FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
St. Cloud, MN – March 2010: At its March 16 meeting, the Great River Regional Library (GRRL) Board of Trustees approved a policy that requires management, when changing staffing, to use approved staffing tools and the resulting empirical data.
Based on this policy, the board also approved implementation of a plan to restructure staff in all GRRL branches to enable the most efficient utilization of library resources, beginning with libraries in Belgrade, Grey Eagle, Pierz and Swanville. GRRL has 32 branch public libraries in Benton, Morrison, Sherburne, Stearns, Todd and Wright Counties.
“Our goal is to maintain a healthy, dynamic work environment for all GRRL staff while continuing to provide high quality library service to our public,” said GRRL Director Kirsty Smith.
The library’s administration sought approval of the policy to assist in realigning staffing to manage significantly increased workload. The fundamental goal is to ensure that tasks such as check in and shelving of books are completed by staff at the appropriate level, and for branch managers to focus on management tasks. The tool which will be used to realign staffing is a staffing calculator. It was developed by a committee of library board members and employees based on their study of tasks and time it takes to complete them. The staffing calculator includes measurements for each individual library in the system, taking into account that building differences affect the time required to complete tasks.
The first step in the plan will be to adjust staffing at libraries which currently have no regularly scheduled aide positions (Belgrade, Grey Eagle, Pierz and Swanville). The aide is the entry-level position that usually shelves and retrieves materials. The second step in the plan will be to review and adjust staffing at other branches shown by the staffing calculator to have significant staffing imbalances. No timeline has yet been developed for complete implementation of staff restructuring. Implementation may be affected by the 2011 budget and by opportunities created by normal hiring and attrition processes.
Contact: Karen Pundsack
Coordinator, Patron Services
320-650-2512