Presentation to VLAPF 2012

1. Please – take a
cookie!

2. In One Ear, Out the
Other
Getting the Most Out of Your Transitional
Workers
Crystal Boyce, Student Supervisor
Circulation Dept., Swem Library
College of William & Mary

3. Who are our student
employees?
Student employees at Swem:
◦ Interlibrary Loan ◦ IT
◦ Circulation ◦ Media
◦ Administration ◦ Reference
◦ Special
◦ Tech Services
Collections
◦ Serials, cataloging,
acquisitions,
◦ Development
preservation
But who are your transitional employees?

4. Discussion &
Conversation
 When we go around the room, please say:
◦ Choose your library type (academic, public,
special, school):
◦ What your transitional employees (TEs) do:
 If you have a….
 Chocolate Chip Cookie: best part about supervising TEs
 Oatmeal Raisin Cookie: most common problem when
supervising TEs
 Peanut Butter Cookie: thing you would like to see change
 White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie: your choice of the
above

5. Common TE Problems
 The TE who complains
 The TE who procrastinates
 The TE who resists change
 The TE who is dishonest
 The TE who violates library rules
 The unmotivated TE
 The TE with low morale
 The disloyal TE
 The TE with absenteeism problems
 The TE with personal problems
 The TE with personality problems

6. Common TE Problems:
What this really means
 The TE who will no call/no show
 The TE who doesn’t have good work etiquette
 The TE who is constantly late for work
 The TE who calls out of work often
 The TE who isn’t focused on work
 The TE who disappears or avoids work in general
 The TE who hangs out with friends while working

7. Motivating TEs
 1st: ask yourself – What are we really
trying to get done (big picture)?
 2nd: ask yourself – How can my TEs
help us do this?
 3rd: promise yourself – You will be as
great a manager as you can be, despite
whatever is happening ‘above’ you
 4th: Focus on achieving extraordinary
results rather than just getting things
done

8. How do we start?
 Know what  Mazlo’s hierarchy
motivates yourself of needs
 Know what
motivates your TEs
 Connect your TE’s
interests with your
interests

9. Trust & Relationships
 The mutual  Build relationships
assurance that if I ◦ Informality
go the extra mile ◦ Open-door policies
for you, when it’s ◦ First names
your turn, you are  Make everything a
going to go the WIN-WIN
extra mile for me
Give away all the credit, take all the blame!

10. Trust in Action
 Do
◦ Encourage reasonable risk
◦ Foster autonomy
◦ Analyze mistakes
◦ Ask for creative solutions
◦ Praise winning ways
 Don’t
◦ Criticize in public
◦ Use a “do as you’re told” approach
◦ Sabotage or ambush your TEs

11. Putting it into Action
 Coping with stress
 Encourage creativity
 Recognize your employees
 Empower your employees

12. Coping with Stress
 Help TEs break larger projects into
smaller pieces and to develop
timelines
 Show TEs what they are
accomplishing and WHY it matters

13. Encourage Creativity
 Encourage others to express opinions
 Don’t dismiss ideas without discussion
 Argue all sides of an issue
 Challenge the status quo
 Be thankful for small ideas – they may
be the start of something big

14. Recognize Your Employees
 Identify behavior which consistently
exceeds requirements
 Say thank-you regularly
 Reinforce the kinds of behavior you
want repeated
 Recognize individuals publicly
 Celebrate successes as a team

15. Reward SMART-ly
 Specific – tie a reward to a specific action
 Meaningful – match the reward to the
person receiving it – what would they want?
 Attainable – reward small achievements
 Relevant – related to the rewardable
behavior
 Timely – reward quickly after the
rewardable behavior

16. Empower Your Employees
 Foster ownership
 Let TEs see how their work fits into
the grand scheme of things
 Give them the freedom (aka, trust) to
do their jobs
 Offer mentorship when appropriate

17. What ideas do you have?

18. Resources
 The Swem Student Handbook (https://
swem.wm.edu/forms/student-employee-handbook-acknowledgement)
 Complete Guide for Supervisors of Student Employees in
Today’s Academic Libraries by David A. Baldwin and Daniel
C. Barkley. 2007
 The X-Factor: Getting extraordinary results from ordinary
people by Ross Reck. 2001
 Motivating Employees for Dummies by Max Messmer. 2001
 Effective Management of Student Employment by David A.
Baldwin, France C. Wilkinson, and Daniel C. Barkley. 2000
 Managing Student Assistants: A how-to-do-it manual for
librarians by Kimberly Burke Sweetman. 2007
 “Managing Student Employees” by Alberta Davis, Emily
Okada, Rebecca Stinnett, and Bara Swinson. Indiana
Libraries, vol. 24, no. 1