Managing a 24/7 team and service

The Customer Services Team that I manage consists of daytime staff, evening staff and weekend staff some of whom are full-time and some are part-time, some are semester only and some all year round.  There are lots of them and obviously they are never all here at the same time.  In fact it is a feat of logistics to cover the service with so many variables.
This is not an unusual situation for libraries that are open evenings and weekends in an educational environment - more staffing and coverage is needed during term time as opposed to vacation time - I'm not sure how much it has changed over the years but I suspect not much.  However as well as it being a result of historical arrangements, it is also very much a modern phenomenon.  While we don't have any zero hours contracts we do have posts that are split to cover the hours when we need staff resource (Information Assistants).  We are also open 24/7 during revision and exam time which is a response to student demand.
All in all there are approximately 35 members of staff in the Customer Services Team.  The challenge is to provide a consistent service across the working teams and across the time frame.

Currently, as we are open 24/7, there are certain points in the day which are handover times and it is essential that this happens smoothly and effectively - and for the most part it does.  There are certain people who are key to the process i.e. the Service Desk Supervisor, the Evening Assistant Librarians and it is also helped by the fact that most of the daytime Library Assistants are experienced and have been in post quite a long time.  The Evening Assistant Librarians overlap by an hour with the Service Desk Supervisor, the 24/7 security staff overlap slightly with the Evening/Weekend staff to hand over late evening.  The next morning the 24/7 security staff hand over to the daytime Library Assistants and so it continues.

The challenges arise when there is either something new or something that needs to change.  When I first started in my role, one of my first thoughts was 'Who are all these people?' 'Why do they all work different hours and different days?' - none of it seemed consistent and in fact it wasn't.  I had to create a spreadsheet to get an overview of what people do and as new people have been appointed, we have tried to match roles up with current ones while at the same time trying to update roles to match service need.  A lot of the reasons for peoples hours are historical and based on need at the time and this will be reviewed.  Although the aim is to provide a consistent service, the environment and demand is different on evenings and weekends than it is during day time hours so there has to be flexibility and the capacity to change.

Communication, as ever, is one of the greatest issues.  On a practical basis, I had to consider how I was going to actually meet all the people in my team.  I would have to work daytime, evening and weekends......and although I like my job, that wasn't one of my aims.  In general I work 9.00 or 9.30 - 18.00 as this covers the 16.00 - 18.00 slot when daytime staff finish and evening staff start.  Luckily some of the weekend staff work evenings as well so I get to see them.  I rarely work weekends but have done so two or three times and so have met the weekend only staff.  But how would it work if I was to meet up with all staff every week - it would be impossible and impractical on both sides?  Obviously that is what the Service Desk Supervisor and Evening Assistant Librarians are for - to line mange the  different sub teams and pass information up and down and I meet with them regularly.
However I do want contact with all of the staff.  We have introduced team meetings and these happen on a rolling basis.  One morning a week between 9.15 - 9.45 and repeated 9.45 - 10.15 (it has to run twice as the service desk has to be covered) and one evening a week working through the different days (a Monday one week, Tuesday the next etc.) . This should mean that everyone gets to attend a team meeting twice a month or at least once a month.  I keep notes from the meeting and circulate them regularly adding new bits from each meeting if needed.  I upload them to our Intranet site also.
I do use email quite a lot to communicate with the team as a whole and parts of the team - I try to filter it appropriately but also rely on them filtering what they don't need.  I also email the Library Service Desk account so that anyone can pick up emails from there.  It's not possible to get everyone in the same physical location at the same time but it is possible to have a team communication channel.

I am learning that with a large team it is not possible nor preferable to know everything that is going on although I often get situations when I think either 'Why did no-one tell me that' or 'I really don't need to know every detail of this'.  Some staff want to interact more, some hardly ever.  I always have an open door and try to spend time just chatting and engaging with people and picking up on the general vibe of what's happening.

