Infopeople Webcast: Retaining

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Infopeople Webcast Retaining Motivating
Excellent Library Employees

• March 6, 2006
• Noon 100 pm
• Presenter Paula M. Singer PhD
• Pmsinger_at_singergrp.com

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Agenda

• Why retention matters
• Why employees stay
• Orientation
• Retention
• Recognition

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Why Retention Matters

• Costs 1½ - 2 times salary benefits
• Staffing costs costs to hire
• Vacancy costs lost productivity
• Training costs to prepare new employee
• Acting pay
• Loss of knowledge
• Work not done, priorities not met
• Impact on colleagues

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Obstacles to Retention

• Competition for the tech savvy, interpersonally
  skilled
• Declining supply of library information science
  professionals
• More choices for both degreed and non-degreed
  personnel
• Low compensation
• Retirements
• Freezes

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Population Decline
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Talent Pool
35- to 44-year-olds in the U.S. Index 1970
100
Today
15 drop
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The Changed Employer-Employee Relationship

• The contract is broken
• Life Long Employment vs. Mutuality of Purpose
• Free agents
• Flexibility to meet diverse needs
• Work/life considerations

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Think about yourself and your staff.

• What keeps you
• at your library?
• Why do you stay?

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Why Employees Stay

• A feeling of connection
• Feeling valued
• Personal and professional growth
• Continuous learning
• Making a difference
• Good management
• Cant afford to leave
• Fair pay and benefits

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Compensation is More than a Salary

• Salary
• Benefits - the other paycheck
• Work environment
• A three legged stool!
• ALA toolkit for salaries
• http//www.ala-apa.org/salaries/toolkit.pdf

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Retention Begins with Orientation
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Orientation

• Relationship begins before the hire
• Employees value a personal connection
• Accommodate different learning styles
• Make it interactive and fun
• Complete paperwork and procedural stuff in
  advance

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Orientation Beyond the Workplace

• Offer dual career assistance
• Include family in the equation, invite to
  orientation
• Match new employees with friends and services,
  new neighbors, teenage babysitters, etc.
• Help with relocation

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Assimilation

• Provide a buddy/
• mentoring
• Create reward best practices
• Develop expectations for management

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Welcome!

• Desk, computer, workspace ready on day one
• Welcome card
• Balloons, food
• New employee party at work site
• Formal follow-up at 30, 60, 90, 120 days

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Keys to RetainingTop Talent
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Job Satisfaction Retention
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1. Increase Opportunity

• Challenge
• Interesting projects
• Responsibility
• Team leadership
• Special assignments
• Promotion

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Opportunities for Employee Development

• Internal recruitment
• Support for education
• Job rotation/cross training
• Task forces, project assignments
• Academies of learning
• Career ladders
• Mobility among libraries

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Cultivating Excellence

• Individual development plans
• Coaching/mentoring
• Performance management with real feedback and
  coaching
• 360 feedback
• Accelerated advancement/steps
• Co-manager opportunities
• Shared staff opportunities

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2. Decrease Stress

• Identify stressors
• Distribute work evenly
• Eliminate red tape
• Manage interruptions
• Promote and model
• stress-reducing activities

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Work/Life Balance

• Define work in terms of what
• is to be accomplished
• Provide flexible work schedules
• Evaluate alternative work places and
  telecommuting
• Appreciate dilemma of child care, elder care,
  multiple individual roles
• Allow voluntary demotions
• Appreciate diversity of personal values and
  priorities

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3. Provide Leadership

• Build trust
• Commit to helping others succeed
• Offer motivation
• Seek excellence
• Take action

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4. Emphasize Work Standards

• Focus on taking pride
• Link performance to customer satisfaction
• Develop customer service and
  quality measures collaboratively
• Be very clear on expectations
• Celebrate achievements

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5. Provide Fair Rewards

• Employees want fair rewards for the work they do,
  based on
• Skill
• Responsibilities
• Effort
• Working conditions
• Communicate
• Reward for top performance

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New Emerging Benefits

• Extra insurance(s) at group rate
• Auto, legal, pet insurance
• 529 savings plans
• Counteroffers
• Eldercare 411
• Lactation Rooms
• Research leave/sabbaticals
• Stop the clock tenure

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Convenience/Concierge Services

• Dry cleaner pick-up
• Supermarket / Carry-out delivery
• Financial planning
• Passes, discounts zoo, museum
• Classes on-site educational, fitness
• Discount coupons cleaning services, manicures,
  lawn care
• Wellness, health screening

