Professional Development Details
Reflection
- Briefly outline the objectives of the activity.
The Rostering Implementation Review Project was a two-phase voluntary project from July 2022, wrapped up in October 2022 and revisited in April 2023. The goal for phase one was to review documented rostering processes based on the processes noted in the Rostering Report (Feb, 2022). Identify the gaps and what needs updating. Develop our rostering process requirements, a standardised rostering process that contains an accessible data sharing approach, create a process where weekly feedback loop and ensuring requests are presented in a simple format within UQ library’s intranet, SharePoint, outline our ways of working, and conduct an environmental scan of other libraries to identify interesting and best practices, design an outline for phase two for training, develop a program for future leaders and foster a sense of belong through our roster within the workplace.
- Explain the reason you have attended.
I volunteered for this project because I thought as a new LSO, I would have unique insights into rostering processes as I have spent most of my career in call centres. I was also interested in UQ’s existing rostering process and wanted insights on how the project team would conduct this endeavour, this project was also my first involvement with the project team. Due to a change in University Librarians, the library was in a state of transition with the Project Team and Transition Team heavily involved in this change. I wanted to understand what a project would be like that is directly involved with the project team, the University Librarian Executive Portfolio and the Transition Team.
- Indicate the relationship of the activity to your work or studies.
This project directly influenced the rostering processes that affected the AskUs team, which is the team I am currently in. We also filtered through old processes in the previous intranet, Libnet and quality-controlled them to ensure they were updated or archived for the new intranet SharePoint. After further investigation, processes had not been removed or updated in five years. We then compiled our data, compared them to current processes and best practise and archived, updated, or kept the process we analysed which I found interesting but also wondered how process could be this outdated.
Another aspect this project taught me was the processes supervisors use when building the roster, which can be a difficult task due to all the service points we manage and the number of staff we have. In our rostering system, team members can place preferences for finish times, and I learnt that supervisors’ often roster team members who have no preferences first, then those with preferences second as this is easier to fill the roster with team members with no time constraints on availability, something I would never have considered as a team member.
Supervisors must also ensure at least two staff members per service point, with backups slowly becoming more common due to unplanned absences. Another aspect of this project was the correlation with the other one I was managing at the time, the acronyms project. In the acronyms project, I had done an environmental scan that involved me deciphering acronym-based data on other university libraries; with this one, however, I was tasked with finding the best practice on other academic libraries. I reached out to a list of networks and gained ideas for best practices, and presented them within this project. This experience was valuable because I could experience a different side of a relatively new concept (environmental scans) in my career.
- Explain what the activity helped you achieve in terms of learning outcomes.
This project helped me understand the bureaucratic processes that UQ library operates. The many phases involved in an official project handled by the project team and the UQ library executive portfolio experience also taught me that crucial activities could take time to meet a desired outcome and that within a library with an extensive portfolio, many different stakeholders must review and create a strategy to meet portfolio goals. It also helped me understand how rostering is done, the difficulty of rostering, and ensuring that rostering of all staff members is fair and equitable and gave me insights into our systems and various settings for Ximble (our rostering system we use), which is all valuable knowledge if I ever decide to go down the supervisors route within this team or others within the university.
- Comment on how you plan to use the learning gained.
Part of me wanted to take larger chunks of my day to meet project outcomes rather than weekly meetings over three months. However, this was not feasible due to the service hours of all staff involved and the assistant manager’s schedules. I am not a patient at heart, but this project taught me the value of patience and taking the longer view professionally and academically. The project also taught me how organised projects with clear outcomes and goals are structured and implemented. The long nature of this project also taught me to be adaptable and to manage my time effectively, as I was working on four projects simultaneously in July 2022.
Evidence