IV - 14 STAFFING OVERVIEW

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One of the key tasks for the Dallas Public Library is the hiring, development and retention of a highly-skilled staff reflective of the community's ethnic and racial diversity. The Master Plan addresses these issues through an examination of ongoing recruitment efforts, current salary levels, the hiring process, a job classification review, and evaluation of the available training program. The result of the examination of current practices is a suggested plan to further strengthen the Dallas Public Library's approach to staff hiring, development and retention.

During the course of this study, a variety of activities were undertaken to obtain information about current operations. Among them were:

• A survey of the staff development programs of the Index Cities (comparable metropolitan library systems established for this project). Recommended best practice examples are included.

• A salary survey of neighboring library systems and a survey of the Index Cities salaries for entry level librarian and manager level positions.

• Interviews with all staff who have done recruitment visits and interviews for professional librarians in the last several years.

• A salary comparison of selected library classifications to determine if appropriate degree of separation is present.

• Interviews with staff hired during the last year to learn about their hiring experience and their views about the organization.

• A review of all current training programs and levels of participation. • Interviews with individuals responsible for training.

The Library and Human Resources Office handles the entire application process including receipt of applications, resumes and testing for clerical and pages positions. The units with vacancies would schedule interviews, make jobs offers and return the paperwork to the Human Resources Office. The Human Resources Office would then process new employees onto the payroll. The Library is not a civil service department.

For professional positions, Library administrators have taken lead responsibility for recruitment during the past five years. During this same period there have been an increasing number of retire-ments, and recruiting to fill these positions has been somewhat more difficult due to changes in the professional job base, including the graying of the profession and fewer young people entering library schools directly from college. Recruitment is more challenging because of competition for library school graduates from a variety of other professions and other types of libraries, and the need to increase the ethnic and racial diversity of the staff to keep pace with Dallas population changes. Administrators have developed an active recruitment program in response to these issues. Aspects of the program include:

• Expanded advertising to include listings on the Library's website and listing the job on various electronic discussion groups related to the type of position, and creating flyers and brochures about the position and about the Library.

• Recruiting efforts that include regular attendance at all professional conferences such as American Library Association Annual and MidWinter Conferences, Public Library Association, Black Caucus of ALA, REFORMA [National Association to Promote Library Services to the Spanish Speaking], and Texas Library Association, etc.

• Visits are also made to a variety of library schools, starting with the three in Texas (University of Texas at Austin, Texas Woman's University, and the University of North Texas), extending to nearby states with Library Schools, and institutions where the student body has large minority populations.

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There appear to be no current problems attracting a skilled and multi-ethnic applicant pool for cler-ical and page positions. Therefore, the focus of these recommendations is on the recruitment of professional librarians to the Library.

It is important to differentiate the recruitment and screening functions of the hiring process. The purpose of recruitment activities is to provide the Library with the greatest number of qualified

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applicants from which to screen and select those best suited to the Library. Screening applicants remains an essential task to insuring a qualified and competent applicant pool and should not be down-played, even in times when the market is tight and there are few applicants. Active recruit-ment is a valid, essential activity in the current job market. Several newly-hired staff attested to the power of the individual recruitment effort. The following recommendations can enhance the recruitment and hiring process.

• Improve the Library's website presentation of job listings and include information about the Library and links to the City's website for information about housing, cost of living and quality if life issues. If the City sites do not contain this information, consideration should be given to creating it from Library data sources for use in recruitment.

• Develop a process to involve all staff in recruitment efforts. Many good applicants can be found among the professional connections of current staff. Through regular communication and a series of meetings, staff can come to see that they have an important role in recruitment. They might be encouraged to contact their professional colleagues as vacancies occur. Perhaps incentives could be provided for staff who recruit a new hire. The newly hired staff attested to the discouraging effect dissatisfied employees have on the morale of the organization; these options offer a way to turn that around.

• Review, revise and redesign all recruitment information, paying equal attention to the appearance and to the content. Compare and evaluate recruitment materials in relation to those available from others competing in the same professional pool to insure Dallas is effectively represented.

• Develop targeted recruitment initiatives, such as purchasing mailing lists from and attending the conferences and events of the Black Caucus of ALA or REFORMA. Encourage African-American and Hispanic staff to become more active in these organizations and support their participation.

• Develop a recruitment kit for all staff handling recruitments. It is a very positive feature of the current recruitment efforts that the Library's administrative team personally handles the task of recruitment. However, this is a very time-consuming process. The Human Resources Office should facilitate the development of a kit for recruiters to help streamline and codify the recruitment process. The kit could contain such items as:

- A checklist of things to do with a potential recruit.

- Templates or sample letters (cover sheet with all contact information, confirming interview time and place, follow up to interview, etc.)

