Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority: Assessing Fiscal Risks and Improving Workforce Management Would Help Achieve Strategic Goals

WMATA provides rail and bus transit services that are critical to the mobility of the nation's capital and surrounding areas. However, WMATA's rail system has experienced safety lapses that have focused public attention on the management and performance of WMATA's workforce. In 2017, WMATA announced plans to reduce its workforce by eliminating 6 percent of its 13,000 positions to help bridge a $290 million gap in its 2018 operating budget. In 2018, GAO reported that although WMATA identifies the staffing levels it needs each year through its annual budgeting process, it does not have a strategic process to identify and address its long-term workforce needs to meet the agency's goals. GAO also found that WMATA's workforce development programs are not based on an agency-wide assessment of the skills the agency needs to meet its strategic goals. According to leading human capital practices GAO has previously identified, agencies should have a strategic workforce planning process that identifies the workforce needed to meet the agency's strategic goals now and in the future. WMATA officials told GAO they were interested in creating a strategic workforce plan, and had made previous plans to do so, but the effort was never completed. GAO concluded that without a strategic workforce planning process to establish a long-term direction for its workforce, WMATA does not have a clear plan for how it will acquire, develop, and retain the workforce needed to achieve its strategic goals of creating a safety culture and delivering quality service, among others. Therefore, GAO recommended that WMATA should develop a strategic workforce planning process that (1) sets a strategic direction for WMATA's workforce planning and involves employees and other stakeholders in developing and communicating the process, and (2) includes a data-driven assessment of the critical skill and competencies WMATA needs to fill any gaps. In 2022, GAO confirmed that WMATA had established a process to develop a strategic workforce plan and identify and address any gaps in the skills and competencies of the WMATA workforce. In June 2021, WMATA awarded a contract to assess WMATA's current workforce capacity, develop a workforce planning and forecasting tool, and a strategic workforce and human capital plan for the authority. As of September 2022, WMATA and its contractor have made significant progress in implementing that contract. First, WMATA's contractors analyzed WMATA workforce data and interviewed WMATA staff across 80 offices in order to complete a workforce assessment. This assessment identified several critical workforce skills found to be lacking within WMATA and made targeted recommendations to address gaps, including developing role-based competencies and career paths within job descriptions. Second, WMATA and its contractors developed an organizational change management plan to outline and communicate the goals, strategies, and methodology for managing change among WMATA stakeholders with respect to WMATA's strategic workforce planning initiative. Third, in September 2022, WMATA and its contractor developed a draft Human Capital Strategic Plan for 2023 through 2025 which, according to WMATA officials, will be finalized by the end of calendar year 2022. This plan provides the sequence of actions for WMATA's human capital and workforce development functions, including developing competency-driven career paths for specific positions by the end of 2024. As a result of these efforts, WMATA has a strategic workforce planning process in place to gather the critical information to help the authority identify and address any workforce gaps and ultimately move it closer to its strategic goals.

