Over the last two years, Essex has been redefining service objectives and staff roles, leading to radical change. Michele Jones describes their ‘journey’.
The journey begins here’ is the motto of Essex Libraries. It’s emblazoned across our brand new mobile fleet, features on our marketing material and encapsulates our approach. The service is on a journey of improvement but, more importantly, we have in mind our customers’ experience when they use our resources.
Over the last two years we have been on a particularly challenging trip. In common with a number of other authorities, we had a growing electronic customer base, but traditional use was declining and we were faced with a fundamental questioning of what services we provided, how we provided them and – most importantly – how we knew what our communities wanted from their library service.
A central part of this was looking at how we used our greatest resource – our staff. For some years we had operated a flexible staffing policy, opening up traditional librarian roles to internal colleagues and external applicants without formal qualifications in librarianship. This was partly to solve the problem of a diminishing supply of suitable candidates applying for librarians’ posts. But it was also a recognition of the many relevant skills and experience possessed by our operational staff or external applicants from a range of relevant backgrounds such as retail.
As well as our own local Essex service priorities, Framework for the Future1 was a key driver. We knew that our graduate-calibre professional librarians were central to ensuring the long-term viability of our service. But were we using them in the right way – and would their current role deliver the radical improvement we needed?
Our librarians carried out instantly recognisable roles. On average, about a third of their time was spent on customer-facing enquiry services, a third to a half within a specialism such as reader development, children’s services, lifelong learning, information or access and social inclusion. The rest of their working time was occupied with a range of activities – stock selection for example. Changes in practices over the years, such as the automation of stock editing, had removed some long-standing functions and, although roles had adapted, there had been no fundamental review of what these key players within the service should be doing.
Why Salary Band 4?
The starting point was to undertake a full functional analysis – of what the service needed to do and which posts within our staffing structure should carry out each function. Working with colleagues from corporate Human Resources, we invested significant time and senior management resources into looking at this – with HR providing the necessary stimulus. Being constantly asked why you needed a member of staff paid at Essex Salary Band 4 to carry out a particular function focuses the mind wonderfully. We were made to consider whether we were using our higher paid staff to their fullest capacity – and being tested by people with a probing, corporate-wide perspective made us relinquish our instinctive insularity.
We were clear from the outset that we could run our enquiry service in a more cost-effective manner while maintaining the standard expected by our customers. Librarian-staffed enquiry desks were based in only 11 of our 73 libraries. Other libraries relied on the expertise and knowledge of the operational staff and Answers Direct, our centralised reference service. Additionally, Enquiry Officers paid at Essex Band 2 had been working alongside our Librarians on enquiry desks for some time.
Freed from theirs desks
So – if we freed our Librarians from their enquiry desks, what did we need them to do? We identified four key activities that our graduate-calibre staff were equipped, or could be trained, to deliver:
- development of library services
- provision of specialist knowledge and expertise in key areas of activity – reader development, children’s services, digital citizenship, lifelong learning and community and civic values
- establishment, development and maintenance of relevant partnerships particularly within the many and diverse communities of Essex
- promotion and marketing
Additionally, four key competencies from the Essex Competency Framework were identified which postholders would have or have the capability to develop: Personal Effectiveness and Self-development; Interpersonal Skills; Customer/Client Orientation; and Working in Partnership. The person specification also requires education to degree level or a professional qualification or the equivalent through experience.
We were also keen to benefit from the lessons of the LearnEast project2 in 2003/04. This showed how public libraries can help, train and support people to improve their skills, essentially Basic Skills and ICT, and through that enhance their lives and their prospects for employment. This provided us with an excellent model of how Librarians might develop a new role, in which they are effective advocates for the service, and confident in building and maintaining effective partnerships, marketing services through targeted community outreach and training and supporting other staff to deliver a fully inclusive service.
A draft job profile/person specification was drawn up and a representative sample from our Librarians’ team was asked to comment on work in progress. Although there were some queries and concerns over points of detail, in the main there was a consensus of opinion that we had taken the right direction. We were acutely aware that the job profile would have to evolve and develop as the posts and the postholders themselves evolved and developed. We also talk regularly with Unison.
Some considerable thought was given to job titles. We needed to ensure it was recognised that these were completely new roles, requiring a different skill set and that those occupying them would be undertaking fundamentally different roles from those of Librarians. We finally agreed on Service Development Officer, which we believed epitomised the essence of these roles.
Eighteen months on, we are now asking ourselves whether even this job title adequately expresses the nature of the role – and whether we need more emphasis on the customer-centred focus. Audience Development Officer may more accurately represent what we are striving for, but that is still a matter of debate.
Limited staffing savings
Although not directly budget driven, this process did realise some limited staffing savings (as a contribution to achieving our target for the forthcoming three years of a flat-line budget without inflation). Overall we lost the equivalent of five full-time librarians’ posts. This was handled through managing vacancies, retirements and one planned redundancy. We moved from a staffing establishment of 66 full-time equivalent Librarians on Essex Bands 3 or 4 to 38 FTE Service Development Officers on Band 4 and an additional 23 FTE Enquiry Officers at Band 2.
