting the Agency Management area include challenges in recruiting and retaining qualified staff for key positions, and managing the uncertainty of ongoing federal funding levels.

Additional performance measures are under development.

Performance Measures	Previous	Current	Trend
Employee turnover – separations from MnDOT1	FY 2009 – 420	FY 2011 - 929	Increasing
Overall ethnic and gender diversity2	7-8% - minority 22% - women	8% - minority 22% - women	Stable
Trunk Highway Fund Debt Management3 (target: <20% )	6% (FY 2011)	18% (FY 2014)	Increasing
Trunk Highway Fund Balance4 (target: >$90M as of Nov 2012 forecast)	$200M (FY 2011)	$187M (FY 2014)	Stable
Ombudsman cases received & resolved	FY 2009 – 113	FY 2011–151	Increasing

Performance Measures Notes:

^1.           The FY 2011 count for employee separations includes 410 MnDOT employees who departed under the Early Retirement Incentive authorized by the 2010 Minnesota Legislature.

^2.           MnDOT regularly compares the gender and minority composition of its workforce to the composition of available candidates in specific employment categories. MnDOT’s goal is to increase the multicultural competency of all of its employees to attract and retain a diverse workforce to better serve the increasingly diverse population of the state. MnDOT’s overall minority employment has remained relatively constant over the past four years, between seven and eight percent. Women continue to comprise 22 percent of the MnDOT workforce. These results reflect the availability of qualified applicants, the constraints imposed by the civil service system and the competition for the best applicants from other governmental agencies and the private sector.

^3.           Trunk Highway Fund Debt Management—Debt service for the Trunk Highway Fund (THF) should not exceed 20 percent of annual state revenues to the Trunk Highway Fund.

^4.           Trunk Highway Fund Balance—The Trunk Highway Fund should maintain a balance not less than the sum of:

(a)   Six percent of annual projected state revenues to the fund, plus

(b)   Two percent of authorized, unissued debt, plus

(c)   A reasonable allowance for future debt service funding shortfalls when debt service exceeds 20 percent of state revenues.