Management Skills for the Information Manager

Ann Lawes

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9780429832970
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Ciencias sociales
• Subtopic: Sociología

First published in 1993, this volume explains the diverse and numerous management skills required to run a special library. Whether the unit is within a private or public company, a charity, a research organization, governmental department or a professional association, the manager of that unit has to cope with problems and decisions that range from staffing, recruitment and training to budgeting, purchasing, PR and marketing. This book, with contributions from practising information specialists, will aid both the new and in-position information manager in the difficult day-to-day management role.

1 Recruitment and selection of staff

Susan Hill and Alison Jago

1. ♦ Personnel departments
2. ♦ Job description
3. ♦ Person specification
4. ♦ Finding the right candidate
5. ♦ The interview
6. ♦ The selection process
7. ♦ Sample job descriptions and person specifications

Without doubt there have been many changes in recent years. Recessions have come and gone, employment or unemployment has been through highs and lows, and the demographic changes resulting from fluctuating birth rates have taken effect and altered the numbers of people in different age groups available for work. Recruiters have generally come to realize that they can no longer pick and choose; the right employees can be difficult to attract, and the old methods of recruitment need to be updated. Criteria may need to be modified or changed. Stability is as important as ability, and personal skills and attitudes may be more realistic requirements than academic qualifications alone. When recruiting it is necessary to market the credibility of the organization, the value of the job, and the pleasant work environment.

What is different about recruitment for the library and information profession? Some aspects, certainly, but in general the steps and procedures are similar for recruitment in all areas.

Differences that we have noted over the years might also apply to other fairly small and closely knit professions. Library and information personnel tend to take their professional responsibilities very seriously. Indeed, because of the very subject of their specialism - information - they need to continually keep up to date and remain professionally aware. This means that they often belong to a number of different professional groups, and quite possibly know the very people whom they may be about to recruit. Sometimes this is an advantage, at other times it is not. There are well known examples of organizations having difficulty in recruiting because it is common knowledge within the small sector of the profession to which they belong that the head of department has a bad reputation.

It is a pity to miss the opportunity created by a vacancy to develop departments, import technological expertise, service new specialist areas of interest, and so on. Perhaps recruitment is a way in which to bring the implementation of new technologies forward? People can be frightened of change, and incorporating changes in technology when planning for new staff often makes the transition easier.

To avoid problems in the selection process later on you must know from the start:

• What the job involves	Job description
• What sort of person could do it	Person specification

This is the professional approach, and there are no short cuts. Every professional, whatever their field, has to follow a predetermined number of steps to arrive at the end result; e.g. an architect has to draw (or describe) a building and then select (or specify) the materials with which it will be built. It not only enables you (and, if applicable, your personnel department) to more accurately assess interviewees, but it is also of great value to potential candidates who will be better able to assess their interest in, and their ability to do, the job available.

Taking short cuts at this stage can both put good candidates off and upset and alienate your personnel departments. If you advertise without adequate preparation you could be advertising your ineptitude to your peers, and of course you could end up with the candidates that you do manage to attract gaining a poor opinion of you and your organization.

◆ Personnel departments

Procedures for recruiting vary greatly from company to company. If you do not have a personnel department then the task in hand is likely to be your responsibility. Should you have a personnel department this could still be the case, but in most cases the recruitment of library and information staff will be a combination of joint effort and cooperation with the personnel department. The first priority should be to discuss your requirements (using your prepared job description) to establish first the protocol and then the procedures that you will use.

It is important to establish a good relationship with your personnel department — even before you have a vacancy. There are many ways in which they can help you. Once you have a vacancy, keep them informed from the outset and they will always be on your side. Do your homework before you enlist their help. Establish the parameters within which you will search, and hand them a full job brief including job description and person specification. They will welcome your initiative because their job is to help with the mechanics of recruitment, not to know how your department runs. If you produce a clear brief you are more likely to get what you want.

◆ Job description

A job description defines the tasks which make up the job. It records facts about job content, not the job holder. It should include:

1. Job title
2. Reporting relationships — up and down
3. Overall purpose of the job
4. Short description of main activities listed under 'responsibilities'

The job description provides the basis for deciding what sort of person could do the job.

You must have a job description before you can prepare the person specification.

Before looking at the component parts, think about the reasons for the vacancy. Is it a new post, a replacement, or is some short-term help needed? If it is a new post you have probably reviewed the structure of your department and in doing so realized the need to create the new post. Why not use the same process for replacement help? Is it time to recruit a European language into the department? Should you try and import new skills?