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- Tips on the legal framework for conducting interviews and instructions for making a comprehensive and legal job offer, with attention to Federal requirements in areas such as ADA and NAFTA.

- Forms for reference checking. - Employment applications.

This kit would help standardize the process as much as possible and reduce the time and confusion for the administrator conducting the recruitment.

• Consider expanding the recruitment team (currently now only administrators) through a formal process of identifying potential recruiters from Library staff, then providing them with training on interviewing and recruiting. The kit recommended above should help significantly in this process.

• Develop a set of talking points that highlight why DPL is a good place to work and why Dallas is a good place to live and provide this document to all recruiters. It can be updated as programs and services change in Dallas or at competing libraries.

• Actively support and encourage staff participation and presentations at professional meetings and conferences. As marketing, this will raise the Library's visibility and attractiveness in the professional community.

• Review, and if necessary, reduce any time lags in the hiring cycle. There are indications that this issue has been resolved, but an ongoing review of each step in the process and the time required will be helpful and help keep the Library on track.

• Consider altering the interview process to allow the hiring supervisor or manager to interview potential candidates. While this step may add some time to the hiring process, it can be done by telephone, or combined with a candidate's visit to the area. Where there are numerous vacancies, several supervisors can participate in the interview, or they can take turns, with each interviewing a different candidate.

• Develop a Dallas Libraries tour package that includes site visits to the locations where vacancies exist, and includes opportunities to talk with staff in informal settings (meals, evening and/or weekend entertainment events). The interviews with new hires indicated that they were unprepared for several aspects of the new positions, and the site visits and staff conversations would address some of these issues.

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• Develop a program to assist new staff through the first six months to one year on the job. The assignment of a current staff member at the same job level would assist new employees in adapting to the organization, assist with orientation and provide a sounding-board for new staff concerns. In addition, bringing this group of "new staff pals" together annually may provide administrators with valuable insight about the recruitment, hiring and orientation process.

• Conduct an in-depth salary review for Librarian positions. The salary survey conducted as a part of this study shows clearly that the bottom step for entry-level Librarians is substantially below many of the surveyed and competing systems. This may put the Dallas Public Library at a disadvantage in recruiting entry-level Librarians. Dallas Public Library should identify benchmark systems and conduct an in-depth salary review.

In summary, there is much that can be done to develop a formal, consistent process for recruiting staff. Since qualified candidates are becoming harder to find for all public libraries, the Dallas Public Library must use every resource available to it to increase it attractiveness to candidates.

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Training program planning and coordination in the Dallas Public Library is the responsibility of the System Services Administrator and staff. Specifically, the Customer Service and Training (CST) unit directly manages training. A Management Assistant (83), a Technology Trainer (81), a Library Associate Part-Time (80), and a Clerk (76) staff this unit. A Public Trainer (81) position has been proposed, but is currently not funded.

Annual training requirements are incorporated into employee performance plans and evaluations. All full-time staff are required to participate in 20 hours (10 hours for part-time staff) of training annually. The DPL Staff Day can be used (8 hours) to meet this requirement.

A detailed training calendar of internal classes is provided to all staff though the system Intranet. Additional training opportunities are provided by the City of Dallas, Library organizations and associations of which DPL is a member, and by commercial providers. Training is currently pro-vided through the following five resources:

Internal Classes:

Library Classes:

• New Employee Orientation for new Library staff is a 3-hour program offered twice a month. Topics include Library history, vision & mission, organization, potential for advancement, and Human Resources issues.

• Computer skills are provided by Library staff on a quarterly basis. The program includes Internet, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Power Point.

• Classes are offered for new applications/features on a limited basis. Classes include DRAweb2 online catalog (Library computer software), Request System, Outlook Mail, and others.

• A "Staff Day" is planned annually for all DPL employees.

City of Dallas Classes: The City provides free classes to employees on a quarterly basis on topics related to public service - including management and supervision, interpersonal communication, diversity, defensive driving, and others. Staff must apply for courses and have their supervisor's approval.

External Classes:

Library Association Classes: The AMIGOS Bibliographic Network, the Northeast Texas Library System (NETLS), the Texas Library Association (TLA), and the American Library Association (ALA) and other library groups in which DPL is a member provide specialized classes.

Commercial Classes: E-mail, staff Intranet, and newsletters announce conferences and training sessions. Money from the Friends of the Dallas Public Library, Inc. and Library operating budget (currently less than $10,000) is distributed among staff for conferences and private sector training. Higher Education Classes: City of Dallas reimburses 70% of state tuition for college classes related to position.

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Recent Needs Assessment

The Customer Service Training unit has recently begun a comprehensive needs assessment of the organization. The initial assessment was conducted through a survey of Managers and Circulation Supervisors that focused on technology issues. A second phase of the assessment will include employee focus groups. The initial assessment identified the following technology curriculum for library employees:

Four additional training areas were identified as part of the assessment of index systems: 1. Customer Service - Telephone Etiquette, Reference Interview, Listening Skills,

and Respect for Patrons.

