Transitioning to Customer Service Specialists

The staff shuffle resumes, with more of our long term staff deciding that it's high time they leave the workforce and enjoy every moment of their post work life. So we have upcoming openings in Circulation, Outreach and ADS. Good thing we just did a Choose Your Own Adventure survey! For those of you who indicated interest in different positions, here's your chance. 

One thing we learned when NS closed for several days is that ICS staff have limited work options in our organization. ICS staff focus on managing collections where we have AMH installed, and that leaves only SW and NS positions. When NS closed in response to the staff COVID infection, ICS staff could only be reassigned to SW.  We scrambled to find projects for our displaced ICSs. That's really inefficient.

When we crafted a staff reorganization several years ago, we consolidated the tasks in our circulation department from 3 positions into 2 so staffing could be more flexible and pages could move into a better paying position. The gold star reorganization would have been to consolidate all circ positions into one position at the CSS level that was trained to do everything. But the price tag for doing that was too high with the number of staff we had and there were some staff that were reluctant to make such a leap. So we moved ahead with the 3 positions to 2 positions transition, and gradually used the money we had to convert to Customer Service Specialists whenever we had the chance.

Now we see the opportunity to move forward again with our transition toward the one highly skilled position in circ that can do it all. With so many circulation staff opting for retirement and a couple finding full time work in their desired fields, we see an opportunity to move toward an even more nimble workforce where every member of the circ team is fully trained to do all circ functions and can fill in at any branch location. This next phase will require that CSS staff regularly pitch in during part of their workday to sort delivery, work the AMH, and shelve the collection. With so few patrons using the library these days, it will be an optimal time to do cross training. 

So, if you're an ICS and you've been toying with the idea of applying for an open CSS position, I encourage you to do so. Transitioning now will give you the space to learn your new tasks in a less busy environment. And who doesn't want to earn a bigger paycheck?