Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to identify best practices of employee onboarding, the process by which a new employee is introduced to an organization and its vision, mission, and values. Design/methodology/approach -Researchers requested that members of the Personnel Administrators and Staff Development Officers Discussion Group of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) share documents related to employee onboarding and three researchers independently reviewed the documents. The collected documents were compared to the socialization model proposed by Raymond Noe, including the detailed aspects of the organizational phase and the key components identified in the best practices literature. Findings -In total, 17 institutions submitted documentation for review. All institutions discussed at least one or more of the key areas identified in the socialization process. Every institution in the study included a discussion of job expectations and evaluation criteria (100 percent); ten (59 percent) discuss mission, vision, and values; however, topics such as culture (five or 29 percent) and politics (one or 6 percent) were infrequently covered. Onboarding programs varied in length (one week to more than six months). Check lists were the most common tool used to manage the onboarding process. Other notable topics covered include dealing with change, understanding the team-based environment, diversity, library awards and library fundraising. Research limitations/implications -Because of the limited number of documents examined in this study, the research results may lack generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further. Practical implications -Moving from a traditional new employee orientation model to a best-practices onboarding model will require HR professionals to conduct an internal assessment of the current program. Originality/value -Due to the high cost associated with recruiting new employees, the need for new employees to be fully functional and engaged as soon as possible, and the need to communicate performance indicators, the need to share best practices is important.
This research probes future roles for libraries in the scholarly communication process through the use of scenarios. The researchers asked 20 ARL library directors to read and provide constructive comments on the scenarios, name the scenarios, and either select a scenario that most closely matched their vision or propose a new scenario. The directors identified six possible futures. Issues such as library as publisher, the economy, and the need for collaboration are discussed, as well as the timeframe for such futures and the desire versus the likelihood of a particular scenario happening.
The cultivation of professionalism is a necessary part of training the academic and research library leaders of the future. By incorporating professionalism into succession planning efforts, individuals acquire skills that will serve them across institutions as they transition between positions of power. For the purposes of this study, the aspects of professionalism were divided into four main categories: etiquette, professional behavior, personal presentation, and space (how people fill and use it). This chapter examines existing literature and contains the results of a survey of how library employees feel about professional protocols. It argues that the observance of professional protocols can impact student satisfaction as well as create a more positive work environment. Results of the survey indicate that libraries value professionalism with an emphasis on professional behavior.
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