An award-winning career portal for TSA

Award-winning career management solution

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees embark on a transformative career development experience with PowerTrain’s tailor-made, award-winning technology solution that empowers users to view, create, and compare personalized career maps; assess competencies; explore unique career experiences; and strategically identify both short and long-term career goals.

Delving deep into TSA’s agency structure, vision, mission, values, culture, challenges, processes, and procedures ensures our solution aligns seamlessly with TSA’s unique needs. TSA’s evolved platform is a gateway to a future where employees’ professional aspirations become reality.

Retaining mission-critical personnel

In the dynamic world of aviation security, the TSA faced a critical challenge—addressing the substantial turnover among their invaluable Transportation Security Officers (TSOs). Comprising nearly 80% of the TSA workforce, these dedicated professionals play a pivotal role in ensuring the safety of over two million travelers daily.

Recognizing the importance of retaining top talent, TSA needed a solution to address the primary issue – a perceived lack of career advancement support and opportunities.

Beyond career mapping

What began as a groundbreaking Career Mapping system at TSA has evolved into Career Voyager, a dynamic hub that supports many facets of strategic workforce planning, including:

• Leadership development
• Succession planning
• Strategic talent management
• Job rotation
• Knowledge management
• Individual learning
• Workforce development
• Performance management.

A key component of this advancement was Succession Planning, identified as a top priority by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). As a response, PowerTrain has pushed TSA’s Career Mapping system beyond conventional limits to embrace a holistic approach to career growth, transforming it into the TSA Career Voyager Portal.

PowerTrain seamlessly integrated a cutting-edge Leadership Succession Planning (LSP) component to enrich our comprehensive Career Portal. TSA’s LSP component features dual portals catering to both administrators and future leaders, cultivating an immersive environment where careers thrive, unlocking untapped potential, and establishing a culture of leadership excellence as the new standard.

Strategic Workforce Planning components are designed for seamless talent management, strategically placing capable employees in their ideal positions. Portal users can explore mission-critical roles armed with invaluable insights from our leadership pipeline, meticulous job rotation planning, expert interview strategies, a transition planning guide, executive development resources, and more.

PowerTrain’s trailblazing solution for TSA’s career management

PowerTrain’s transformative Career Voyager Portal is a game-changer for the TSA. Over half of the system’s 8,000 users are TSOs, a testament to our tailored solution perfectly meeting TSA’s needs.

But that’s not all – TSA’s Career Voyager Portal clinched the prestigious 2021 Brandon Hall Silver Award for the Best Advance in Career Management or Planning Technology, followed by the Bronze Award in 2023 for the Best Advance in Succession and Career Management. These accolades not only position TSA as a prevailing leader but also highlight PowerTrain’s pioneering role in revolutionizing technology and human capital.

As we look toward the future, PowerTrain doesn’t just stop at success; we raise the bar! In alignment with the TSA Strategy 2018-2026, our vision expands. The Career Voyager Portal has evolved into a comprehensive Career Development System, complete with Leadership Succession Planning and Knowledge Management modules.

Powering careers through competencies and skills

PowerTrain’s extraordinary level of institutional knowledge enabled PowerTrain to design the TSA Career Mapping system based on our validated Two-Tier Competency Model, featuring both a competencies and a skills components. This model reflects “best practices” and is actionable, relevant, easily accessible, measurable, and role-based, having competencies and skills related to specific jobs/positions.

Through our Competency Component, featuring a robust Competency Dictionary and Self-Assessments, users can dive into job-based assessments, offering behavioral indicators for 5 proficiency levels.

Direct access to Skillsoft Percipio courses ensures targeted development for enhanced mastery, aligning employees’ proficiency with their current or aspirational role.

Similarly, PowerTrain’s Skills Component houses a dynamic database and Skills Self-Assessments. Users can evaluate their mastery and interest in role-specific skills, gaining valuable insights into their strengths and areas for improvement. Our seamless system guides employees to diverse developmental resources, crafting a personalized path to success.

Furthermore, TSA administrators can access aggregate competency and skills data effortlessly, identifying and closing gaps across the organization. PowerTrain’s innovative work aligns with TSA’s goals, ensuring skill gap analysis and succession planning to meet both current and future needs.

A collaborative triumph

Regularly hailed with positivity from TSA’s Point of Contact (POC), the project team, and key stakeholders, users, and managers, TSA’s Career Voyager Portal stands as a testament to PowerTrain’s unwavering commitment to success.

Our partnership and collaboration with TSA’s project team, enriched by the insights of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) through extensive meetings, focus groups, online feedback sessions, and information exchanges, have paved the way for an innovative online tool.

More than just a system, it reflects the culmination of current best practices research, ensuring a dynamic, user-friendly approach to catapulting the career development and growth of the TSA workforce.