2. Conflict Management - Working with Difficult Patrons, Managing Conflict, Listening Skills, and Safety and Security.

3. Personal Effectiveness - Time Management, Stress Management, and Initiative and Creativity.

4. Internal Procedures - DPL Procedures and City Benefits.

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The Dallas Public Library has, and will continue to develop, an excellent training program. In many areas, DPL has achieved a solid benchmark in staff training. Several excellent "best prac-tices" were identified through Index survey. These may provide helpful information to DPL as its training program continues to grow and develop.

Clerical Training

The San Jose Public Library has developed a comprehensive training program for clerical and page level staff. Training is 20 hours for clerical and 12 hours for pages per year. The program is con-ducted out of the Central Library and administered by the system-wide Circulation Unit. The focus is on one-on-one training and shadowing. When specific program units are completed, a post-train-ing interview is conducted with the employee, the manager, and the trainer.

Manager/Supervisor Training

Only the Brooklyn Public Library requires pre-promotional training for managers and supervisors. The Brooklyn system offers an extensive series of classes that are offered at three levels: 1) new supervisor; 2) mid-managers; and 3) senior managers. The subject matter of each series is geared

to these specific levels and a program series is to be completed in two years. Subjects include gen-eral supervision skills, coaching, team building, and inter-personal skills.

The City of Seattle offers a 9-month manager development program (NOVA) that is encouraged, but not required, by the library system. The program covers a broad range of basic managerial skills. Typically, one or two employees of the library are enrolled in this City-wide course. Most of the interviewed systems stated that management and supervision training would be further enhanced in the next several years.

Customer Service Training

Several library systems reported they were offering classes focused on patrons with special needs. These classes range from working with children to providing customer service to the mentally ill. Brooklyn Public Library has recently undertaken a needs assessment in this area.

Library Associate Training

The State of Maryland has developed an excellent training program for Library Associates. This program provides 60 hours of practical training for library employees with a Bachelors Degree. Upon completion of the program, Library Associates are placed in the same classification as an entry-level Librarian with a MLS Degree. Graduates of this program can become advanced Librarians, but are excluded from management level positions.

The Maryland program includes the following subject areas: Literature & Fine Arts; Politics & Government; Adult Reader's Advisory; History; Homework Help for Children; Intellectual Freedom; YA Literature, Children's Literature Readers Advisory; and Children's Programming and Story time. As this program encompasses the entire state, classes are offered at a specific site and through video conferencing. Each unit requires extensive pre-class preparation and project docu-mentation. The focus is on practical skills: programming techniques, working the information desk, utilizing databases, and networking with other professionals.

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While the Dallas Public Library already has an active and dynamic training program, recommen-dations are made to assist in the process of developing and strengthening this program.

• The comprehensive needs assessment is a step forward in priorities for training. In order to enhance and more fully develop a needs-based training model, it is recommended that there should be a formal, written, comprehensive system-wide training plan (framework) that identifies training needs and objectives by major functions (e.g., public service, technical support, and administrative) for each level of position (managerial, professional, para-professional) and category of training (e.g., basic, job-related skills; skill enhancement; career and professional development). This can build on information collected in the recent needs assessment and should be developed in conjunction with Library staff and the Training Unit. Specific steps and approaches which should be considered are as follows:

• Conduct the needs assessment as previously recommended, and update it at least every two years.

• Form a training needs and planning committee which includes the Training Manager but also includes representatives of public services management and line staff (representing both the Central Library and the branches) as well as representatives from Information Technology and System Services.

• The committee should work with the Training Manager to develop proposed training priorities, including recommending to the Director specific annual training targets in terms of annual hours for each level of Library classification. Training priorities should be established to support the major Library service priorities as stated in the Library's Master Plan and other planning documents. • Once adopted, performance against targets should be monitored and reported on

a continuing basis. This should include soliciting staff comments about training previously provided as well as comments about perceived training needs and priorities in the periodic needs assessment.

Based on the results of this effort, a specific training catalog for the next twelve months should be developed so that staff are aware and can take advantage of available opportunities. Currently there are a number of training calendars from different agencies, but no comprehensive listing available. Training priorities for individual staff should be incorporated into performance appraisals based on managers' and supervisors' evaluations of individual employee development needs and review of training opportunities to be provided based on review of the annual training catalog.

• Create a program to enhance the skills of the Library Associate classification. While the DPL alone is not in a position to develop a program like the Maryland program, a consortium of local libraries or a state initiative could be sought. To address the identified need of expanding the role of Library Associates within DPL, small training pilot programs could be developed based on the Maryland Program.

