Like any organization, state DOTs must evolve with the times. In state agencies, however, change is often slow and requires intention. Managing cultural change means understanding the individuals, relationships, and long-held norms that shape the agency, while recognizing the engineering field is inherently cautious and incremental.
Traditionally, these agencies have attracted engineers and field crews who, while technically skilled, often face a steep learning curve on the job. Many take on responsibilities, like public engagement, for which they have little formal training. For instance, civil engineering programs typically provide only a basic understanding of transportation design concepts, leaving gaps in the practical skills needed for DOT work.
Additionally, state DOT workforces have traditionally lacked diversity, with only about a quarter of employees currently being non-male or non-white. While women hold 30 to 35 percent of executive and management roles, fewer than 20 percent of executive leaders are non-white, underscoring the need for more inclusive recruitment and advancement practices. This push for diversity goes beyond race and gender to include people with varied skill sets, perspectives, life experiences, and interpersonal abilities, which are critical for addressing the complex challenges in transportation.
This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.
Invest in the next generation
Building a strong workforce in state DOTs requires balancing the retention of institutional knowledge, recruitment of new talent, and fostering innovation within the agency. With public staffing down 20 percent over the past 25 years, agencies increasingly rely on private contractors. However, overreliance on consultants can be costly, particularly if agency project managers lack the skills or resources to oversee them effectively.
State DOTs face stiff competition from other industries and the private sector in recruiting talented workers. While they often can’t offer the most competitive salaries, they can attract candidates by emphasizing meaningful work, flexible schedules, and supportive work environments. Many agencies are also committed to improving diversity and inclusion, as outlined in a 2020 resolution by AASHTO. Fortunately, strategies for building a diverse workforce—such as engaging talent early, forming partnerships with educational and community organizations, providing role models and mentors, implementing equitable hiring practices, and fostering an inclusive culture—also make agencies more appealing to top talent overall.
DOTs in states like Arizona and Idaho offer training in highway construction and heavy equipment, while Missouri and Texas have created training and employment pipelines for disadvantaged youth and young adults. Meanwhile, the Washington State DOT has made telework a permanent option for around 40 percent of its staff, improving retention and productivity while broadening job access statewide. At the same time, agency leaders must ensure that designers maintain on-the-ground project experience to stay connected to the realities of their work.
As their roles and required skill sets evolve, state DOTs look increasingly to draw from a wider range of applicants, including data scientists and experts in public engagement. This presents a challenge and an opportunity, especially when agencies also struggle to recruit trained engineers. While licensed engineers have traditionally filled many roles from traffic operations to CEO, some agencies, like the Texas DOT, have begun reviewing their job qualifications, opening positions to a broader pool while letting technical experts focus on what they do best. State DOTs in Minnesota and Washington State enlisted artists-in-residence to help shape agency culture, improve communication, and build stronger relationships with the public.
Unfortunately, strong teams don’t last forever. But there are steps agencies can take to retain skilled workers and ensure institutional knowledge gets passed along as long-time staff leave or retire. The Michigan DOT, for example, developed a workforce and succession planning system, the MDOT ‘House,’ featuring tools for leadership development, skills-matching, and knowledge-sharing. Similarly, the Minnesota DOT encourages retiring staff to prepare knowledge transfer materials in the six months leading up to their retirement. They also offer vacant positions temporarily to current employees, providing opportunities to test their skills and advance within the agency.
Make space to try new things
Part of retaining talented staff is ensuring they feel empowered to innovate and move the agency forward. This is especially true for younger staff who often bring fresh ideas, but they also look to more senior staff in learning rules and norms.
State agencies sometimes establish dedicated offices to drive innovation and support sustainability initiatives. For example, Colorado’s Office of Process Improvement, launched in 2011, elevates staff-proposed innovations, including tools for maintenance and construction teams and process improvements that have streamlined hiring, permitting, and grant reimbursements. Minnesota’s Office of Sustainability and Public Health builds strategic partnerships and provides resources to help agency staff achieve ambitious climate goals.