WMATA provides critical rail and bus transit services to the nation's capital and surrounding areas. However, WMATA's rail system has experienced safety lapses that have focused public attention on the management and performance of WMATA's workforce. In 2018, GAO reported that although WMATA had two performance management systems-PERFORMetro and Performance Conversations-in place to cover all WMATA employees, the design of these systems lacked three key elements of an effective performance management system as identified in prior GAO work. Specifically, WMATA's performance management systems did not (1) consistently align individual employee performance with all of WMATA's strategic goals and identify responsibilities; (2) make meaningful distinctions in performance; and (3) consistently use competencies tailored to each position, which define the behaviors individual employees are expected to contribute to strategic goals. GAO found that WMATA's performance management systems lacked these key elements of an effective performance management system, in part, because WMATA had not established comprehensive policies and procedures for implementing these systems. By establishing such policies and procedures, WMATA would be better able to steer employees towards behaviors that support the agency's goals and away from behaviors that do not. Therefore, GAO recommended that WMATA establish comprehensive policies and procedures for its performance management systems that document the goals of the systems and individuals' responsibilities for implementing these systems; align employee performance objectives with all of WMATA's strategic goals; and define performance objectives, rating categories, and competencies tailored to individual positions' responsibilities. In 2021, GAO confirmed that WMATA made several key changes to its employee performance management systems that, taken together, address the intent of GAO's recommendation to help ensure that WMATA has the tools and information to consistently implement the authority's performance management responsibilities. For example, in 2019 WMATA developed a guide for WMATA managers and employees under WMATA's Performance Conversations system to hold annual and ongoing discussions on employee performance. The guide establishes the roles and responsibilities of the managers and employees including setting expectations and behaviors related to the employee's position and WMATA's organizational priorities. In addition, in fiscal year 2020 WMATA established procedures for its PERFORMetro system-which covers the performance of all employees not represented by a union and staff represented by 3 unions-that clarify individual responsibilities for implementing the systems. WMATA managers are now required to annually set employee performance objectives that are focused on (1) safety, (2) customer service, and (3) personal leadership, which encompass and are intended to help achieve WMATA's three strategic goals to provide for the safety, reliability, and affordability of the Metro system for its customers. In addition, WMATA developed procedures for managers to make meaningful distinctions in employee performance by establishing specific and measureable employee objectives, and clearly defining the rating scale and behaviors associated with each performance category, ranging from exceptional to unsatisfactory performance. Moreover, in June 2021 WMATA awarded a contract to a consultant to develop a competency framework for WMATA's workforce that will identify the core behavioral competencies for WMATA's various supervisor, technical, and professional positions to help WMATA's workforce achieve its mission. Although WMATA has additional work to fully implement the resulting competency framework into its performance management systems, the steps taken by WMATA have better positioned the authority to use its performance management systems to move employees toward achieving its strategic goals.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) provides rail and bus transit services that are critical to the mobility and productivity of the nation's capital and surrounding areas. However, since 2015 WMATA's rail system had experienced safety lapses that focused public attention on the management and performance of WMATA's workforce. In 2018, GAO reported that although WMATA had employee performance management systems in place to cover all WMATA employees, WMATA supervisors had frequently not completed required performance evaluations accurately and on-time. Specifically, GAO found that of the 50 employee performance evaluation files that GAO reviewed: (1) 25 were missing either the employee's or supervisor's signature required on the initial expectations setting portion of the form; (2) 10 were scored incorrectly and thus assigned a performance rating inconsistent with the supporting review, and (3) 22 were not submitted on time according to established timeframes. GAO also found WMATA did not have sufficient controls in place to ensure that supervisors accurately complete performance reviews and submit them to the human resources department within established timeframes. Therefore, GAO recommended that WMATA establish controls to ensure supervisors fully and accurately complete employee performance reviews within established timeframes. In 2021, GAO confirmed that WMATA made several key changes to its employee performance management systems to help ensure the timely and accurate completion of employee performance reviews. For example, WMATA made technology upgrades to its PerforMetro system, which covers all employees not represented by a union, and certain union-represented employees. Specifically, WMATA made technology upgrades to (1) enable managers and employees to directly enter and review data in a single system to improve the accuracy of information, (2) provide automatic email reminders to managers to complete their performance reviews, and (3) allow WMATA managers to see the status of employee performance review documents within their chain of command. After implementing these and other improvements, WMATA provided GAO with data indicating that WMATA had completed performance evaluation requirements for the vast majority of employees covered by WMATA's PerforMetro system for the fiscal year 2020 performance cycle. As a result, WMATA has established controls to help ensure that supervisors submit complete, accurate, and timely performance reviews so that staff may receive information needed to improve performance.

WMATA provides critical rail and bus transit services to the nation's capital and surrounding areas. However, WMATA's rail system has experienced safety lapses that have focused public attention on the management and performance of WMATA's workforce. In 2018, GAO reported that WMATA had two performance management systems to cover its various employee groups, but that WMATA does not use performance management information to track progress towards strategic goals. GAO's prior work found that routinely using performance information to track individual contributions to organizational priorities, and then requiring follow-up actions to address gaps, are key performance management practices. This approach allows an agency to use its employee performance information to monitor progress towards its strategic goals. GAO reported that WMATA does not make use of employee performance information, in part, because it has not developed a process to do so. Without a documented process to use employee performance management information to monitor progress on its strategic goals, WMATA may miss opportunities to identify and follow-up on performance gaps and to make full use of the information collected through its performance management systems. Therefore, GAO recommended that WMATA develop a documented process to use employee performance management information to monitor progress toward WMATA's strategic goals. In 2022, GAO confirmed that WMATA had taken several steps that, collectively, established a process for its managers to use employee performance information to track individual contributions to organizational priorities. First, WMATA managers are now required to annually set employee performance objectives that are focused on (1) safety, (2) customer service, and (3) personal leadership, which encompass and are intended to help achieve WMATA's three strategic goals to provide for the safety, reliability, and affordability of the Metro system for its customers. Second, WMATA made technology upgrades to its performance management system to: (1) enable managers and employees to directly enter and review data in a single system to improve the accuracy of information, (2) allow WMATA managers to see the status of employee performance review documents within their chain of command, and (3) provide WMATA's senior leadership with a global view of the performance ratings to compare distributions across departments. Finally, WMATA has documented these changes by creating a variety of user guides and job aids for managers and employees to facilitate the performance evaluation process and allow senior leadership to compare ratings across departments and review employee performance objectives, as they relate to WMATA's strategic goals. As a result of these actions, WMATA managers now have tools and a documented process to make better use of employee performance information and identify areas for attention and improvements to help WMATA achieve its strategic goals.