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I. Executive Summary Interim Training Team Final Report
January 2003
SUBMITTED BY:
SUSAN KOUTSKY (LEADER)
LULU BARNACHEA
SUE BAUGHMAN
HEIDI HANSON
JOHNNIE LOVE
MARLENE VIKOR
LULU BARNACHEA
SUE BAUGHMAN
HEIDI HANSON
JOHNNIE LOVE
MARLENE VIKOR
I. Executive Summary
This report describes the work and the findings of the Technical Services Division (TSD) Interim Training Team (ITT), which took place from March through December 2002. The Team took a methodical approach to investigating the training needs of the division. In doing so, the Team, along with the Planning and Leadership Coordinating Team (PLCT), developed sets of general and technical core competencies for all members of TSD. These sets of competencies have great use potential for TSD, as described in the Team’s recommendations, and also serve as a model on which to base further core competency documentation.
The Interim Training Team’s list of recommendations for the future Training Coordinating Team and all of TSD are listed in Section V of the report. Though not inclusive of every type of training that should eventually occur for many TSD members, the recommendations focus on the team’s data-driven findings. The Training Coordinating Team should continue to explore the training needs of TSD, which will undoubtedly change over time.
The first section of recommendations is directed towards the Training Coordinating Team. The first recommendation lists the critical areas of need, based on the Technical Core Competencies, in which the new team should begin to develop programs. Subsequent recommendations include assessing potential trainers and coordinating a “train-the-trainers” program, coordinating a mentoring program for TSD members, and developing a TSD orientation. All of these efforts will require coordination with TSD production groups and groups outside of TSD.
The second section of recommendations is directed towards all TSD staff and is focused on core competencies. The first recommendation in this section is for all TSD staff to continue to utilize various Library and Campus resources in order to become more skilled in the General Core Competency areas. The Interim Training Team would like to see TSD continue its work by developing Production Group Core Competencies and Supervisor Core Competencies. The next set of recommendations suggests uses for the core competencies, including as a training assessment tool, as a performance tool in the PRD process, and as standard wording documentation in writing job descriptions. Finally, the core competencies should be reviewed periodically to ensure currency.
The report concludes with several appendices that bring context to and detail the work of the Team. The entire report can be accessed online at the Interim Training Team’s web page: http://www.lib.umd.edu/TSD/itt_home.html.
On January 30, 2002, the Technical Services Division Transition Team adopted a plan to form an Interim Training Team. The Division had undergone an extensive program review and was in the reorganization and implementation stage. With people soon to be moved to new positions and new teams soon to be formed, the Transition Team felt that "an interim Training Team should be the first team formed. Not only should it be the first team, it should be formed as quickly as possible. The Interim Training Team would be the precursor to the Training Coordinating Team," which was specified in the Blue Ribbon Committee’s (BRC) report, Working Paper #6. Since the BRC recommended that the Training Coordinating Team’s membership be drawn from teams that were not yet formed, the Interim Training Team would begin to work on training and team building issues that would be vital to the formation of a newly-reorganized TSD.
The Transition Team appointed six people to the ITT. They included Lulu Barnachea, Sue Baughman, Heidi Hanson, Susan Koutsky, Johnnie Love, and Marlene Vikor. The team held its first meeting in March, 2002 and appointed Koutsky as the leader. The Transition Team expected that the ITT would operate for about one year, at which time the Training Coordinating Team could be formed and assume the responsibilities envisioned by the BRC.
From the ITT Description document, the Charge to the Interim Training team was:
Help provide staff the resources, expert help and skill development required for the new TSD team-based organization to succeed from the start.
The Description suggests Strategies for the ITT:
The team held regular meetings to accomplish its tasks with work completed between meetings. Staff in TSD were called upon to provide input and ideas. The next section on Data Gathering and Results presents detailed descriptions about the data that was assembled.
The final activity of the TSD Interim Training Team was to compile all of the data into a plan with recommendations for the division—a document it could hand over to the pending Training Coordinating Team for implementation. This report is said document and describes in detail the methods used and the recommendations for a division-wide training program.