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6. Allow Adequate Authority

• Empower employees to act
• Encourage employee input to decisions, goals,
  and direction setting

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Retaining Talented Workers as They Near
Retirement

• Phased retirement
• Re-hiring as part-timers
• or consultants
• Temp work
• Training/mentoring
• assignment
• Sabbatical

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Recognizing Employees

• People will forget what you said. People will
  forget what you did. But people will never
  forget how you made them feel.
• Anonymous

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Recognition

• Enhances performance
• Helps motivate
• Provides practical feedback
• Makes it easier to get the work done
• Improves productivity

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Old School Recognition Programs

• Formal
• 1 size fits all
• Centrally (HR) managed
• Infrequent
• Culture of entitlement
• Selectively used for top performers only

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Recognition Updated

• Includes informal elements
• Multiple programs activities
• Leader-oriented
• Frequent flexible
• Culture of performance
• Used for everyone

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Carroll County Public LibraryEveryone Counts!

• Mission Created to celebrate the contributions
  of CCPL staff members, and to foster an
  atmosphere of appreciation, respect and
  motivation
• Coworker
• Supervisor to Staff
• Formal

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Coworkers Recognize Colleagues

• Dedication
• Achievement
• Character
• Service
• Can doattitude

• Respect
• Cooperation
• Helpfulness
• Flexibility

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Supervisors Recognize Staff

• Handling an emergency or difficult situation
• Filling in on another job
• Completing a special task
• Consistently presenting a positive attitude that
  inspires
• Giving time assistance to an area or staff
  person outside dept. or responsibility

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More Formal Rewards

• Customer Service Award
• Spirit Award
• Service Awards
• Retirements
• Muffies_at_ccpl.org  

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Spirit of CCPL Recognition

• Providing consistently outstanding service to
  internal and/or external customers
• Bringing innovative idea(s) to the system
• Enhancing operations
• Accomplishing a specific project
• Contributing to the mission and/or goals of CCPL
• Providing exceptional service in spite of
  extraordinary circumstances
• Presenting an idea or recommendation that
  resulted in a cost savings to CCPL

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Tulsa City County Library

• Rave Review
• Team Award
• Standing Ovation
• Applause
• smcconn_at_tulsalibrary.org

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Low Cost - High Impact Recognition

• BRAVO award coupons
• Special recognition for pages and hourly
  employees
• Xerox hand
• Bragging sessions
• Start each staff meeting with good news praise
  for employees who deserve it
• Read thank you letters from customers
• Self-recognition days

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More Ideas

• Anniversary letter
• Thanks button on website
• Lifesaver award
• Employee nominated EZTDBW award
• Eagle award
• Employees write about others

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Developing a Recognition Program

• Focus on the areas that have the most impact
• Involve employees
• Announce the program with fanfare
• Publicly track progress Have lots of winners
• Allow flexibility of rewards
• Renew the program as needed
• Link informal and formal rewards

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Getting Started

• Start in your own sphere
• Do just one thing differently
• Focus on what you CAN do
• Dont expect perfection

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Building Commitment

• Focus - employees know what they need to do and
  what is expected of them
• Involvement - people support most what they help
  to create
• Development encourage opportunities for
  learning and growth
• Gratitude - recognize good performance (formal or
  informal)
• Accountability - employees are responsible for
  their performance and lack thereof

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Fine-Tuning Retention Strategies

• Analyze turnover - address any problems
• Do exit interviews and USE the data
• Survey incumbents
• Paper/pencil, online
• Town hall meetings
• Meetings with senior management
• Not one size fits all! Target to individual needs

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Resources

• ALA. Advocating for Better Salaries and Pay
  Equity Toolkit. www.ala-apa.org/toolkit.pdf.
• Bob Nelson Dean Spitzer, The 1001 Rewards
  Recognition Fieldbook, Workman Publishing, NY
  2003.
• Public Libraries, Recruitment and Retention
  Issue, Vol. 45, No.1, Jan/Febr 2006.
• Paula M. Singer Jeanne Goodrich, Retaining and
  Motivating High-performing Employees, Public
  Libraries Recruitment and Retention Issue, pp
  58-63.
• Paula M. Singer, Designing a Compensation Program
  for Your Library. ALA, 2002.

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THANK YOU!

• Paula M. Singer, Ph.D.
• The Singer Group, Inc.
• 12915 Dover Road
• Reisterstown, MD 21136
• 410-561-7561
• Pmsinger_at_singergrp.com
• www.singergrp.com