Library

Excellence, Innovation and Wellness®

Silver Verification

March 22, 2017

Verification Team

Cindy Taylor, Lead Verifier

Catherine Neville, Verifier

Excellence, Innovation and Wellness®

Silver Level – Expected Outcomes

✓ A wide understanding by employees of the organization’s strategic approach to excellence, innovation and wellness.

✓ Strategic and operational plans are in place.

✓ Establishment of baseline indicators, measures and related goals for excellence, innovation and wellness.

Leadership and Governance - Strengths

University

• Solid Governance in place through Board and Senate structures

• Governance policies in place

• University-wide focus on Excellence, Innovation and Wellness

• Green initiatives (Recycling Program)

• Enterprise Risk Management Policy/Guidelines in place

• Strategic Plan and Risk Management Plan

• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR); many outreach partnerships in the community

Leadership and Governance – StrengthsLibrary

• Past and current LibExec have strong passion and commitment to Excellence, Innovation and Wellness

• LibExec created a Steering Committee and appointed Co-Chairs to oversee EIW Silver implementation – 48 staff members volunteered to participate

• Management and staff consulted are all committed to continual improvement

• Open door culture

• Collegial and collaborative environment is part of culture

• Conducted leadership self-assessment and established Top 5 priorities

• Leadership models behaviours of work life balance

Leadership and Governance -

Opportunities

• Stabilize organization through appointment and retention of senior management

• Build capacity to measure leadership effectiveness and operationalize

• Need to address identified priorities from Leadership self-assessment (including measurable plan)

Strategy and Planning - StrengthsUniversity

• 5-year Strategic Plan is in place and is evaluated on an ongoing basis

• Strategy has been well communicated to all stakeholders

Strategy and Planning - StrengthsLibrary

• Have recently updated the Library Mission

• Library Review led to development of four strategic directions and goals

• Strategic directions are on the home page of the website

• The Library tracks baseline indicators for the four strategic directions on MAP 3

• Projects must be submitted on an MAP 3 template and are reviewed by LibExec to establish priorities

• Communication of these plans is done in multiple ways

Strategy and Planning - Opportunities

• Review and simplify Mission statement - articulate to all in the Library

• Modernize Strategic Directions with clear goals and objectives that are measurable and achievable

- incorporate Library Review findings and Top Priorities for Leadership

• Consider reducing the number of Goals and/or new Projects as you progress

• Develop a planning schedule that incorporates updates and communication at all levels of the Library

• As you progress to EIW Gold level, continue to track KPIs and metrics across all drivers

Service Excellence - Strengths

• Library mission statement articulates that clients’ needs are primary

• Library Strategic Directions informs the commitment to student success and service delivery

• Service Standards are publicly made available

• Service Models Next Steps working group developed a 5-year vision for library help services

• There are Ontario and Canadian Surveys conducted to determine student satisfaction levels.

• A new User Experience Specialist position is in recruitment phase

Service Excellence - Strengths

• Library Ambassadors program is extremely successful

• There are many examples of evaluation and feedback being obtained by the user clients

• Some metrics, indicators, dashboards are used to track service standards

• Staff are empowered to solve complaints and feel compelled to do whatever they can to fix the situation

Service Excellence is the way we

work – really our way of life

Focus Groups

Service Excellence - Opportunities

• Service Standard results should be captured and shared more broadly with all library staff

• Consider formalizing your approach to the identification and analysis of stakeholder requirements and related communication to employees

People Engagement - Strengths• Inclusivity is a clear focus of the University

• Library’s strategic directions articulate commitment to employee well-being

• Library has developed an HR policy staff manual

• Flex-time is great… staff love the flexibility to support work life balance

• Health, Safety and Wellness Committee is established

• Library conducts annual performance appraisals

• Performance goals are broadly aligned with Library strategic goals

• Performance discussions take place throughout the year

• Employees identified that communication is always a two-way conversation – ideas and opinions are encouraged and valued

People Engagement - Strengths

• Onboarding process has been mapped and enhancements are being finalized for new hires and managers

• Library staff have an opportunity to attend the OHD staff conference

• Funding is available for staff to attend conference each year

• Lots of training opportunities are identified

• Management is proactive in looking for professional development opportunities for staff

• Management places importance on mental health

• Support is provided when work load is getting challenging and time off is required

• All staff are called upon to maintain collegial relationships

• Counselling service and Homewood Health are available

People Engagement - Strengths

• Learning culture and there is generous support to pay for education

• Open door culture, many opportunities for input and feedback

• Free access to gym facilities

• Periodic staff appreciation lunches

• University offers many healthy workplace programs, e.g., yoga, stress management etc.

