Staff Training and Development Needs Assessment

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Staff Training and Development Needs Assessment
RESULTS

• Steve Garwood
• Staff Training and Development Coordinator

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Overview

• THANK YOU!!
• Methodology
• Overview of Findings
• Select Key Findings
• Next Steps
• Questions
• If you have questions as we proceed, please ask

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Methodology

• Survey
• 11.19 till 12.12
• HEAVILY Promoted
• 165 Complete Responses
• Support Staff 93 / Administrative/Professional
  Staff 72
• Good response rate across times in position and
  across library locations
• Focus Groups
• Conducted with three cross sections of staff
  Supervisors/Managers, Professional staff and
  Support Staff with support from University Human
  Resources
• Individual and Small Group meetings
• Met and spoke with staff members from various
  parts of the organization AULs, Public Services
  staff, Behind the Scenes staff, Firestone staff,
  Special Library staff, etc.
• Special thanks to LETC members and others who
  helped!

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Overview of Findings

• Some specific areas of Need
• Understanding more about how individual areas of
  the library work and how they work together
• Identifying and interacting with those
  individuals who hold knowledge important to the
  work of others
• Improved understanding of software, systems,
  processes and procedures to be able to better
  serve internal and external clients
• Managing people, time, workload, stress, and
  change
• Developing respect, trust, and understanding
  amongst all levels of staff
• Developing career and job search skills

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Key Findings

• Although staff often feel acknowledged, open, and
  comfortable asking for assistance within their
  units, there is less understanding of the work,
  communication and approaches of other units which
  can cause misunderstanding, conflict, elitism
  (real and perceived), gaps in information, gaps
  in sharing of knowledge, unrealistic
  expectations, and THEY syndrome.
• Communication from the library (Library
  Administration) needs improvement
• Communication between departments could use
  significant improvement
• Some key comments
• I understand the importance of my job, but it
  sure seems as if no one outside our dept does
• Who can I ask? Am I allowed to ask?
• What are library policies, practices, procedures
  ACROSS the libraries
• Not knowing can keep you safe, but can also
  lead to fear of acknowledging that you dont
  know (and wont go to learn/ask)

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Key Findings

• Skills
• 44.5 agreed and 26.0 strongly agreed with the
  statement that their position requires that they
  consistently learn new skills. This was
  especially true for Support Staff who indicated
  51.4 as agree and 19.4 as strongly agree.
• While overall 47.6 of staff indicated that they
  agree with the statement that they have all of
  the skills necessary to do their jobs well,
  20.7 disagreed and 30.6 of Support Staff
  disagreed.
• Increased Responsibilities
• Almost all feel that their responsibilities have
  increased since they started in their current
  position, 44.8 agree and 37.6 strongly agree
• Stress
• To the statement People in this unit are overly
  stressed, 31.5 indicated slightly accurate and
  13.3 indicated highly accurate with 27.3
  indicating neutral

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Key Findings

• Months
• Except for September (49.7) and December (49.1)
  staff generally indicated that they were able to
  devote time to training activities throughout
  most months of the year.
• Those months that rated most favorable with staff
  as a whole were July (67.3) and March (65.5)
• Time of Day
• Staff indicated they were most able to attend
  training programs in the morning (before Noon)
  with Monday as the lowest response (65.4) and
  Friday as the highest (69.8). The staff as a
  whole did indicate by over 50 that they were
  available as well in the afternoon
• Individual area workflows may reflect differently
  and certain days/times during certain times of
  year may be better/worse for training for various
  areas of staff
• Attendance and participation at Training and
  Development events has been strong!

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Key Findings

• Learning styles
• Staff indicated that they preferred to learn new
  skills by One to one, coaching or mentoring
  (75.2) and attending workshops or lectures
  (73.9).
• Reason for not taking advantage of training
  opportunities
• I have too much to do (58.8)
• Unaware of the opportunity (55.8).
• Staff are aware of job opportunities at the
  Library and University and are aware of how to
  apply
• However, Support Staff are often un/underprepared
  for the job search process and need both
  increased exposure to library and computer skills
  and resume/interview type skills
• Web2.0/Collaboration/New Media tools
• Overall library staff did not rank highly in
  their use or knowledge of modern
  communication/collaboration tools used in Library
  and Information Organizations.

