The Problem Of Worker Shortage In The Rail Sector

In recent years, many sectors have been affected by the shortage of workers and the rail sector is no exception. More than 80,000 workers should be hired in the next six years to meet the growing demand for transportation. Multiple things must be considered when approaching the problem. At this time, the industry is doing everything possible to attract potential candidates with financial incentives, such as the subscription of thousands of dollars' worth of bonds and more complete benefit packages. The railroad industry is rarely considered as a potential future career by today’s youth and heavy competition from other industries may do the recruitment harder of even those individuals who have expressed their interest.

The United States approach to traditional education and professional training is partly to blame, but the rail industry also has a bad reputation for involving extremely difficult and tiring work. Wages simply do not go as far as they did in many countries; the rules and regulations of the industry are seen as non flexible and too complex; workers are sometimes under high scrutiny in different ways; hectic work schedules do not leave much room for downtime; Accidents are common Employees receive basic or inadequate benefit packages; and signature bonuses often involve a lot of small print. (Fayola Powell, 2018)

The general conditions create a challenging work environment that dismisses potential employees and paints an unattractive image for the younger generation entering the workforce. Boomers are in charge and they are keeping things afloat right now, but many are retiring or reaching retirement age. It is estimated than in ten years, more ore less, the railroads will see the retirement of a high percentage of its workforce; from 55 per cent to 64. This means that over 100,000 people will leave their jobs, and with them a huge amount of experience and expertise. The railway industry must work to modernize its image. The bureaucratic policies have removed shine from the jobs of the railway industry, and although the signing bonuses are undoubtedly a solid starting point, the internal culture needs a complete overhaul.

Solutions

• Bonus: Railroads offer massive incentives to attract new employees, including large signing bonuses. The bonuses are intended to stimulate interest in railway work in a difficult hiring environment.
• Activities: summer youth programs, open engineering houses and Boy Scout merit badges to involve these students. The program includes work in class, visits to the industry and practical activities.
• Student projects: this is one of the best methods to attract students to a specific field through activities.

Active learning is something that has been done for a long period of time, but now, more attention has been placed to passing higher education from a format based on theoretical lectures to much more practical approaches. This change is taking place gradually due to the preferences of a group that has been educated around a digital world and that is more than accustomed to technology, both in communication and in the learning process. The research project activities that are financed by the industry add another dimension to the exhibition and networking in the industry, both approaches have the main objective of better orienting students in the world of industry. The student contribution may be part of a larger research project, but may also be independent student activities, such as design projects. In addition to attract students, these projects can become useful recruiting tools for the railroad industry, especially if students get involved before their senior year.

Potential Approaches and Strategies for Attraction, Recruitment and Retention: the main goal of this is to identify some strategies and activities related to the following areas: recruiting and interacting with students, making railroads industry the preferred destination and retaining the next generation. Some of the ideas that millennials proposed were,(NURail, 2015):

• Internships (by far the most consistent response).
• Site visits.
• Using students groups or past interns to assist in recruiting.
• Scholarships and student competitions.
• Research assistantships for 1st/2nd year students
• Generate more targeted rail events for younger audience, such as Boy Scout merit badges, operation lifesaver and elementary/junior high rail days.
• Modernize communication to include more social media approaches (YouTube, animations, etc. ).
• Demonstrate the benefits of latest technology.
• Provide past interns with bonus to promote their experience.
• Get involved/develop engineering competitions.

Conclusion

To sum up, hiring people has became crucial in the railroad industry. Their needs of attracting young people to a hard environmental work has led them to invest more money on researches and human resources with the goal of make a generational change in the business.