To Do List March 31st

I rarely have a written To Do list as I usually keep a mental note of what needs doing and work through it - if things are urgent then they will be imprinted on my mental to do list so unforgettable and usually someone is sending reminders, if not so important then I will know that they need doing as soon as I get time and if they drop off the list then they can't have been that important.  Sometimes I do make a list and like it be very neat and organised but it's not good use of my time and I tend to get side tracked putting the items in order and categorizing and prioritizing them - in other word procrastinating and prevaricating.
But sometimes when I'm extra busy, on the verge of being slightly manic, I do make a list. This morning I made a list.  It has 19 'must do' items and 9 'do when I can' items.  So far I've only done 7 but they are the worst and most urgent ones and it is a list for the next few days not just today.
I've finished PDRs, sorted out some details for interviews on Thursday, checked the staff survey and downloaded some results to analyse, liaised with Organisational Development about PSE training, sorted out details for a student survey regarding individual study rooms, changed Team meetings for next 2 weeks and organised individual meetings where needed.  There have also been quite a few impromptu tasks and day to day tasks - problems with the lift, dealt with an external visitor, talked to our intern, collated stats for opening hours in July / August etc.
Other items for the next few days are to liaise with HR about some issues staff have raised, collect feedback from visits to other libraries, distribute notes and actions from meetings, reply to comments and suggestions from students, more to do with staff survey, catch up on progress re weeding, check floor plans and noise levels are right for 24/7 opening and exam time, organise the social media service development group, write up notes from my mentoring session, look at induction materials for new staff, etc. etc. and emails and meetings of course......

RFID Smartstock device and searching, weeding and inventory

An exciting day today as the engineer from Bibliotheca came to set up the Smartstock device and fix a few other minor issues and it was a very successful day. The Smartstock device is a handheld scanner that you can upload with a data file and then use to do stock checks, search for books for weeding and do some shelf searching for unexpected items.
All of the books in our library at Heriot-Watt University were tagged with RFID tags last summer and we have been using the Self Service kiosks for circulation and RFID reader pads on the service desk. The tags are used for security too with gates /antennae at the library entrance.
The Smartstock device can be uploaded with a file of items that you want to search for eg when weeding and then you just scan the shelves and it beeps when it locates the item. It has a display which shows the title and barcode details. It can also be used to scan shelves of books to highlight items that are out of place although this is unexpected items rather than shelf tidying. Also it can be used for stock taking whereby you scan the shelves and then upload the data to the LMS as a record of the stock you have.
It all worked very well during the set up and testing. Quite a few members of staff received training so I'm hoping that we can start using it in the next few days.
The next thing I want to investigate is the iPod hardware / software that Bibliotheca have so you can do basic circulation functions via wifi via an iPod - I've not actually seen it but I know they do do it.

Day to day mid-semester stuff

It's that time of year when it's day to day tasks and activities that keep everyone busy.
Mid-semester, everyone into a rhythm of what they are meant to be doing and much to get done.
Library opening time continuing at 8.30 until end of March when we will tip into 24/7 opening - it's not very busy at 8.30 but I think it will get more so as the semester continues so I'll keep promoting it.
We're having a bit of a campaign this week to encourage students to use the self-service machines for issuing and returning books so that the staff on the service desk are free to deal with enquiries and more complicated matters. It requires effort to change habits both students and staff but there's no reason that the self-service can't be used for straightforward circulation to free up staff resource. We have lots of extra tasks to do so it's not a case of staff being deprived of things to do and students find the self service kiosks easy to use.
We have a number of service improvement groups starting up which give staff the chance to be involved in a wide variety of initiatives and extra areas of interest. These include communications, facilities, collections, skills development, VLE etc. Staff are involved in planning their PDRs so the service development group participation is a useful link.
Weeding/stock relegation is continuing but we're finding various bottle necks in the process when we run out of space to store the books before they're checked and packed up. We're combining weeding with shelving and shelf tidying to spread the load more evenly.
Meetings happening about various things such as cleaning in the library, 24/7 opening and the inevitable staffing issues.
I've also been spending more time on IT Helpdesk matters and we've been discussing contingency staffing and training. Also starting to draw up plans for consistent procedures for the Helpdesk system usage as we have more people involved all the time.
If only there was more time to get all these things done but tomorrow's another day.....

The place, in pictures

I have blogged far too much about people so here is the place, in pictures - Heriot Watt Library

The main Library Customer Services Desk

 Computers

 Books and the view

Study spaces

It's all about the conversation ........