You should look at the job description and person specification of the person leaving and see if they are still valid. Perhaps you could replace a full-time person with a part-time person? Perhaps you will need to replace them with one and a half or even two people? What about job sharing?

Can you promote one of the junior staff into the position, or move someone across from the same level? This can be beneficial in a number of ways: helping further job satisfaction, training in new facets of the work, producing an interchangeable team. Should the job be graded at a higher (or lower) level? Is there anyone in another department or team you can move to this post?

What’s in a Name?

Every job should have a job title. When describing a job to a potential candidate it is normal to start by telling them the job title. This should indicate both the level and nature of the job. A poorly chosen job title may be detrimental to the recruitment process. The number of people who lose interest after just hearing the title, or who read no further after seeing the advertisement heading, can be surprising.

Personnel departments often describe a job accurately but need specialist advice on a suitable job title. This is understandable, as they may not be experts on the subtle differences between, for example, assistant librarians and library assistants.

Who’s Doing What with Whom?

Candidates are as concerned about who they will report to as they are about who will report to them. An interview is not the best time to start casting around in your mind to see if there are any staff that the interviewee might be able to manage, or be allowed to have control of in order to increase interest in the job on offer.

What’s It all about?

Apart from paying out a salary and having another smiling face around, there should be a fundamental reason for the job, i.e. an overall purpose. This can usually be summed up in one or two sentences. (See sample job descriptions at the end of this chapter.)

Responsibilities

This needs to be an itemized list of the main activities of the job. Be concise — it is a mistake to put too much in — but keep some flexibility as a very strict and regimented list of responsibilities may cause an employee to refuse to operate outside the boundaries of the job description at a later date. A 'catch all' phrase such as 'From time to time any other duties necessary for the smooth running of the department' is useful.

◆ Person specification

This describes the person not the job.

A traditional technique widely used in the preparation of a person specification is the Seven Point Plan. This provides a useful framework to identify what is required for the job holder to carry out the job. It covers seven aspects of the individual:

1. Physical makeup
   • - appearance
   • - health
2. Attainments
   • - education
   • - professional qualifications
   • - job experience/practical experience and achievements
3. General intelligence (e.g. numeracy, flexibility, ability to think quickly)
4. Special aptitudes (e.g. computers, languages, entrepreneurial flair)
5. Interests
   To what extent should interests be practical, intellectual, professional, physically active, social?
6. Disposition
   Friendly? Approachable? Methodical? Attention to detail? Analytical? Outgoing? Confident?
7. Circumstances
   Ease of access to work? Availability for hours of work, overtime, etc?

When preparing the person specification, consider what is essential and what is desirable, and using the Seven Point Plan as a framework, divide each factor on your person specification into two sections: one for essential attributes, the other for desirable attributes (see sample Person Specification on pp.22-25):

• Essential These are the attributes without which the candidate would not be able to do the job.
• Desirable Those qualities and skills that are not vital to the job, but would be useful. Desirable attributes enhance both the candidate's chance of getting the job and the range and scope of skills existing in the department.

Think carefully about this. Take languages, for example: which ones, how many, what level - fluency or knowledge of? Are languages essential for the job, or merely a useful addition, or do you know that they won't really be needed at all? Unfortunately, fluency in languages wanes if they are not used. A candidate with good languages wanting to continue to use them will think differently about the following descriptions:

'Must have fluency in at least one European language'

'Knowledge of European languages useful but not essential'

'Foreign languages an advantage'

◆ Finding the right candidates

By now you know what the job involves. You know what sort of person you need to do it. How do you find them? There are two main ways - advertising and recruitment agencies.

Where to Advertise

Professional journals circulating within the library and information profession may take advertising, indeed they may have special supplements for job vacancies, and they have the advantage of precise targeting.

Newspapers, on the other hand, reach a far wider audience, and may well attract responses from unlikely sources. Remember that newspapers may carry specific types of job vacancies on certain days of the week....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Notes on contributors
• Introduction
• 1 Recruitment and selection of staff
• 2 Motivation of staff
• 3 Staff training and development
• 4 Marketing and justification of the information service
• 5 The information audit
• 6 Budgeting, financial control, purchasing and charging
• 7 Relationships with suppliers
• 8 Records management or information management?
• 9 Your political base
• 10 Time management
• 11 Self-development
• 12 Management concerns for the minimal staff library
• Index