Workforce Crisis to Competitive Advantage: Building People-Forward Leadership Pipelines in Transit

Carol Parker Walsh Consulting Group works to strengthen service and reduce attrition

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Transit runs on people, and with historic infrastructure investments flowing nationwide, the stakes are high. APTA’s research shows 96% of agencies are facing a workforce shortage that impact direct service. Couple that with 43% of workers over 55 ready to retire, the industry is in a crisis. As APTA CEO Paul Skoutelas emphasized, “We need people to make it work. That’s the foundation. The human capital.” The solution, however, isn’t just hiring more people, it’s developing leaders at every level who can engage, retain, and grow talent. That’s where our work has proved to be instrumental.

A recent 12-month leadership initiative with a major transit agency delivered measurable impact. We achieved a 12% reduction in voluntary turnover, 13% improvement in team performance, and 10% increase in employee engagement. With $4.40 ROI for every dollar spent, the program demonstrated clear financial value alongside operational improvements.

We used our proprietary People-Forward Leadership™ approach centered on three core pillars: Leader Awareness develops self and situational awareness; Empowered Ecosystems create environments where teams thrive; and Continuous Learning embeds growth as a cultural norm. This approach earned us three 2025 Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards including two Silver in leadership development and one Bronze in talent management.

Our work has identified six leadership capabilities that measurably impact retention: shared vision, role clarity leveraging strengths, psychological safety, adaptive communication, productive conflict resolution, and accountability frameworks. Research consistently shows managers drive team engagement, making leadership development the highest leverage intervention. Psychological safety emerges as the top predictor of team effectiveness, while clear structures boost execution. Role clarity links directly to productivity, retention, safety, and customer outcomes. Early tenure remains fragile with up to 20% of turnover occurring within 45 days, so our leadership practices around onboarding reduce early exits. Specific goals outperform vague expectations, which is why our accountability processes translate vision into trackable commitments. These six capabilities create leadership ecosystems that retain people and accelerate performance.

Through our People-Forward Leadership™ Podcast, we showcase transit leaders leveraging these capabilities to create people-forward organizations. When transit agencies invest in leaders, they elevate their people, transform culture, and accelerate impact. These organizations become talent magnets.

Individual Leader Growth

Executive coaching and emerging leader development with proven ROI tracking

Team Ecosystem Design

Vision alignment, role clarity, trust building, and productive conflict management

Cultural Integration

Psychological safety practices linked to operational KPIs and service excellence

Carol Parker Walsh Consulting Group, LLC

16420 SE McGillivray Blvd.,
Ste. 103/912
Vancouver, WA 98683
+1.360.258.0736
http://www.carolparkerwalsh.com