Abstract
The Koninklijke Bibliotheek in the Netherlands has developed a Strategic Staff Planning Programme to deal with the challenges of an ageing workforce, succession issues for management and specialised positions, and short-term budget cuts in combination with expected long-term staff shortages. This article describes the reasons for the Programme, steps taken to develop it, and preliminary results. The programme includes a Trainee Programme, a Management Trainee Programme, Individual Career Counselling and a Career Service Centre.
Highlights
We are all familiar with the old-fashioned stereotype of the average librarian: he or she is an older lady or gentleman who placidly answers a number of questions from a library patron while acting as if he or she is doing this person a favour
Mid-2007 the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB) started to discuss the issues identified above and in 2008 the KB set up a Strategic Staff Planning Programme, initiated by the Human Resources Department in close consultation with the Corporate Strategy Department and the Board of Directors
The Human Resources Department started offering individual career counselling for staff members who had reached a dead end in their career at the KB, or who were judged to be dysfunctional by their managers
Summary
We are all familiar with the old-fashioned stereotype of the average librarian: he or she is an older lady or gentleman who placidly answers a number of questions from a library patron while acting as if he or she is doing this person a favour. The average age of a KB staff member is relatively. KB staff tend to hold on to their jobs: on average they stay at the same position level for 14.8 years (figures early 2009). As no systematic incentive to train for managerial positions was provided by the KB, staff were mostly content to continue to focus on the academic aspects of library work as opposed to managerial aspects. IT and managerial vacancies had to be filled from outside the library, preferably from other research libraries. Such outside recruitment often took a lot of time.
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