Recruitment

Training and Development

Performance

Compensation

Promotion

Succession Management

Organizational Development

COMPETENCIES =

ACCOMPLISHMENT AND TRANSFORMATION

Kathleen De LongUniversity of Alberta Libraries

COMPETENCIES

Skills

Knowledge

Abilities

BACKGROUND

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2002 to 2006 LibQual results

2005 Customer Services Competencies for public service staff (baseline for performance of both professionals and para-professionals). These were designed for use at all public service points throughout the system

2007 to 2008 A New Model for Library Service

By 2009 Four major libraries using the new model: Science and Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences, Education and Physical Education, Health Sciences. Also adapted for use in four other smaller libraries (Law, Business, Bibliothèque St-Jean and Augustana College).

INTERVENTION

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Service Vision During all open hours, library users need only approach one

Service Desk for assistance in our libraries. Our well-trained staff will provide information, technology, and library-use customer services from one Service Desk in each unit library. Staff will provide these services using a newly defined, broad skill-set that will allow them to determine user needs and effectively provide service at that time or refer when expert knowledge is required. The Service Desk will be staffed to meet user demand to ensure a timely response to user queries and new Public Service staff positions will be internally recruited to meet the needs of this new service. Our ambition is to more than meet our service demands, to enhance or augment our partnership commitments, as well as plan for new service offerings to serve our campus community.

NEW SERVICE MODEL

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University of Alberta Libraries  

 STANDARDS AND COMPETENCIES2007 - 2012

Core CompetenciesCustomer Service Standards and Competencies Public Service Standards and Competencies Research CompetenciesSupervisor Standards and Competencies   

 

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Standard: Staff member presents him/herself in a professional manner

Competencies: Approachability / Interest

Performance Statements (observable actions):•On time for meetings, help desk shifts and other scheduled activities•Polite and positive•Acknowledges clients who are waiting for a response and provides estimates of when a response or resolution can be expected•Responds to client queries (i.e. help desk incidents, ejournal outages, catalogue record request, email requests for information) in a timely manner according to set standards•Can be relied upon to complete tasks without prompting•Listens to others and is open-minded about suggestions from others

SAMPLE COMPETENCY FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE

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The value of the process of developing competencies cannot be under-estimated.

Even if you don’t have an overall philosophy or vision (such as the University of Arizona you can develop competencies based on interventions and these can lead to fundamental change).

Competencies should be future-oriented, they demand re-thinking of the SKAs of staff (professionals as well as para-professionals) and the roles that they play in the organization.

LESSONS

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ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTION

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Competencies have value for: Organizational development interventions

Seek broad organizational change Promote alignment of HR systems Attract the attention of Executive

Promote future-oriented job requirements Rate the importance of the competency in the future

compared to the present

Campion, M. A., Fink, A. A., Ruggeberg, B. J., Carr, L., Phillips, G. M., & Odman, R. B. (2011). Doing competencies well: Best practices in competency modeling. Personnel Psychology, 64, 225-262.

Huff-Eibl, R., Voyles, J. F., & Brewer, M. M. (2011). Journal of Library Administration, 51,73-691

McClelland, D. C. (1973). Testing for competence rather than for “intelligence”. American Psychologist, 28, 1-14.

WebJunction:http://

www.oclc.org/resources/WebJunction/Documents/wj/Competency%20Index%20for%20Library%20Field.pdf

REFERENCES

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