Workforce Planning Guide
April 1999
6
customer needs, identified target audiences, and communications messages. Some also
conduct market analysis. Positions include multimedia specialist, public affairs specialist,
visual information specialist, writers, editors, and marketing specialists.
Research & Development Specialist - This role is typical of staff engaged in basic or applied
research studies either as staff researcher or contracting officer's technical representative.
People in these roles are considered technical experts in their field such as geotechnology,
traffic operations, structural design, hydraulics, pavements, and advanced technologies.
Team Leaders - This role is typical of employees who manage a team responsible for one or
more projects and/or programs; providing internal training and guidance and external
customer consistency and support. Examples are found in all units of FHWA such as district
engineers, specialty team leaders such as environmental, design, geotech, fiscal, procurement,
legal, research, etc.. The role of these employees in many instances will be in addition to
those under other categories noted above when the employee is both the team leader and
specialist.
Unit Leaders - This role is typical of first level supervisors who in addition to advising the
team leader and in many cases handling a technical role, must also provide supervisory
support and direction. Examples are assistant division administrator, resource center
operations director, headquarters office directors and division chiefs, FLH branch chiefs, etc.
Senior Leaders - This role is typical of those employees who lead significant units of FHWA
and are required to conduct considerable external customer dialogue that develops or
implements policies and procedures with wide ranging application and impact. Examples are
core business unit mgrs., service business unit directors, senior field leaders (motor carrier
and fed-aid), division administrators, division engineers, resource center directors, state
directors of motor carriers, etc.
Once again, these roles and the following competency definitions are intended to be generic.
When comparing your positions to this framework, it is intended that this generic model be
used to guide the development of specific skills for those individual positions. It may be
necessary to adjust the competency from what is shown in the model to meet specific job
requirement. This is a decision left to the supervisor and the employee.
Competencies
The framework identifies and defines the professional skills competencies common
throughout FHWA. The competencies are organized into two major categories and further
into seven subcategories. These categories represent major cluster areas.