Having established what we needed, we moved extremely quickly. Throughout the review process, we had tried to keep staff fully informed through updates in our internal newsletter. All Librarians were informed personally by letter of the outcomes of the review in early January 2004 and advised on the process for selection to appointment as a Service Development Officer. This was followed up by a series of briefings in mid-January held across the county over two days, which I chaired, accompanied by senior management colleagues. This ensured a consistent message across a very large authority and gave people the opportunity to ask questions directly of the head of service.
Benefits pf working with HR
The benefits of working closely with our corporate HR colleagues became very clear during the selection process. On their advice, we held an assessment centre, which gave staff the opportunity to demonstrate their suitability for the role in a variety of exercises, all of which were matched against the competencies identified in the job profile. In addition to a formal interview, candidates undertook an electronic CDAQ psychometric personality profile and a Belben team assessment, participated in an observed discussion based on Framework, prepared a written report based on that discussion and delivered a 10-minute presentation on partnership working.
The interview panels consisted of a manager from the library service, accompanied by a representative from HR. No candidate was interviewed by their current line manager. The assessment centre took place in just one week in January 2004 – a major logistical exercise given that there were more than 80 staff (and some fairly challenging snowfalls). The whole process was managed most efficiently by one of our corporate management trainees as part of her six-month placement with the service.
Decisions were made by mid-February and colleagues advised accordingly. Again, support from HR was available to those staff who were not successful in obtaining one of the SDO posts. Options included appointment to an Enquiry Officer post on a protected salary or redeployment within the county council. Although this was a major refocusing of roles and was extremely challenging for those colleagues involved, the general consensus was that the process had been managed extremely well and that communication had been effective. Or, as one piece of feedback said, ‘We didn’t like what you did to us but, I have to admit, I can’t fault the way you did it’.
A key element in this whole project was the level of political support we received. Our Cabinet Member was aware of the very radical nature of the changes – comments on the de-professionalisation of librarians were commonplace – but was prepared to back her managers’ judgments. Overall our elected members took an informed interest in the process and in the main were supportive, although again fears were expressed on how it might affect the quality of the service.
Staff turnover turbulence
On 4 May 2004, our Service Development Officers took up their new posts. It has to be acknowledged that a number of our Librarians did not like this radical change and, over the past year, we have said goodbye to a number of colleagues who have gone to other library services. We knew from the outset that the new posts would not be acceptable to a small percentage of our Librarians. But we also knew that if we were serious about becoming a truly customer-centred organisation which could increase visitor numbers and bring in new users, and maintain its viability and credibility with both customers and members, we had to take radical steps. We have over the past year experienced more turbulence in our staff turnover that I can ever remember – but we have also welcomed into our organisation new staff members from a range of backgrounds who are excited at the prospect of working to ensure that their library service truly remains at the heart of their communities.
One excellent benefit of the process was the information we gleaned from the assessment centre. Feedback on the various activities have given us invaluable information on the development needs of individuals and teams within our SDOs and have informed our performance management reviews. Each member of staff also got an individual report which they have been able to use as a basis for determining their own personal development plans.
And has it all been worth it? Eighteen months on, we are still very much on our steep learning curve. Some SDOs have blossomed and grasped the opportunities to go out and work with communities and develop new audiences for our services. Other colleagues are finding it more difficult to work in a totally new way, freed from the constraints of enquiry desk timetabling and a set pattern of late nights and Saturdays. Hot-desking is an issue for some staff but the expectation is that SDOs will spend a large percentage of their time away from their base library. Technology enables us all to work from a range of locations but the cultural change required to enable us to work in new ways must not be underestimated.
We did receive a lot of press coverage, both national and local. ‘Librarians shelved’ was my favourite headline and the use of the verb ‘to axe’ was frequent. I remain firm in my view that we have in no way diminished the professional standing of colleagues who are qualified librarians. We have acknowledged their inherent skills and competencies and addressed the needs of a changing and evolving service. But we have also recognised, as have many authorities nationally, that staff from a range of backgrounds have knowledge and experience which not only are equally valid but also can bring real enhancements to the service.
How we measure performance in this new environment has also challenged us. The work our SDOs do must result in new members and more visitors. We must be able to show how this resource adds value to our service. Work has been taking place over the early autumn on determining relevant performance measures which relate to both our service and audience development plans.
Sharing experiences with colleagues will help us to develop ourselves and our teams. Cath Anley from Kent outlined their approach in March Update,3 and a joint development day with our colleagues across the Dartford crossing was held in September.
We are determined that Essex citizens will receive the library service they want and deserve. Making sure we have the right staff to do this is crucial to our improvement strategy. This autumn we are undertaking a major consultation with customers, non-users, partners, stakeholders and, of course, our staff on the future direction of library services in Essex. What we learn from that process will inform the evolution of our SDOs. So the journey continues – but that’s a story for another time.
References
1 Framework for the Future. Department for Culture, Media & Sport, 2003.
2 www.learneast.com
3 Cath Anley. ‘Kent moves on from inspection.’ Library & Information Update, March 2005, p. 22.
Michele Jones is Libraries Manager, Essex Libraries.
Updated: 06 October 2005