Building Work Zone Retention

By Michael Shearer, Contributing Author

Traffic control is a high-risk, high-visibility business where protectors stand between live traffic and road crews every day. That reality shapes workforce strategy.

Across the roads and bridges construction industry, leaders are asking the same questions: How do we address workforce shortages? How do we retain hourly employees in demanding roles? And how does technology help us hire qualified people faster?

These questions should be approached with discipline. Four years ago, AWP Safety had a 60-day retention rate that was in the low 40% range, which is typical for the traffic control industry.  Today, it is 86% across the enterprise. This improvement wasn’t an accident. It happened because we stopped doing things the way we always had and started to build systems.

Purpose Drives Retention

Protectors in the field value responsibility, whether that’s guarding a line crew working on the shoulder of a road or keeping a paving team protected while traffic speeds by on a highway. Protectors are proud of being part of the reason why people get home safely.

That sense of purpose matters, but purpose alone does not sustain retention. It has to connect to a credible path forward. Some people hear “temporary traffic control” and think “temporary job.” But this train of thought can be dispelled by building career lanes and giving reasons to stay. 

It starts by putting the next role in plain sight. Entry-level protectors who perform well and raise their hand for more responsibility can work toward being a traffic control supervisor, perhaps a technician role, or they can branch into areas like customer service, sales or environmental, health and safety. 

The progression is formal and includes documented field hours, scored evaluations and structured preparation. Instead of leaving advancement to chance, build routes with clear requirements that people can plan for and realistically achieve.

Protectors should know what “good” looks like from their first shift. Map out what training happens when, which safety behaviors are mandatory every day and how performance is coached in the field. Show them what the next role can look like for those who want to keep moving.

Structure from the start keeps supervisors and new hires aligned and reduces the “slow drift” that often ends in turnover. If team members cannot see a future, they will create one elsewhere.

Expanding Benefits

Consider expanding major medical eligibility and paid time off to part-time team members, which is something many hourly positions do not offer broadly. 

Talk to people in the field, and they will tell you: If you want people to think beyond the next shift, you have to show them that they are being thought of beyond the next shift, too.

That means looking at affordability, as well. A benefit that exists on paper does not help if it is priced out of reach. The goal of plan design should be making participation realistic for the people doing the work.

Retention is rarely driven by one change. Rather, compensation, benefits, predictable hours and development all move together. When they reinforce each other, people can build stability, and that stability shows up as on-the-job performance.

From Headcount to Utilization

Workforce shortages are usually described as a hiring problem, but they can also be a utilization problem. You can have people on the roster and still fall short on coverage if hours are inconsistent, travel is inefficient or when schedules do not align to demand.

Concentrate on consistent deployment and not simply hiring volume. It means using digital workforce tools to improve scheduling, hours allocation and visibility into where you can move work without asking people to drive unreasonable distances. The aim is to match the right crews to the right work more predictably.

Some markets have more maturity than others. Some weeks are smoother than others because customer demand can change fast, but the direction matters.

Predictable income is one of the strongest retention drivers. When team members can count on their hours, they can plan their lives. When they can plan their lives, they stay longer. Longer tenure builds experience, and that experience means safer work zones and steadier service for our customers.

Structure at Scale

AWP Safety employs approximately 9,100 team members today, and our projections indicate a need for as many as 19,000 by 2030. That level of growth requires a talent engine.

When it comes to traffic control, the workforce does not sit in one building. Teams start early, move from job to job, and spend their time in the field. That decentralization is necessary, but it also creates a leadership problem: How do you build consistency when your culture has to travel?

Reduce variability by leaning into structure. Mobile-first systems help because they meet team members where they already live. Work assignments, schedule updates, benefit details and training resources must be available on a smartphone or tablet and not buried in office binders.

Ensure accountability by embedding safety metrics into performance reviews at every level. That matters because it connects leadership expectations to field reality. Supervisors, managers and support teams should not be measuring success one way while the field experiences it another, and shared measurements help close that gap.

Technology has become part of that structure too, but not as a replacement for people. In our world, artificial intelligence is most useful when it accelerates process and removes friction. 

AI-enabled recruiting tools can speed up the administrative parts of hiring, including mobile chat-based applications, automated scheduling and early-stage screening. Introduce structured assessments to measure traits that matter in the role, like reliability and situational awareness.

Recruiters are not psychologists. A consistent assessment framework gives better input, and it gives candidates a more standardized experience. Then humans can spend their time where they add the most value, which is making judgment calls, coaching performance and supporting retention.

People First

Workforce shortages, turnover pressure and the rapid pace of technology will keep testing every employer in infrastructure. Treating a people strategy like a field discipline will help, but you have to do the following: 

• Start with purpose.
• Put the next role in plain sight.
• Make hours more predictable.
• Build structure that travels with the workforce.
• Use technology to remove friction.

Retention follows clarity. When team members understand what the job is, what success looks like and what comes next, they stay longer. When they stay longer, customers see it in staffing consistency, safety performance and day-to-day reliability. 

Michael Shearer is chief human resources officer at AWP Safety. He leads the company’s people strategy, focusing on frontline retention, career pathways, leadership development and scalable systems that support safety and service as the company grows.