Other methods used to address elements of the charge include a number of activities:
With the accomplishment of the kickoff event, and the introduction of facilitators who would help teams form a shared vision of their work, team building seemed to be well on its way for TSD. ITT’s next steps focused on gathering data related to the training needs of TSD members and the resources available. The team began analyzing the data collected during the kickoff event, then met with members of the TSD Planning and Leadership Coordinating Team for further discussion. Concurrently, ITT members were gathering data about training resources, focusing on those within the library and within the UM campus. The Library’s own Learning Curriculum was of particular interest, as the modules potentially offer a wealth of training in many areas that TSD members felt they needed.
Another step would be to identify training resources within the division. The ITT, however, hesitated to do this without first identifying TSD-specific areas of training that would be needed. It became apparent that the team needed to work on the core competencies, as identified in the charge. ITT, as well as PLCT, realized that a list of core competencies required of TSD members would not only drive training, it could be used for a number of activities including evaluating an individual’s performance, identifying trainers, writing team and individual work plans, and creating new job descriptions. The team began assembling core competencies and then handed the project off to the PLCT for completion.
Once the all-TSD technical core competencies, those areas of TSD-specific knowledge and skills required of all TSD members, were finalized, the ITT resumed the project of identifying trainers and resources within TSD. The ITT distributed a survey to all TSD members that addressed these areas in terms of the core competencies. The survey was the final piece needed in data gathering, as it provided another assessment of TSD needs, in terms of very specific core competencies, and information on training resources, including trainers, within TSD.
Following an introduction to Team TSD by Carlen Ruschoff, and remarks on "Why Teams Work" from Lori Goetsch, the TSD staff worked in small groups in an exercise that asked them to identify characteristics of high-performing teams, and to rate TSD teams on the strength of these characteristics. The exercise had several intentions:
The exercise consisted of each group brainstorming on the question "What are the characteristics of a high-performing, successful team?", sorting the ideas generated into categories, and creating a radar chart to allow each member of the group to rate the strength of the characteristic as demonstrated in the TSD team. Each small group was assisted by a facilitator, who helped the group construct and interpret the radar chart, led discussion of the results within the small group, and helped the group decide on the most important ideas to share in the large group discussion at the conclusion of the workshop.
The ITT collected all the ideas and radar charts generated by the staff at the cornerstone event, and reviewed them for common themes and for the insight they provided into where staff felt development was needed. The main themes that emerged were:
The ITT also reviewed the ratings of these dimensions, from zero for "Characteristic is not present for our team", to ten for "Characteristic is fully present for our team." Though assessment of these strengths varied from individual to individual, the results showed that the staff perceived needs for further development in team skills such as planning, evaluation, and decision-making, in developing shared vision and a sense of purpose, and in training for essential job skills.
The Libraries’ Office of Staff Learning and Development provides online tutorials for computer software applications. These are found on the office’s website,
http://www.lib.umd.edu/groups/learning/stafflearningresources.html.
Training opportunities are available via a variety of campus programs. The campus’ Office of Organizational Development and Training offers programs on topics such as employee motivation, supervision, customer service, time management, communication and business skills. The Office of Information Technology offers classes on a variety of computer software applications. The offerings from these two campus resources are fee based.
There is no specific training for the technical skills required in the technical services arena.
On May 2, 2002, the ITT met with the PLCT to further assess TSD training needs, from a PLCT member’s perspective. The group underwent a brainstorming session and came up with eleven priority training needs in TSD. These were sorted into two categories as follows:
We learned that half of the formal training needs are TSD-specific and half are more general. The general needs (communication, management skills for team leaders and facilitation) can be addressed through programs offered on Campus and through the Libraries’ Learning Curriculum. The TSD-specific needs (Authorities work, World Cat, CatME) do not yet have programs developed that address them.
Core Competencies are the skills, knowledge, and personal attributes
that are integral to an individual's success in a particular position.
Core competencies are measurable, observable, demonstrable, and improvable.
The ITT identified four main areas of core competencies that should be developed within TSD: general, technical, production group, and supervisor. General competencies are those that may be required of anyone in the library and includes such areas as communication skills, team skills, and ergonomics. Technical competencies are those that are required of anyone working in technical services and include such specific skills as interpreting holdings and items records in the Aleph system and knowing the path of materials flow throughout the division. Technical competencies are expressed on a very basic level, and specific competencies that are needed for specific TSD jobs will be referred to in production group competencies. Finally, supervisor competencies will be an additional set that addresses competencies needed by those TSD members with this additional responsibility. The ITT finalized documents that list TSD General Competencies and TSD Technical Competencies.
