SEPTA's shift to centralized hiring assessments
Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA)
Discover how SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority), one of the largest transit systems in the US, transformed its hiring assessments with Questionmark.
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SEPTA, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, is one of the largest public transportation authorities in the United States.
Spanning five counties across Greater Philadelphia—with connections into Delaware and New Jersey—the network runs regional rail, buses, trolleys, subways, and a high-speed line for hundreds of thousands of riders each day.
Supporting operations at this scale requires a diverse workforce, including administrative, technical, professional, and skilled trades positions. Many of these roles require pre-employment testing, so the right candidates fill critical positions.
"I oversee the development, administration, and management of employment assessments that support our hiring process and help ensure we select qualified candidates for critical roles across the organization."
Dr. Tarae Terry,Manager of the Testing Department, SEPTA
For years, SEPTA relied on paper-based assessments. They did the job—but at this scale, SEPTA saw a clear chance to improve the efficiency, integrity, and security of its testing.
With no centralized testing environment, creating, managing, and delivering tests ate up time. On top of that, the offline format limited the candidate experience.
"We needed a solution that would streamline administration, reduce manual effort, enhance the candidate experience, all while keeping pace with evolving assessment best practices."
Sylvia Fritz, Director, HR Strategic Initiatives & Testing, M.S. I-O, SHRM-SCP
When looking for a vendor to enable this transformation, SEPTA identified five core capabilities required for success: ease of test creation and administration, exam security, candidate management, rich reporting features, and the ability to store, update, and manage assessment content over time.
Questionmark delivered on all five. That, combined with its approach to assessment management and delivery, made Questionmark the clear choice for SEPTA's refreshed testing program.
"We selected Questionmark because of its innovative approach to assessment delivery and its extensive range of testing capabilities. The platform provides the flexibility to support different assessment needs while offering robust reporting and analytics tools that allow us to evaluate candidate performance, measure assessment effectiveness, and make data-informed decisions."
Questionmark has changed how SEPTA runs its testing operations, from day-to-day exam administration to the data behind every hiring decision.
SEPTA now creates, manages, and delivers assessments through Questionmark's single platform. Current and historical exams are stored securely in one place, which has simplified exam maintenance and reduced administrative workload.
Questionmark's reporting and analytics tools give SEPTA the ability to evaluate candidate performance, measure assessment effectiveness, and make data-informed decisions.
Over the last full contract year, Questionmark generated more than 15,000 assessment results, supporting SEPTA's hiring process for critical roles across the organization.
With multiple-choice and true/false exams running for a wide range of positions, Questionmark's approach to test creation, exam security, and candidate management helps SEPTA maintain consistent testing standards across the organization.