• Employee assistance is available

• 15Five

• Employee Engagement survey conducted

• Share the light practice

People Engagement - Opportunities

• Consider providing mental health training for all staff

• Continue to focus on employee recognition, both informal and formal practices

• Consider conducting an employee satisfaction survey

• When renovating consider private washrooms for staff

• Offer staff opportunities for exercise during the day

• Plan for team and individual Leadership development based on the Top 5 priorities from the Leadership Gap Indicator Survey

• Develop an effective communication strategy with consistent implementation. Staff cited too much communication via long emails.

Process and Risk Management -

Strengths

• Key processes have been documented

• Some process training has been provided to staff

• Lean approach is being utilized

• Process reviews have been cross-functional which ahs provided an opportunity for transfer of knowledge

• MAP3 Framework in place to govern and priorities projects.

• All projects have charters

• Dedicated area on the Library SharePoint site to house templates and tools for project management

• Staff understand the importance of documenting their processes; benefits are evident

Process and Risk Management -

Opportunities

• All key processes should be defined, mapped for current state, analyzed using Lean tools and then a desired state developed with an action plan to close identified gaps

• Process owners should be identified for all key processes

• Continue to train involved employees on process and project management

• Continue to build on the good work you are doing re project management

• Improve access to Library SharePoint for process maps

Partners and Suppliers - Strengths

• Key partners are clearly identified

• University complies with all provincial and federal legislation regarding partners and suppliers

• The Library has created an internal document to track and ensure compliance with selection agreements and ongoing relationships with supplier partners

• HR maintains cooperative relationships with regulatory bodies, e.g. CRA, Ministry of Labour

• Library staff involved are consulted re new equipment or services

Partners and Suppliers - Opportunities

• Continue to build a comprehensive list of partners and suppliers; then maintain and share it with Library staff

• Continue to evaluate how well partnerships are working, establishing KPIs and continually monitoring performance. This is especially important as you progress to Gold and Platinum levels (evidence will need to be available)

Comments on “What it is like to work in the

Library at the University of Waterloo”• A good place – best library I have worked in

• Great with work-life balance

• Day to day work is very enjoyable

• Managers listen to us – I feel I am heard

• A lot of freedom – hope that continues

• Great support from mangers – resources to do my job

• Library is a continuous learning environment

• Lots of retirements – having tools to meet the challenges, e.g. catalogue with electronic resources – don’t’ have it now

• With all the changes at the top many are doing many jobs, hopefully this will change

• Some challenges between where we are and where we want to be

Comments on “If I could change ONE thing”

• Improve the physical space

• Need to hire more people

• We manage to the work but need more staff

• Nice if things could happen a little faster – process and decisions can take a long time

• Less change/churn

• A University Librarian who will bring us into the 21st century and not rest on our laurels

• Would appreciate being involved in the process for selecting UL

• The slowness of the HR process

• Very old software – can’t move forward because it has to be a collaborative process

Comments on “If I could change ONE thing”

• More transparency in hiring process – don’t know who is on the hiring committee

• Would appreciate more training on small things, e.g. collection department how do I do a deeper dive on some things, especially new digital things

• To be able to go home at the end of the week and say I got what I wanted to do done

• Get all the hiring done on time

• Renovations on time as well

Comments on “What I would never want to

change”

• Flex-time

• Library space

• Freedom and flexibility in our positions

• Collegiality

• Respect for each other

• Continuing to focus on our users and how best to serve them

• Learning environment

• Focus on our patrons across the Library

• Actually provide work for our students – great process

• Great contribution from our students

Comments on “What the Library does really well”

• Collaborate across departments very well

• Staff engagement (sometimes challenging but we do well)

• Work well with other parts of the university

• We serve our patrons well

• Consciousness about service that infuses everything we do

• Customer Service

• Work-life balance

• Most recognize what we are all about – seen as good people to go to

• Supportive, collegial atmosphere

• Awesome librarians – (and also humble with a sense of humour)

• Good reputation with the students

Best Practices• Library Ambassadors

• MAP 3 (Multi-Annual Planning and Prioritization Project)

• Steering Committee to oversee EIW Silver implementation

• Flex-time

• Professional Development Opportunities

• Healthy and safe culture

“I wouldn’t work anywhere else”. Focus Groups

“Employees are proud of the work they do and are very

engaged in improvement initiatives which improve the client

experience”. The Excellence Canada team

Congratulations to the

University of Waterloo Library

on achieving

Silver, Canada Awards for Excellence

in Excellence, Innovation and Wellness®

Thank you for your dedication

to an

Excellence journey!

See you at the

Canada Awards for Excellence

in 2017!

☺