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Given the difficulties predicted in hiring librarians the Library should prepare a complete exami-nation of the current tasks and duties of the professional staff and a comparison with the duties of other classifications to determine whether the professional staff is being utilized in a way that takes full advantage of training and education. The Library should carefully develop an action plan to meet its future staffing challenges now, focusing its greatest efforts on recruiting and retaining an adequate number of library professionals, especially minorities.

As the Library replaces retiring employees it should carefully select new hires that can help to ease the transition to a more technology rich and customer-focused library environment. New hires will probably be needed to fill a few very specialized roles, such as:

• A conservator to curate and preserve the collections

• Additional graphic designers to create retail-model displays and exhibits and for the Web Technology Team.

• Project managers with facilities and information technology experience to help implement the Master Plan.

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Altogether, the need to address and identify such specialized roles could require additional strate-gic hires. The most pressing need for new staff will be to address continued population growth in Dallas. Approximately 60 new employees should be hired to staff the new branch outlets required to cover the over 100,000 new citizens projected through the year 2009 and to ease the load on serv-ice areas that are already overburdened.

The Dallas Public Library has a tradition of building a large measure of its leadership from within, drawing talented people from the Central Library and the branches. As the Library replaces retir-ing senior employees with less costly new hires, it should take advantage of opportunities to fill open mid to high-level management positions with members of its current work force. This should be a key component of a succession plan that the Library should have in place soon so that these people can be mentored and trained by experienced senior staff. This strategy could help to mini-mize the additional demands that will be placed on executive level staff as they manage the capital projects, expanded training programs and new technology initiatives included in the Master Plan.

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With a significant number of senior staff nearing retirement, the Library may find itself with a large leadership void in the next few years. If left unattended, this leadership void would adversely impact the Library's effectiveness as an organization and its ability to manage change. Therefore, it is recommended that succession planning and leadership development be intertwined with recruitment, retention, and training strategies that are planned and being deployed by the Library. Recruitment efforts should identify critical skill sets, target proven leaders in the professional pool as well as identify and attract new employees who demonstrate potential as future leaders. Retention efforts should focus on identifying and training upcoming leaders within the organization so that they are given an opportunity to grow professionally and fulfill their potential. Training should deploy strategies using the previously identified skill sets that promote leadership develop-ment within the organization. These strategies can include a variety of proven measures such as cross training, mentoring, and participating in structured leadership training programs.

Succession planning and leadership development is crucial to ensure that leadership growth keeps pace with attrition and organizational growth. It is vital that the Library plans and prepares now for the changes and challenges that will inevitably confront both the City of Dallas and the Dallas Public Library.

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A final component of the Master Plan staffing study is a proposed model for allocation of system wide staff. This model was developed by Library staff in consultation with the consulting team. A new model of staffing at the Dallas Public Library should focus on providing excellent service to the citizens of Dallas and should allow greater flexibility in recruitment. The model suggested includes three types of positions: Management, Information Specialist, and Associate. Each type of positions includes two levels.

Management positions, manager and assistant manager, would require a Master's degree in Library or Information Science. These positions would focus on planning, implementing, monitoring, ana-lyzing, and evaluating the unit's program of service; however, these positions would also provide direct service to citizens. Necessary skills would include management skills, including human resources skills, information retrieval and analysis, information mediation, and research.

The higher-level Information Specialist II would require a Master's degree (which could be in Library/Information Science). Information Specialist I would require a Bachelor's degree. These specialists would bring knowledge of a particular subject to the unit. Information Specialists would focus on direct provision of information, including book information to the public. They would have primary responsibility for implementing the unit's program of service.

Associates, much like retail associates, would work directly with the materials (merchandise) and citizens (customers). The two levels of Associates would be defined by experience. The junior position, Associate I, would focus on the physical collection; for example, returning materials to shelves, repairing material, assuring that computer workstations are functioning. The senior posi-tion, Associate II, would focus on transactions with the public. As the direct, front-line staff, per-sons in this position would handle cash, checkout materials, and assume responsibility for many ini-tial interactions with library users.

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A base component of staff would be determined by such things as hours of service, usage, scope and complexity of the unit's plan of service, and physical (including safety) factors. A suggested base staff allocation for a branch would be

• 1 Manager

• 1 FTE Assistant Manager • 1.5 FTE Information Specialists I • 3 FTE Associate II

• 3 FTE Associate I

For a central division, a possible base would be

• 1 Manager

• 1 FTE Assistant Manager • 1.5 FTE Information Specialist II • 4 FTE Information Specialists I • 1 FTE Associate II

• 1.5 Associates I

Decisions to deploy additional staff above the base would be made annually by Library Administrative Staff as part of the unit's annual review of performance measures and outcomes. Additional staff allocations would then be based on a particular branch unit's workload or usage.