The accomplishment of writing Core Competencies will serve many purposes in TSD. First, they can be used as a tool in writing performance evaluations and work plans. In this regard, they can be used to identify individual training needs. They can also be used in the hiring process and in devising new job descriptions when needed.
This review was executed with the intent of inventorying all expected skills for each production group in the division and identifying existing training resources supporting acquisition of those skills. We compared the production group-specific job competencies lists and identified overlap of expected skills. The area of overlap on Technical Services specific competencies became the list of TSD Technical Core Competencies, and the focus of the ITT training plan. Library and other Campus training resources do not include coursework to address these core competencies.
Next, ITT shared the list of TSD Technical Core Competencies with the TSD PLCT and with the entire TSD staff. At this point, ownership of the core competency document transferred to the PLCT, who formed a small subgroup to examine comments and suggestions from staff and make further revisions.
Both the ITT and PLCT recognized that the list of TSD Technical Competencies could be accomplished to varying degrees. For instance, for Competency 9, Knowledge of accepted preservation principles and practices as defined for the UM Libraries, a member of the Preservation Production Group may need to know this at a higher level than someone in the Original Cataloging Production Group because her job description defines her job as such. One example is the Conservation Team Leader in the Preservation Production Group, whose job description includes being able to make complex decisions and perform intricate treatments on books, which takes Competency 9 to an "expert" level. All members of the Original Cataloging Production Group, and in fact all members of TSD, need to know Competency 9 at least at the basic level. To define the basic level, PLCT members composed hallmarks of each competency, which describe the specific knowledge, skills, or attributes the staff member must possess in order to be proficient in the competency. The final list of TSD Technical Core Competencies, including the bulleted hallmarks, is in Appendix E.
The ITT administered a survey to gauge individual’s level of skill and expertise in technical core competency areas in November 2002 (Appendix F). In addition, staff were asked to self identify if they were willing to serve as a trainer for any of the competencies. The last question on the survey asked staff to list their top four competencies they felt were most important for a TSD training program.
Every TSD production group staff member and graduate assistant received a survey, totaling sixty-three surveys distributed. Fifty-one or 81% of the surveys were returned. The responses to each question were tallied by production group and by division-wide.
Analysis of the data indicates that the division’s lowest average scores were for competencies 4, 5 and 8. These are the areas that TSD members, on average, feel they are weakest. They may be areas in which training programs should be created. They are the following:
Two other competencies were noted as significant. Competencies 1 and 6 received a high number of votes as two of the top four training needs perceived by TSD members. They are:
Several observations by the Interim Training Team are that Competency 6 may be a high priority due to the changes in serials workflow, which surfaced a felt need to communicate new procedures within the division. Competency 1 is a priority for staff even though the average skill level indicated by staff is high. Competencies 4 and 5 have been recently addressed through Aleph training sessions so library staff may be feeling the need for ongoing coaching, practice and refresher sessions.
Besides revealing the areas that TSD staff felt they needed training and the areas that they felt the division in general needed training, the ITT survey generated a list of potential trainers, which the ITT will pass along to the Training Coordinating Team. The ITT also compiled a list of resources that are housed within TSD work stations and will pass this information along to the TCC as well.
The following list, while not comprehensive, lists those areas in which the Training Coordinating Team and TSD members, lead by PLCT members, should focus. The recommendations are based on the data gathered. The ITT recognizes that there may be other divisional needs (i.e. need for e-mail etiquette training; need for ergonomics training, etc.). Because some needs were not explicit in the data the ITT gathered, the Training Coordinating Team may want to eventually pursue further data gathering methods to surface additional training needs.
II. Background
III. Charge and Methodology
The ITT saw several key elements in the charge that would be the focus of its work: team building in TSD, identifying training needs and resources, and identifying TSD core competencies.
IV. Data Gathering and Results
A. Summary
To begin addressing elements of the charge the ITT organized a 2-hour event called "Team Building: Setting the Cornerstone." This kickoff event highlighted TSD’s transition to a team based structure and called for TSD members to name what they thought were the characteristics of a high-performing, successful team. In addition, members ranked where they thought TSD was in terms of the characteristics they identified. The data gathered at this event has been used to guide the ITT’s work by providing valuable insight into the team building needs of TSD and to formulate some of its recommendations.
