To Boost Conductor Trainee Recruits, NS Offering Bonuses
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
Norfolk Southern (NS) conductor trainees can now expect up to $5,000 in starting bonuses, the Class I railroad reported on Feb. 17.
To boost its workforce, NS will provide up to $5,000 to trainees in “priority locations”—Birmingham and Sheffield, Ala.; Louisville, Ky.; Linwood, N.C.; Binghamton and Buffalo, N.Y.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Harrisburg and Conway, Pa.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Manassas and Roanoke, Va.—and $2,500 in other locations.
Trainees will receive:
• $500 ($1,000 for priority locations) upon completion of training examinations.
• $2,000 ($4,000 for priority locations) upon successful completion of the conductor training program. This is paid in two installments: $1,000 ($2,000 for priority locations) upon conductor training program completion; $1,000 ($2,000 for priority locations) nine months after conductor training program completion.
The NS training program spans approximately 10-13 weeks. The first two weeks are spent at the Norfolk Southern Training Center in McDonough, Ga.; the remaining weeks, at or near the hiring location.
When they finish training, NS said conductors are guaranteed minimum annual pay of $52,000; participation in the Railroad Retirement System, in addition to a 401(k) savings option; and other benefits. Their annual guaranteed minimum earnings progressively increase over their next four years of service to approximately $63,500, according to NS, but “with additional work opportunities at their service location, most conductors earn far more than the guaranteed minimum.”
“Our conductors play a critical role in keeping the trains moving that transport the goods that power our nation’s economy,” NS Director Talent Acquisition Brad Dodd said. “We are actively hiring people who want a high degree of responsibility, thrive in autonomy, and desire a sense of pride in the work they do. In return, they can expect great pay, best-in-class healthcare benefits, technical training, and professional growth opportunities.”
Shaw attributed performance results to high attrition and a tight labor market, and explained that the railroad is doing whatever it can to put into place the resources needed to serve customers.
Shaw wrote that NS “is currently experiencing workforce shortfalls in critical portions of our network”—primarily in Birmingham, Ala.; the CNO&TP corridor between Cincinnati, Ohio and Chattanooga, Tenn.; and along the Southern Tier line between Buffalo and Binghamton, N.Y.—due to “unexpectedly high rates of attrition.” These rates, he pointed out, have been compounded by “hiring challenges, as the entire transportation industry, along with other sectors of the economy, face an unusually tight and rapidly evolving labor market. As a result of these workforce challenges, we are facing yard congestion in Birmingham and Chattanooga and slower train flows over both the CNO&TP and the Southern Tier. The strains we are experiencing in these areas have created collateral impacts in other parts of the network.”
Shaw noted that NS reduced headcount at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and has since recalled furloughed employees “or offered the opportunity to transfer to locations of need,” and has begun a “program of targeted hiring as business levels have increased.”
He told Oberman: “We reported to you that as of June 11 we had 114 conductor trainees in training with plans to add more classes every month for the rest of the year. Since then, we have increased the rate of hiring to account for higher than expected attrition levels in parts of our network and to recover our service. As of December 6, 2021, we had 285 employees in conductor training—the highest level year-to-date—and expect to further increase the number of conductor trainees between now and the end of the first quarter. We have a further 939 prospective employees in the pre-employment stage. To accommodate conductor trainee attrition and train a higher number of employees, we are dramatically expanding conductor training class sizes and will be starting new classes every week beginning January 3, 2022.”
The railroad, Shaw pointed out, recognizes the labor market’s changing expectations and is also “offering bonuses and incentives to entice prospective employees to join our team and to encourage current employees to stay with us. To maximize utilization of our current employees, we also are offering availability bonuses, temporary transfer incentives, permanent transfer incentives, and incentives to work voluntarily through previously scheduled vacations. We have added resources to our Talent Acquisition, Technical Training, and Health Services groups to handle a higher volume of job applicants and conductor trainees. We have advertised job openings in areas where we are experiencing high levels of attrition or are otherwise anticipating greater hiring demand, and we have grown the ranks of our ‘go teams’ and reprioritized their deployment to the areas of our network experiencing the most critical need.”
While NS is “making progress” to improve service quality, “it takes time to on-board and properly train new employees to make a safe and effective contribution to our business,” Shaw told Oberman. “Safety is an important value at Norfolk Southern and we are committed to preparing our employees to perform their duties safely. Until we can deploy new hires in sufficient numbers to counteract the unusually high attrition rates in some areas of our network, our ability to deliver the strong service product our customers are accustomed to receiving from us will continue to be under pressure.”
