Hiring
The library I work with has recently undergone some staffing turnovers. For us, this is unusual. Most of our staff, even part-time, have multiple years under their belts. It's always hard, for multiple reasons, when someone leaves.
For me, other than the feelings involved when someone you have worked next to for years leaves, the difficulty lies in the work associated with finding their replacement.
I find it difficult to gauge someone based on their paper qualifications and a thirty minute conversation. Sometimes the person you interview seems amazing, but once they start working you quickly realize your mistake. Other times they interview poorly but turn out to be an amazing employee. You just never know.
I've only been in a hiring management position for a few years. I have conducted a number of interviews in that time, and man do I hate it. I hate it for me, and I hate it for the person sitting across the table from me. It's a necessary evil though.
Reviewing applications, setting up interviews, and conducting interviews has been a big chunk of my work life these past few weeks. I hope we are nearing the end, for a time anyways. I have a few more interviews to do next week, and then maybe we can extend a job offer or two, and get our open positions filled.
Then, of course, new hires must be trained. If they have library experience, great. If they don't, the training takes longer. New hires, experienced or otherwise, have to be trained on how our library operates. They have to learn new policies and processes. Maybe even new technologies. They have to learn the collection, how it's arranged. They have to learn a plethora of other things that will not fit in this blog post.
This all takes time. Time that you hope is well spent. You hope they catch on fast, and stick around for a while because if they don't you get to start the process all over again.
Man, after reading that back for edits it has a very negative tone, but that's how it is I guess. You can tell I do not enjoy the hiring process. If you do enjoy hiring new people, no matter your industry, I'd love to hear about it. Tips, tricks, etc... Send me an email or drop a comment in remark.as.
Until next week.