Meeting the workforce development needs of a rapidly changing organization is a major goal of the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT). The State of Georgia is faced with a growing urban population, increased transportation needs and mounting environmental concerns. Greater public scrutiny and an increased reliance on integrating the various modes of public transportation into a comprehensive area transportation plan make each project for the department important for winning political and financial support. These issues coupled with an aging workforce made it critical for the Department's leadership to examine ways to improve its internal human resources services and ultimately build new skills and competencies for the workforce.

Sterling Institute was chosen through competitive bid to provide all aspects of a training needs assessment which was designed to provide benchmark information for strategic planning. The statement of work included conducting employee focus groups statewide for all types of employees to assess their technical and non-technical training needs. Management interviews were needed to learn of the challenges senior mangers were having regarding the gap in the present workforce, in light of the needs of the future. A 'customer survey' was distributed to GDOT employees to document their future training and performance needs and to assess their current satisfaction with the programs and services they had received. GDOT also wanted to conduct benchmarking studies of similar sized organizations with similar workforce issues.