Even experienced engineers need encouragement and space to innovate. Quick-build projects allow designers, maintenance teams, and the public to test new ideas, tweak them, and refine the standards to eliminate barriers. States like Minnesota and Vermont have developed guides for implementing quick-build projects on state and local routes. These include bike lanes, crosswalks, curb extensions, and medians. Although these projects are often on local routes and led by local governments, state DOTs pursued quick-build projects in Alaska, California, Connecticut, and Tennessee through a Complete Streets Leadership Academy. One of Connecticut’s pilot projects lowered traffic speeds by almost 10 miles per hour and the effort helped the agency streamline its permitting process for similar projects in the future.
Agencies can push the boundaries of innovation through experimentation and exploration. As one example, California DOT partnered with Los Angeles County to expand its Mobility Wallet program, allowing seamless payment for tolls, transit, and charging stations with debit or credit cards. In a similar experiment, Virginia’s Regional Multi-Modal Mobility Program uses real-time data and predictive models to offer incentives for travelers to make choices that maximize system efficiency. Just as with innovative road design, agency staff must feel empowered to explore new programs, data sources, engagement strategies, and more.
Build lasting partnerships
The relationship that local governments and members of the public have with their state DOT can be fraught—whether due to layers of bureaucracy or years of mistrust. That is not always unfounded. State agencies rarely account for local plans in developing their project lists, according to a Brookings report, and sometimes force statewide priorities into those plans. However, an innovative DOT can rebuild trust and develop meaningful, lasting relationships. This means being proactive, transparent, and consistent.
Public engagement typically occurs at key points in decision-making, such as long-range planning or environmental reviews, where federal minimum standards apply. However, agencies can build stronger relationships by involving communities and core groups early and maintaining ongoing engagement. For example, the Tennessee DOT, following a holistic internal review, created a new team dedicated to building strong community relations before projects enter the pipeline. The Minnesota DOT established new communication channels through its Sustainable Transportation Advisory Council—bringing local governments and major interest groups to the table—and via its community ambassador, which fosters lasting connections with underserved communities.
On individual projects, agencies can ensure underrepresented voices play a meaningful role by meeting people where they are and removing barriers to participation. While redesigning a state highway that once cut through a historically Black and Jewish area, the Minnesota DOT reached community members through a comprehensive strategy involving community meetings and door-knocking. Recognizing challenges such as unpaid time off and childcare, Oregon DOT compensates community members for their input through its Equitable Engagement Payment Program. U.S. DOT has clarified that federal funds can often be used for public involvement activities, including compensating artists or community-based organizations, offering incentives, and hosting virtual events.
Effective public involvement means involving the right people at the right time and managing expectations as projects move forward. With support from Smart Growth America, Utah DOT engaged the community during the scoping of I-15 improvements, leading to the inclusion of connectivity in the project’s Purpose and Need statements. However, engaging communities late in the environmental review process, without clear context, risks creating false expectations about potential project changes—an area where many project engineers lack training. U.S. DOT’s best practices for meaningful public engagement emphasize building necessary internal capacity and ensuring sufficient resources for engagement efforts.
State DOTs can strengthen relationships with local governments by streamlining grant and assistance programs. For federal grants, state agencies are uniquely positioned to coordinate local applications and support smaller governments. During the rollout of U.S. DOT’s Reconnecting Communities program, for example, California DOT released a handbook to guide applicants, pointing to additional funding sources like a state grant program that could match federal funds. Similarly, North Carolina offers assistance and matching funds for initiatives like Safe Streets and Roads for All and RAISE. These efforts not only help under-resourced communities but also ensure that the strongest proposals rise to the top, allowing others to refocus their time and resources.
Local grants and assistance programs offer similar opportunities. Some state agencies have consolidated various grant programs into a single convenient portal—Grant Central in Massachusetts and SMART Portal in Virginia—which serves as a one-stop shop for local officials to access funding opportunities, track deadlines, and submit applications. This aligns with recommendations from Brookings, which include standardized resources, accessible information, lower barriers to entry, and ongoing guidance. Working with communities through the grant process can help build a shared understanding of goals and priorities, while producing projects that offer the most benefits for the least cost, as the Virginia DOT has learned through its SMART SCALE program).
Finally, DOT staff and leaders can form lasting relationships with their peers in other states to learn from each other and maximize their shared capacity for greater innovation and efficiency. In addition to the many trade groups and professional organizations that exist, SSTI offers unique opportunities for collaboration and discovery in a shared and open setting.
Published February 2025.