SPEC Kit 344: Talent Management · 9
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
Talent management is defined as “an integrated
set of processes, programs, and cultural norms in an
organization designed and implemented to attract,
develop, deploy, and retain talent to achieve strategic
objectives and meet future business needs” (Silzer
and Dowell 2010, p. 18) and is considered to be most ef-
fective when an organization develops a commitment
to nurturing talent in order to meet organizational
objectives (Silzer and Dowell 2010). However, accord-
ing to the ASHE Higher Education report “Creating a
Tipping Point: Strategic Human Resources in Higher
Education,” there is “little formal programming in
higher education that currently supports strategic
talent management practices [and] as a result, univer-
sities lag behind industry in the development of prac-
tices to develop and retain talent” (ASHE 2012, p. 46).
A lack of commitment within higher education to
the talent management planning strategies needed
to attract, develop, and retain talent is problematic
for the community as a whole, but when one con-
siders the changing landscape of research libraries
within higher education, their increasing need for
new, complex, and technology-driven skills sets, and
the impending reshaping of the workforce, the situ-
ation becomes more critical. The American Library
Association estimates that by 2015, 30% of librarians
will be over the age of 60, with the majority of these
librarians retiring between 2015 and 2025 (Davis 2009).
ARL has seen significant leadership change since 2005
with 103 of its 125 member libraries experiencing a
change in executive leadership (e.g., directors, deans,
university librarians) this represents an 82% turnover
rate. And this trend only seems to be accelerating
since 2013 there has been an almost 26% turnover of
executive leadership in member libraries, with re-
cruitments for 32 new leaders during that period.
Although a large number of librarians are project-
ed to retire in the next decade, and executive library
leadership is already retiring at a high rate, workforce
demographics thankfully show that the number of
younger librarians is increasing and library school
enrollments are surging (Davis 2009). Since the library
workforce will have both librarians new to the field
as well as a large number of librarians retiring and
nearing retirement, research libraries need to actively
manage their talent and strategically develop their
workforce in order to successfully recruit and retain
new librarians while ensuring that the vacancies left
by librarians retiring from the profession are filled by
competent, experienced professionals.
This survey investigated which talent manage-
ment strategies ARL libraries are deploying to manage
and develop their organization’s workforce. The talent
management areas explored in the survey include
talent strategy, recruitment and hiring, retention, em-
ployee engagement, job classification management,
compensation management, performance assessment,
competencies, professional development planning,
and leadership and succession planning. The survey
was distributed to the 125 ARL member libraries in
July 2014, and 53 libraries, or 42%, responded to the
survey by the August 4, 2014 deadline.
Forty-nine libraries responded to the question re-
garding union status. Of these, 53% (26 responses)
are unionized, and 47% (23 responses) are not. At 19
of 43 responding libraries (44%) librarians have fac-
ulty status, and at 24 (56%) they have parallel status.
Additionally, at 19 of 42 responding libraries (45%)
librarians are eligible for tenure, at 16 (38%) they have
Previous Page Next Page