Do you want increased productivity, quality, response time, and customer and employee satisfaction in your organization? How about decreased turnover time? These important goals may seem unachievable if your organization and its staff are lacking motivation and direction. Change is inevitable, but it is only successful if you use the right management techniques to make it happen.

The Southern Maryland Regional Library Association faced many of these same challenges after its region-wide restructuring in 1995. Few to no evaluations had been performed within the library for years. With motivation among its employees at an all-time low and a new, unfamiliar organizational structure in place, Southern Maryland Regional Library Association faced difficulty in reaching its goals of improved quality of service and satisfaction. Responding to these concerns, Southern Maryland Regional Library Association developed and implemented a performance management model to drive the organization toward success.

Performance management is the heartbeat of any successful organization, whether private or public. It allows organizations to set expectations, and, through constant evaluation, create consistent results. Through a methodical approach, performance management makes these formerly unascertainable goals a reality. ... Read More. 

With the dog days of summer upon us (and is it HOT!), organizations often encounter employees who just won't or can't take their vacation days. According to CNN, employees gave up 448 million unused vacation days last year (5/25/11). The reasons for avoiding vacations are numerous. Some employees fear that the pile of work they'll come back to - because there is no backup for their job - is not worth the few days off they'll be able to take. Others have found that they are so consistently drawn back into work via e-mail, texts, and cell phone calls that it isn't worth the trouble of leaving. Still others hoard their vacation time if they aren't feeling completely secure in their jobs, thinking they can use the time as a severance plan if they are terminated. But the biggest deterrent to employees using their well-earned vacation time is "bosses who act put-out or annoyed when employees use vacation," according to the an article by Rebecca Hastings for the Society for Human Resources Management (6/23/11).

We have much to report from the 2011 ALA Conference. 

We were honored to once again participate in Consultants Giving Back.  Our thanks to all who booked a consulting session with us and to everyone who generously donated their time and expertise to this important program.

Additionally:

Paula Singer co-presented two sessions: Pay for Performance that Works and Succession Planning and Leadership.

Laura Francisco presented on Negotiations: What Else is on the Table?

All three of our presentations were well received and we appreciated how actively our attendees engaged in the discussion about these critical human resources topics.

We would also like to thank our co-presenters:

Sharan Marshall,
Executive Directorof the Southern MD Regional Library Association

John McGinty,
Director of the Loyola/Notre Dame Library (MD)

Suanne Wymer,
Deputy Director of Tulsa City-County Library (OK)

Nancy Davenport,
Director of Public Services, DC  Public Library