OIG: Needs to Improve Efforts to Retain, Hire, and Train Its Screeners
May 23, 2019, 10:20 am
#46
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May 23, 2019, 10:59 am
#48
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We often think that screener is position that can be performed by any idiot off the street, with minimal training, and paid low according to that perception. But we've seen blatant evidence to the contrary - both the intelligence level and the training level of the rank and file screener has contributed significantly, IMHO, to the dearth of common sense and abundance of absolutely moronic decisions at checkpoints around the country.
They've been hiring idiots and inadequately training them; perhaps if we approached screening as a skilled job, hired only those with enough intelligence to exercise common sense, and adequately trained them, we'd get better performance and higher worker retention.
It all goes back to what I was saying upthread - front line passenger and luggage screeners should never be casual, low-skilled employees, apathetic part-timers, or retirees looking to alleviate boredom or pick up an easy paycheck, they should be motivated professionals on a career track. You're never going to have a professional screener force if all you hire are people who don't care what kind of work they do as long as they collect a paycheck just for showing up.
I look at it from the Office Space perspective.
Originally Posted by The unmatched classic film Office Space
Peter Gibbons: The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care.
Bob Porter: Don't... don't care?
Peter Gibbons: It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ... off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime, so where's the motivation? And here's something else, Bob: I have eight different bosses right now.
Bob Slydell: I beg your pardon?
Peter Gibbons: Eight bosses.
Bob Slydell: Eight?
Peter Gibbons: Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.
Bob Porter: Don't... don't care?
Peter Gibbons: It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ... off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime, so where's the motivation? And here's something else, Bob: I have eight different bosses right now.
Bob Slydell: I beg your pardon?
Peter Gibbons: Eight bosses.
Bob Slydell: Eight?
Peter Gibbons: Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.
May 23, 2019, 11:10 am
#49
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No mention of who appointed the 'blue ribbon panel' that these claims are based on. No mention of how many frontline TSOs they actually interviewed or how many of those interviews were with TSOs actually exiting the work force. 'Focus groups'? Who set those groups up and who determined who participated?
When someone from HR comes around formally asking folks in my group (or any other group in the company) what could be done to improve morale and productivity, the experienced ones always add: "besides the obvious, better pay" with a chuckle. TSA management wants to cry 'money' because 1) they're always looking to 'grow' their budget and 2) it's the easy fix that won't fix anything. But it's easy.
IIRC, TSA disciplinary actions were dominated by attendance and tardiness issues. How is a pay raise going to 'fix' that?
May 23, 2019, 12:20 pm
#50
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Perhaps this one of the many attitudes that we need to change.
We often think that screener is position that can be performed by any idiot off the street, with minimal training, and paid low according to that perception. But we've seen blatant evidence to the contrary - both the intelligence level and the training level of the rank and file screener has contributed significantly, IMHO, to the dearth of common sense and abundance of absolutely moronic decisions at checkpoints around the country.
They've been hiring idiots and inadequately training them; perhaps if we approached screening as a skilled job, hired only those with enough intelligence to exercise common sense, and adequately trained them, we'd get better performance and higher worker retention.
It all goes back to what I was saying upthread - front line passenger and luggage screeners should never be casual, low-skilled employees, apathetic part-timers, or retirees looking to alleviate boredom or pick up an easy paycheck, they should be motivated professionals on a career track. You're never going to have a professional screener force if all you hire are people who don't care what kind of work they do as long as they collect a paycheck just for showing up.
I look at it from the Office Space perspective.
We often think that screener is position that can be performed by any idiot off the street, with minimal training, and paid low according to that perception. But we've seen blatant evidence to the contrary - both the intelligence level and the training level of the rank and file screener has contributed significantly, IMHO, to the dearth of common sense and abundance of absolutely moronic decisions at checkpoints around the country.
They've been hiring idiots and inadequately training them; perhaps if we approached screening as a skilled job, hired only those with enough intelligence to exercise common sense, and adequately trained them, we'd get better performance and higher worker retention.
It all goes back to what I was saying upthread - front line passenger and luggage screeners should never be casual, low-skilled employees, apathetic part-timers, or retirees looking to alleviate boredom or pick up an easy paycheck, they should be motivated professionals on a career track. You're never going to have a professional screener force if all you hire are people who don't care what kind of work they do as long as they collect a paycheck just for showing up.
I look at it from the Office Space perspective.
May 24, 2019, 5:47 pm
#51
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You can have professionalism and dedication in lower skilled jobs, It's not the job but the person who was hired. Increasing wages doesn't necessarily get you a more professional employee either. When management is faulty that can cause all manner of problems downstream and in my opinion that is what's wrong with TSA to a large extent. There are career SES and other senior people at TSA who should have never been government employees.
If you hire people with McDonald's experience to work at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant and don't train them properly, of course you're going to get lousy performance and low morale.