B. "Team Building: Setting the Cornerstone" Kickoff Event
On April 8, 2002, the TSD staff participated in a workshop entitled "Team Building: Setting the Cornerstone." The event was designed by the ITT as a forum to introduce TSD staff to the concept of TSD as a team, to share information on why teams work, and to have staff participate in a team-building exercise and facilitated discussion. The ITT members were assisted in presenting the cornerstone event by Lori Goetsch, Director, Public Services Division, and by volunteer facilitators Alan Mattlage and Cindy Todd from the Libraries, and Linda Hosey, Joan Bellsey, and Joanne DeSiato of the UM Office for Organizational Effectiveness’s Peer Consulting Network.
C. Learning Curriculum and Campus Resources
The components and modules in the Libraries’ Learning Curriculum were analyzed for scope and content. The modules focus on general and specific knowledge and skills related to organizational issues, team building and group work, assessment, leadership and communication. Four to five modules are being developed each year based on identified needs. Three modules on Customer Service are currently being implemented. Modules on grant writing and meeting management are under development. Knowledge and skills related to team building and group work are currently being discussed to a certain extent within the intact Technical Services teams by each team’s facilitator.
D. Data from the Planning and Leadership Coordinating Team
Priority Needs that can be fulfilled within team meetings (with the help of facilitators)
Priority Needs that can be fulfilled through formal training
E. Core Competencies
The Interim Training Team felt that a good training program should be grounded in the needs of the trainees. Additional needed data included an assessment of the basic skills and knowledge required to work in the Technical Services Division. However, a document listing the basics, or core competencies, did not yet exist. As part of its Charge, and as the next step, the ITT began to develop lists of core competencies for TSD members. Based on work by Karen Calhoun of Cornell University and others, the ITT’s agreed-upon definition of core competencies was:
The general core competencies were drawn from two documents: "UM Libraries’ Organizational Citizenship Expectations (Appendix A)" and TSD’s "Common Expectations of All Staff" (Appendix B). These documents identify the "behaviors, attitudes, and competencies all employees are expected to have or attain" to enable them to function effectively in a customer-focused team-based organization. The results of the "Team Building: Setting the Cornerstone" event held on April 8, 2002 were also considered to ensure that skills and competencies identified by TSD staff as essential in developing high performing teams were included. Appendix C lists the TSD General Core Competencies and includes the Libraries Learning Curriculum and other Library and Campus programs that would satisfy the accomplishment of the General Core Competencies.
The process of identifying TSD Technical Core Competencies began with a review of resources on the topic of core competencies for library staff available on the Web. These materials, including core competencies work developed by library professional organizations and individual libraries, informed ITT members in the next step of our effort—a review of all position descriptions in the new production groups of the Technical Services Division.
There remains yet the need to further define core competencies for TSD members, taking into account individual job responsibilities as defined in job descriptions. The ITT began this task when it culled technical core competencies from each TSD job description. The items that were deemed not to be basic enough for all members of TSD should be reconsidered for production group competencies. As part of its recommendations, the ITT would like to see the PLCT continue work on these core competencies so that it forms lists by production group. At this point, each production group may want to instill degrees within each of its competencies, so that levels ranging from "basic" to "expert" are recognized within each group.
Though it may not be particularly unique to only TSD members, this group of core competencies will pertain only to those with supervisory responsibilities. Some areas of supervisor competency may include knowledge of the PRD process, ability to evaluate and give feedback to supervisees, knowledge of timesheet procedures, and ability to train supervisees. The ITT recommends that the PLCT give consideration to creating such a group of competencies to account for these additional responsibilities.
V. Recommendations
A. Recommendations to the TSD Training Coordinating Team (in addition to those stated in the TCT Description):
The ITT Skills, Expertise and Resources Survey identified TSD staff who are interested in becoming trainers for specific technical competencies. Since this is not a definitive list, a pre-assessment will be more effective in identifying appropriate trainers, beginning with the list of interested people identified through the survey. Those who do not teach training classes could help develop and evaluate the training programs.
Such a program will provide would-be trainers with a common understanding of adult learning and equip them with the tools for developing effective training plans.
Such a program will be very helpful to ensure that staff interested in becoming mentees and mentors will be matched. This will ease staff transition into new job responsibilities, new workflows, and create an awareness of opportunities for professional growth and development.
This effort should be coordinated with the Library Personnel and Budget Office, which is currently developing a library-wide orientation program, and PLCT.