......talking and discussing and reaching an understanding hopefully while not forgetting that we are there to provide a service. The advantage of working in front line or first line services is that you are, by default, interacting with students, staff, visitors and other customers which keeps it in perspective.
For me, as a manager, it is important not to lose sight of the day to day interactions while stepping back enough to manage effectively.
Nevertheless it is that time of year for PDRs (Performance and Development Review). Although I have quite a bit of experience at carrying out appraisals and performance reviews, I went along to the reviewer training. This was quite useful as it covered some of the procedures and some scenarios which could occur. It was a good opportunity to meet people from other departments across the university and share experiences. The HR partner doing the training was good and made it quite interesting for what is essentially a process that should be very rewarding but often not looked forward to by anyone. She did emphasise that the PDR meeting is 'all about the conversation' and that it is the opportunity for reviewees to have their say about the last year and their plans for the future year.
I'm still spending time getting to know the members of my team, I know it takes time and I remember saying at my interview that it takes two years to build a team so that they work effectively as a unit or unified group. I'm not sure whether it is easier to start with a new team or change an existing team. This week and last week I've been concentrating more on the IT Helpdesk staff in my team and discussing with them the changes and developments that we need to make. I'm hoping the conversation helps us to move forward.

Making The Most of the Space

The University Library at Heriot-Watt is very well used throughout the year and this semester the footfall and occupancy has increased.  Although there are study spaces on all four floors of the library, we have reached the situation where it is often at capacity.  It is a good position to be in i.e. students using the space and resources but it is not so good when students can't find space to work.
So we have a campaign to 'Make the Most of the Space'.
This involves two main strands - firstly, changing the floor zones and noise levels and secondly, monitoring the study spaces for unoccupied spaces with unattended items.  Neither of these are easy to manage but it is essential to do so otherwise we are not optimising the resource that we have.
So the second one first.  Monitoring the study spaces.  We have that very common issue in university libraries when students want to reserve a study space by leaving items on a particular desk then going off to a lecture or for a meal and then returning to the space.  In an ideal world this would be reasonable as it would be convenient to have a 'spot' where you could leave your papers and books and then come and go.  But it is not fair when there are a limited number of spaces and we have had quite a few students complaining that they can't find a space to study.
So we introduced a system whereby we check around the library and make a note of any spaces that have belongings but are unattended, then 20 minutes later, on the second tour round a yellow slip is placed on the table explaining that the study spaces are in high demand and that belongings must be removed in order to enable other students to use the space.  The yellow slip is timed and states that in an hour the belongings will be taken to the service desk for safe keeping.  

After at least an hour, the yellow slipped desks are revisited and a red slip placed on the desk.  It states the time that the table has not been in use i.e. from the first tour to the red slip time which will be at least 1 hour 20 minutes although probably more in practice.  Two members of staff remove the belongings into a marked crate. A slip is filled in detailing all the items that are removed. The crate is marked with the time the items were removed and taken to the Service desk and stored in a secure place.  When students come to collect their items, they sign a receipt for the items.

As you can see there is a lot of time and effort involved in the whole process.  We have been doing this for 2 weeks and we have this week to go.  The process happens 3 times a day - once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once in the evening.  We have quite a large team and so it is split between everyone so that people rarely have to do it more than once a week.  

The good thing is that it has been successful - we have addressed the concerns by some students that they can't find a space to study.  We have been in the situation where we have cleared a desk and a student has been hovering waiting to use it.  We have not had any complaints from students who have had their items removed - they have all been perfectly reasonable and accepting of the situation.  It has acted as a deterrent which is difficult but I think most people think it is fair and realise that if they are going to go for more than 1.5 hours then they can't reserve the space.  

It is time consuming, sit's not a particularly popular task and it is possible to see it as being a typical 'library checking up and telling off' thing but it is possible and important to be positive about it. When I have been doing the monitoring I have noticed that it is possible to ask students if they know who is sitting on the next place and if they've been away for long etc. It's not a perfect system and students do realise that we only monitor at certain intervals but that is ok -  we are not doing it to try to catch people out. In an ideal world it would be self policing but in reality it isn't, so we are helping to maintain and manage the space the best we can on behalf of the students.  

(We did liaise with the Student Union and also with Security before implementing the campaign. There is also an aspect of raising awareness of leaving unattended items and the security risk involved in doing so).