My point is that TSA screener is something that people think of as a low-skilled job. TSOs are recruited and paid according to that perception. But the perception is flawed - screening passengers and luggage requires critical thinking and decision making skills, as well as interpersonal skills when dealing with the traveling public. But TSA not only hires people who lack those abilities, it also fails to train them properly to develop those abilities.
If TSA were to stop looking at the job as something that can be done by an idiot, maybe they'd stop hiring idiots, training them idiotically, and paying them idiot wages.
May 27, 2019, 9:02 am
#52
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May 27, 2019, 8:49 pm
#53
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Level of skill is not the issue. It's level of skill required by the job vs. level of skill evidenced by hirees.
If you hire people with McDonald's experience to work at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant and don't train them properly, of course you're going to get lousy performance and low morale.
My point is that TSA screener is something that people think of as a low-skilled job. TSOs are recruited and paid according to that perception. But the perception is flawed - screening passengers and luggage requires critical thinking and decision making skills, as well as interpersonal skills when dealing with the traveling public. But TSA not only hires people who lack those abilities, it also fails to train them properly to develop those abilities.
If TSA were to stop looking at the job as something that can be done by an idiot, maybe they'd stop hiring idiots, training them idiotically, and paying them idiot wages.
If you hire people with McDonald's experience to work at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant and don't train them properly, of course you're going to get lousy performance and low morale.
My point is that TSA screener is something that people think of as a low-skilled job. TSOs are recruited and paid according to that perception. But the perception is flawed - screening passengers and luggage requires critical thinking and decision making skills, as well as interpersonal skills when dealing with the traveling public. But TSA not only hires people who lack those abilities, it also fails to train them properly to develop those abilities.
If TSA were to stop looking at the job as something that can be done by an idiot, maybe they'd stop hiring idiots, training them idiotically, and paying them idiot wages.
May 28, 2019, 3:49 am
#54
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I still have to disagree. The military hires kids just out of high school yet you will find some of the highest morale and well functioning organizations going. Some are smart and some aren't so smart but they get trained and trained again to conduct certain tasks. So in part I agree that training at TSA is faulty but the people can be taught to perform and do their jobs consistently. The military also has a functioning leadership model which I think may also be missing at TSA.
The military trains people 24/7 for up to three months just to wear the uniform, and for some job slots the training can last close to a year. Even recruits who are dumb as a box of rocks are taught the skills they need to do their jobs, and that training gives them a feeling of confidence that can border on invincibility. Morale is high because everyone is held to a high standard and rules are clearly spelled out, with manuals and literature, and the training is reinforced with constant refreshers and practices and drills until it's so ingrained that soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen can do their jobs blindfolded. Officers go to academies that give them intensive training for four years and learn not only how to be soldiers, but how to be leaders under some of the most difficult conditions imaginable (combat).
TSA, on the other hand, minimally trains TSOs locally, sending a small percentage to the academy where they supposedly learn skills to do their jobs, but the system of conveying those skills to their coworkers is flawed and broken. The rules are not only secret, but inconsistently applied, and leadership gets no special training in how to lead or inspire subordinates. But most tellingly, TSO training seems to contain nothing relating to interpersonal skills, crowd control, coworker motivation, or anything else that would make TSO interaction with the public go more pleasantly. Hence, there is a wide gap between the level of skill needed for the job, and the level of skill possessed by the average TSO screening pax and baggage, making the job more difficult than it needs to be, because they're not doing it right and the public resents them.
May 28, 2019, 5:10 am
#55
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Yes, but that's my point - TSA hires unskilled people and fails to properly teach them the skills they need to perform the job. The public is upset when they can't do the job, because the public is under the mistaken impression that the job of screener is so simple that a trained monkey could do it. Which, even if that were true, wouldn't work because TSA would inevitably fail to train the monkey to do the job, just as it fails to train TSOs to do they job.
The military trains people 24/7 for up to three months just to wear the uniform, and for some job slots the training can last close to a year. Even recruits who are dumb as a box of rocks are taught the skills they need to do their jobs, and that training gives them a feeling of confidence that can border on invincibility. Morale is high because everyone is held to a high standard and rules are clearly spelled out, with manuals and literature, and the training is reinforced with constant refreshers and practices and drills until it's so ingrained that soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen can do their jobs blindfolded. Officers go to academies that give them intensive training for four years and learn not only how to be soldiers, but how to be leaders under some of the most difficult conditions imaginable (combat).
TSA, on the other hand, minimally trains TSOs locally, sending a small percentage to the academy where they supposedly learn skills to do their jobs, but the system of conveying those skills to their coworkers is flawed and broken. The rules are not only secret, but inconsistently applied, and leadership gets no special training in how to lead or inspire subordinates. But most tellingly, TSO training seems to contain nothing relating to interpersonal skills, crowd control, coworker motivation, or anything else that would make TSO interaction with the public go more pleasantly. Hence, there is a wide gap between the level of skill needed for the job, and the level of skill possessed by the average TSO screening pax and baggage, making the job more difficult than it needs to be, because they're not doing it right and the public resents them.
