LATN Workforce planning Staffing for the future

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LATN Workforce planningStaffing for the future

• Fides Datu Lawton
• Director (Library Resources Unit)
• UTS
• CAUL Meeting
• 16 September 2005

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Background

• Vicki Whitmell LATN consultancy on succession
  planning
• A report for all LATN members
• Workforce and succession planning in the
  Libraries of the Australian Technology Network
  preparing for demographic change, October 2004
• A report specific to each member library

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LATN workforce planning project

• Project Group
• Fides Datu Lawton, Director (Library Resources
  Unit), UTS
• Jenny McCarthy, Associate Director, Library
  Services (Development), QUT
• Gabrielle Gardiner, Research and Policy Officer,
  Library, UTS
• Project Reference Group including
• Craig Anderson RMIT
• Jennie Barwick CUT
• Stephen Parnell USA

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Why workforce planning?

• Developments in ICT
• innovations in service delivery
• Richer array of information resources
• significant changes in work systems and processes
  
• Internationalisation of teaching and research

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Why workforce planning?

• Reduced government funding greater reliance on
  other income -More fee paying students
  - clients - customer - heightened user
  expectations
• Quality framework
• Greater linkages between performance and reward
  and remuneration
• Funding implications
• Greater competition/ New competitors
• (more choices for clients)

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Why workforce planning?

• Aging workforce
• March 2004, UTS Library staff
• nearly 50 45 years and older
• ca. 10 55 years and older
• Short term contractors consultants, project
  teams less time for training development
  (Must hit the ground running)

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Questions raised

• What kind of library do we want to be?
• What knowledge, skills, attributes do we need of
  our library staff to get us there?
• How do we attract the right people?
• How do we develop and retain them?

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Identifying core competencies

• Core competencies
• are the skills, knowledge, and behaviors
  necessary to an individuals success in a
  position.
• By identifying core competencies for staff,
  libraries are able to sustain their ability to
  adapt to the changing environment and will be
  better prepared for the on-going changes in the
  future of higher education
• (McNeil and Giesecke)

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LATN IKSAA (Inventory of Knowledge, Skills,
Aptitudes and other attributes)

• Client Services
• Communication and Interpersonal
• Decision Making
• Information and Communication Technology
• Library Technical Skills
• Teaching and Learning Support
• Information Management
• Leadership
• Marketing and Promotion
• Personal Attributes
• Understanding of the Higher Education Environment

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Personal attributes

• Ability for independent learning (Whitlatch 2003)
• Ability to demonstrate confidence, assertiveness,
  decisiveness (Breaks 2005)
• Ability to demonstrate creativity and imagination
  (Fisher 2004) and innovation
• Ability to think outside the box (Breaks 2005)
• Displays an openness to new ideas (Ashcroft 2004)
• Displays a willingness to take risks (Breaks
  2005)
• Evidence of resilience, resourcefulness and
  responsiveness
• Lateral thinking skills (Fisher 2004)
• Sense of humour (Fides)

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POTENTIAL USES OF THE INVENTORY

• In drafting job descriptions
• In recruitment exercises
• Selection criteria
• Interview questions
• In identifying gaps in staff knowledge and skills
• In developing and implementing staff development
  plans
• In benchmarking staff competencies with other
  organisations

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LATN Meeting, 15 Sept. endorsed these
recommendations

• 1) Enhance LATN website with
• links to PDs
• links to salary scales for different positions
• links to organisation charts
• sample job advertisements, especially
  advertisements for new positions and their
  corresponding selection criteria
• 2) Identify evolving library roles/positions and
  matching these with their corresponding core
  competencies

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LATN Meeting, 15 Sept. endorsed these
recommendations

• 3) work on a proposal to LATN for collaborative
  staff development programs to facilitate the
  development of the core competencies
• 4) LATN to provide the necessary resources
  (staff, venue, funds, etc.) to implement agreed
  collaborative staff development programs
• 5) LATN contacts to review programs after a year
  and submit a report to LATN

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Remaining challenges

• Review appropriateness of job descriptions
• from task orientation - system-wide thinking and
  planning and highlight core competencies
• Evaluate effectiveness of recruitment processes
• Provide support and training to supervisors in
  effective interview and recruitment strategies
• Hire people for future roles, not just for
  todays vacant position (Whitmell)

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Remaining challenges

• Eliminate barriers to peak staff performance
• Align performance measures evaluation
  strategies with generational behavioural
  considerations (Whitmell)
• Establish partnership with libraries, library
  schools and library associations
• in attracting suitable people to the profession
• in developing future library staff
• in keeping them (and inspired and challenged)

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Whitmell on Generations X and Y

• value flexibility and a balance between work and
  life
• put a premium on results rather than process
• place less emphasis on guidelines, procedures,
  structures and organizational hierarchies
• generally work well with others but see
  themselves more as individual contributors than
  as members of a team
• unimpressed with authority
• will be seeking to work with and for
  organizations that value service and keep their
  promisesprovide a flexible work environment with
  few levels or hierarchies that value
  self-starters, and that welcome new and creative
  ideas

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Certainly the most contentious, expensive, and
difficult resource to leverage effectively is
people. People, particularly in service-based
information organizations, have the largest
effect on customer satisfaction, levels of
innovation, and organizational effectiveness.
Your competition can duplicate all of your
strategic resources except the people in your
organization. (R Bazile-Jones)
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Questions for CAUL

• What workforce planning activities are happening
  in your organisations?
• Have you developed core competencies for staff?
  Can they be shared?
• How effective are your recruitment processes?
• Is there broader interest in collaboration on
  workforce planning?

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References

• Abram, S (2005) Next generation librarians in
  the workplace In Staff planning in a time of
  demographic change, ed by V Whitmell. Lanham,Md.,
  Scarecrow Press
• Bazile-Jones, R. (2005) Diversity and libraries.
  In Staff planning in a time of demographic
  change, ed by V Whitmell. Lanham,Md., Scarecrow
  Press
• McNeil, B and J Giesecke (2001) Core
  competencies for libraries and library staff.
  Avery, E F, T Dahlin and D.A. Carver. Staff
  development a practical guide. 3rd ed. American
  Library Association.
• Staff planning in a time of demographic change
  (2005) ed by V Whitmell. Lanham,Md., Scarecrow
  Press