Workforce Planning
To achieve the final objective, the Libraries must begin careful workforce planning to deal with anticipated large numbers of retirements. Of course, retirement is a highly individual decision and is not mandated by age or years of service. On the other hand, demographics are such that the UM Libraries must begin planning for what will likely happen in a workforce where over half of the present staff of 219 permanent employees is fifty years or older. The breakdown, along with average years of service, is shown in Table I. Based on traditional age at retirement, as many as 10% of the staff might choose to retire in the next five years.
Table 1
| Years of Age | Number | % of Total Workforce | Average Years of Service at UM |
|---|---|---|---|
The breakdown of years of service at UM, regardless of age, is shown in Table II.
Table 2
| Years of Service | Number of Employees | % of Total Workforce |
|---|---|---|
The Public Services Division is a good case in point of the age plus years-of-service conundrum. Eleven of its 94 employees are over 60 years old. Four are in managerial positions and three of those are branch managers.
The number of potential retirements, plus regular turnover (approximately 6% per annum), will mean that the 2009 workforce will be very different. Managing that rate of change will be key to the Libraries’ continued success. Workforce planning, including succession planning, will help avoid loss of institutional memory and knowledge and will provide opportunities to hire individuals with needed, new skills. The Learning Curriculum, the Libraries’ educational program for its staff, will also be key in enabling the present workforce to meet the service and operational challenges ahead for the Libraries. The workforce planning effort will respond to the numerous needs for initiatives described in this report. At a minimum the normal turnover rate will provide the opportunity to reassign 6% of Libraries workforce per annum to the needs described herein. In addition, it is also clear that a significant part of the needed change will be the result of current faculty and staff taking on new roles and shedding old ones. A rough estimate is that we will easily reallocate 2% of our staff or individual effort each year, but the actual rate will probably be much higher in the range of 5%.