The military trains people 24/7 for up to three months just to wear the uniform, and for some job slots the training can last close to a year. Even recruits who are dumb as a box of rocks are taught the skills they need to do their jobs, and that training gives them a feeling of confidence that can border on invincibility. Morale is high because everyone is held to a high standard and rules are clearly spelled out, with manuals and literature, and the training is reinforced with constant refreshers and practices and drills until it's so ingrained that soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen can do their jobs blindfolded. Officers go to academies that give them intensive training for four years and learn not only how to be soldiers, but how to be leaders under some of the most difficult conditions imaginable (combat).
TSA, on the other hand, minimally trains TSOs locally, sending a small percentage to the academy where they supposedly learn skills to do their jobs, but the system of conveying those skills to their coworkers is flawed and broken. The rules are not only secret, but inconsistently applied, and leadership gets no special training in how to lead or inspire subordinates. But most tellingly, TSO training seems to contain nothing relating to interpersonal skills, crowd control, coworker motivation, or anything else that would make TSO interaction with the public go more pleasantly. Hence, there is a wide gap between the level of skill needed for the job, and the level of skill possessed by the average TSO screening pax and baggage, making the job more difficult than it needs to be, because they're not doing it right and the public resents them.
May 28, 2019, 6:23 am
#56
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May I ask where you got this information? I thought TSA was sending all new hires to Georgia for training.
May 28, 2019, 7:56 am
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My understanding is that new hires do some initial training at their home airport before going to the academy. So there is time to teach them all of the wrong things to do before they are exposed to how to do things correctly. How quickly they revert to locally taught bad practices when sent back to their airports is a variable but almost a given. Regardless, two weeks of formal training seems inadequate to me and doesn't allow time to really focus on the various tasks required of TSA screeners. The last issue is that TSA can't decide on how to screen people.
May 28, 2019, 9:46 am
#58
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My understanding is that new hires do some initial training at their home airport before going to the academy. So there is time to teach them all of the wrong things to do before they are exposed to how to do things correctly. How quickly they revert to locally taught bad practices when sent back to their airports is a variable but almost a given. Regardless, two weeks of formal training seems inadequate to me and doesn't allow time to really focus on the various tasks required of TSA screeners. The last issue is that TSA can't decide on how to screen people.
May 28, 2019, 10:33 am
#59
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I recall seeing an article mentioned recently that TSA wants to hire as many as 2,000 new screeners this year, while the average over the last few years was something like 1,200.
1,200 new hires per year out of a work force of 60,000 is about two percent. Even their goal this year of 2,000 equates to only 3.3% of 60,000. To me, that's a small percentage being sent to the academy. Or am I remembering the total work force number incorrectly? That could skew my perception.
My understanding is that new hires do some initial training at their home airport before going to the academy. So there is time to teach them all of the wrong things to do before they are exposed to how to do things correctly. How quickly they revert to locally taught bad practices when sent back to their airports is a variable but almost a given. Regardless, two weeks of formal training seems inadequate to me and doesn't allow time to really focus on the various tasks required of TSA screeners. The last issue is that TSA can't decide on how to screen people.
May 28, 2019, 11:19 am
#60
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That was my understanding as well, but do the math.
I recall seeing an article mentioned recently that TSA wants to hire as many as 2,000 new screeners this year, while the average over the last few years was something like 1,200.
1,200 new hires per year out of a work force of 60,000 is about two percent. Even their goal this year of 2,000 equates to only 3.3% of 60,000. To me, that's a small percentage being sent to the academy. Or am I remembering the total work force number incorrectly? That could skew my perception.
My hope for the academy was not that every TSO would attend it, but that it would be used to train the trainers. Instead of a screener training course, the academy should be a screener trainer training course, turning out uniformly trained instructors who would then return to their home airports and hold classes to properly retrain the entire workforce. Unsurprisingly, this doesn't seem to have happened, and TSOs who learn things at the academy return to their home airports and are most likely told, "Well, I don't care what you learned at the academy, we do it different here!"
I recall seeing an article mentioned recently that TSA wants to hire as many as 2,000 new screeners this year, while the average over the last few years was something like 1,200.
1,200 new hires per year out of a work force of 60,000 is about two percent. Even their goal this year of 2,000 equates to only 3.3% of 60,000. To me, that's a small percentage being sent to the academy. Or am I remembering the total work force number incorrectly? That could skew my perception.
My hope for the academy was not that every TSO would attend it, but that it would be used to train the trainers. Instead of a screener training course, the academy should be a screener trainer training course, turning out uniformly trained instructors who would then return to their home airports and hold classes to properly retrain the entire workforce. Unsurprisingly, this doesn't seem to have happened, and TSOs who learn things at the academy return to their home airports and are most likely told, "Well, I don't care what you learned at the academy, we do it different here!"
The TSA training school runs two weeks. If they start a class every week with no missed days and allow about 35 people per class that would only account for about 1800~ new trainees per year. We know that holidays and other down time will limit the number of classes that can be started each year. By my figuring TSA can't even get the new hires trained each year.