No, I do not think that librarians are like rocks and that if you turn them over you will find all kinds of interesting things crawling around. I do know that librarians (or most of them) are multi-dimensional individuals that do know a lot of interesting and amazing things, if you just ask they may well tell you. In using the phrase “turning over librarians,” I am referring to the term often used by businesses, “turn-over.” This will be a two part post. In the first one I will discuss turn-over in lower level employees and in the second I will discuss turn-over and the lack thereof in upper level employees.
In the business world turn over relates to the loss or attrition of employees. In many industries, there is a very high rate of turn-over, especially in lower paying service (think fast food) or seasonal (ski resorts) industries. Many businesses spend a vast amount of resources managing turn-over, so what do they gain? They mainly gain lower wage employees that seldom have benefits or any of the other costs associated with long term employees. The down side is that they constantly have to hire and train new employees that do not become effective parts of the business’s culture and seldom are able to add more than basic labor to the mission of the organization.
Do libraries have a high turn-over rate? Speaking from my experience working at my library the answer is yes and no. The vast majority of manual labor, say shelving books, is provided by library aides. These tend to be 10 hour a week positions that work for minimal or near minimal wage, with no benefits. This keeps the line item for payroll down, but are there “hidden costs” to this practice?
From my experience in the business world, as a bookstore manager, business owner and a divisional manager in a technology company, I feel comfortable saying yes to the question of hidden costs. It requires a constant and huge effort to find and hire even reasonable employees for basic tasks. They must go through training and learning periods before they become even reasonably skilled. During this period “regular/full-time” employees are often performing these lower level tasks to the detriment of their regular duties. This also can put additional stress on the longer term employees resulting in lower performance, job satisfaction and loss of productive time. This period of adjustment and learning can also lead to significant declines in the quality of customer service provided by the organization.
As you can see there are many other costs relating to high turn-over rates of lower level employees that go well beyond the directly measurable ones. With this recognition, what steps can be taken to mitigate these additional costs and maintain customer service levels?
Give more to less?
One common methodology for reducing these costs is to give more hours to fewer lower level workers. This may result in greater employee loyalty and tends to create employees that are more knowledgeable and skilled at their jobs. In a library situation this would be most welcome, since it would greatly increase the accuracy of shelving materials and the rate at which materials could be shelved. It would also tend to create employees that could provided superior customer service to customers they encounter while performing their regular duties, rather than referring basic questions to the desk personnel.
So what are the disadvantages to the “more to less” method? First the organization may have to bear increased costs such as health and retirement benefits if the employee meets the minimal hours required. Second with fewer individuals performing the same duties the library may experience small extend periods without any of these employees being available due to illness or family situations.
Better Hiring & Training Methods
An alternative approach may be taken to the “more to less” methodology that takes advantage of advances in training and an effective marketing/recruitment program. Marketing program? That’s right! If you are going to be replacing and hiring a continual stream of low level employees you are going to have to have a steady source of bodies at hand. Working with local high school guidance counselors, college student employment offices or state employment services may reduce the amount of time required to find qualified candidates. Also having any of these agencies administer any required written tests may reduce the load on your full-time staff. Finally, you may offer bounties to other short term employees to bring other candidates to your attention.
These employees may not be on the job for all that long, so OJT (on the job training) may not be the most efficient approach with these individuals. Try creating a very short and intensive training program that will give them the required skills in a very short period of time, before throwing them to the wolves. This is an opportunity to use technology to its’ fullest by deploying such items as: computer based training, online training and testing, screen casting and simulations. Finally create a mentoring program with other employees at their level and those more permanent employees within your organization.
Regardless of which methodology your library or organization uses, it is important that it be well thought out and not just “the way that we have always done it.” Carefully evaluate the cost and benefits, as well as your organizations commitment to creating meaningful employment opportunities beyond throw away short term workers.
Next time we will discuss the benefits and problems that can be associated with long term employees. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.
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