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Key Findings Training Needs Indicated

• Program or training topics highly valuable to the
  Organization (total votes)
• Strategic Planning or Organizational Skills (40
  responses)
• Performance Management (33)
• Coaching Skills for Supervision (30)
• Effective Meetings (27)
• Managing Change (24)
• Interpersonal Communication (24)
• Voyager/Catalog skills (18)
• Spreadsheets (Excel) (17)
• Time Management (16)
• New Web Technologies (blogs/wikis/rss) (15)

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Key Findings Training Needs Indicated

• Program or training topics highly valuable to the
  Individual (total votes)
• Strategic Planning or Organizational Skills (27
  responses)
• Access (27)
• New Web Technologies (blogs/wikis/rss) (24)
• Voyager/Catalog skills (23)
• Spreadsheets (Excel) (22)
• Time Management (22)
• Adobe Photoshop (22)
• Stress Management (20)
• xhtml, DreamWeaver, Word Processing (Word),
  Performance Management and Intellectual Property
  Issues (13)

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Next Steps

• Computer Skills
• Push for Timeline for Office 07 update to staff
  computers and synchronize with students,
  University, and ProveIt! System
• Restart Computer Clinics (remind everyone of NMC
  as well)
• Utilize OIT
• Promote use of lynda.com resources by staff
• Explore use of 3rd party company for training
  over/above what OIT can provide
• Voyager/ILS Training
• Work with Technical Services to promote and grow
  documentation and learning resources
• Promote Technical Service Page during orientation
  to Library Training
• Effectiveness/Work-Life Balance
• Locate and bring in Workshops/Presentations on
• Stress and Time Management
• Organization Skills
• Project Planning and Implementation

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Next Steps

• Supervisory/Management Skills
• Increase participation in and graduation from
  Management Development Certificate (MDC)
• Bring Programs from UHR to the Library especially
  the MDC required classes
• Managing Effective Interactions (Essentials of
  Leadership/IM Essentials)
• Performance Management - Appraisals and
  Expectations
• Coaching Others Toward Improvement
• Legal Aspects of Supervision
• Leveraging Diversity Challenges and
  Opportunities
• Job/Career
• Career Corner
• Locate and bring in Workshops/Presentations on
  Resume Writing/Interview Skills
• Increase computer skills and library knowledge
• Explore language learning opportunities at
  University

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Next Steps

• Learning Environment
• Locate and bring in Workshops/Presentations on
  Respect and Trust
• New Staff Orientation programs (that can also
  help with experienced staff)
• Welcome Orientation visit by Staff Training and
  Development Coordinator
• Buddies informal Welcome mentor program
• Functional Library Facebook
• Log-in access only to protect privacy
• Each directly updatable entry includes picture,
  directory info, and other optional fields
• Organization Chart (online interactive)
• Increase frequency/scope of Tours/Open houses
• Explore creation of User Groups (Library School,
  Voyager, Mid-Level manager, Scanning, etc.)
• Explore creation of Mentoring Programs, Job
  Shadow and/or task Shadow program(s)
• Continue How Stuff Works and How Stuff Works
  _at_Princeton series
• Whats that Function short video series

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Next Steps

• Promotion and Communication
• Promote events of library and University
• Specify where possible who should attend and why,
  better descriptions and learning objectives for
  programs
• Use LETC Corner to promote internal and external
  events and also to provide context for
  training/development efforts
• Promote/Remind schedule of events (Stay on top)
• Work towards creation of systematic schedule,
  perhaps fall, spring, summer schedules so people
  can plan ahead
• Promote/use new University Learn Center to keep
  all training/learning events together and make it
  easier for reminders/follow up.
• Video or Audio record all sessions possible and
  make it easy to find/follow
• Encourage use of collaborative tools/software to
  increase communication, participation and
  knowledge of tools that library audience uses.

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What else do you need from me?