College and Research Libraries Performance Measures for Student Assistants Jane McGurn Kathman and Michael D. Kathman This article discusses the importance of establishing and using performance measures with student employees in academic libraries. These measures set expectations for performance and become management tools to motivate, eval- uate, and reward student employees as well as to improve student commitment and provide a sense of accomplishment in student jobs. Drawing upon manage- ment literature dealing with full-time employees, the authors modify that work to fit student employees' unique needs, specifically the fact that students are part-time and are not necessarily motivated by the work itself. tudent assistants are essential personnel in the academic li- brary; the efficiency and effec- tiveness of library operations depend to a large extent on this resource. Even though their value is well-known, little thought may be given to managing student assistants. Management theory and practice used with full-time em- ployees may be absent in relation to these part-time employees. The estab- lishment of performance measures is an important aspect of management prac- tice and should be used with student employment. These measures set expec- tations for performance and become management tools to motivate, evaluate, and reward student employees as well as to improve student commitment and sense of accomplishment. Though performance measures are important management tools, literature on student employees fails to consider them directly. Evaluation procedures are covered in the literature, and some work has been done on how long it takes to do specific tasks, e.g., the number of books that can be shelved in an hour. The litera- ture, however, does not deal with overall student employee performance mea- sures. In CLIP Note #7, Managing Student Workers in College Libraries, we provided some examples of job descriptions and evaluation forms, but none of the librar- ies we surveyed documented perfor- mance measures. 1 This article expands on what we presented in CLIP Note #7 so that managers might incorporate this theory into their student employee programs. Some of the body of literature on per- formance measures that exists for full- time employees is appropriate for student employees and some is not. We will at- tempt to modify the work done for full- time employees to fit the unique and different needs of student employees, specifically their part-time nature and the fact that they are not necessarily mo- tivated by the work itself.2 There are many definitions of per- formance measures. For the purpose of this article we will use the following as a beginning point. A performance measure Jane McGurn Kathman is Associate Professor in the Management Department of the College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota 56374, and Michael D. Kathman is Director of Libraries, Media and Academic Computing at St. John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321. ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _________________ ___::2.;..;;...9.;;.._9 __ _ 300 College & Research Libraries is "a statement of how well the employee is expected to achieve each of the primary responsibilities in the job description. It is the standard against which his or her performance will be measured. It sets the par for the course so the employee knows at all times how he or she is progressing toward expectations." 3 Having defined performance measures, we will now look at why they are necessary, what meas- ures are appropriate, and how to estab- lish measures for individual student employee jobs. NECESSITY FOR PERFORMANCE MEASURES Why are performance measures neces- sary for student assistants, given the na- ture of student employees in our libraries? Planning the work and moni- toring performance are crucial manage- rial tasks. Students usually work a maximum of ten hours per week and in effect share jobs in the library. Therefore, eight students may do the work of two full-time workers. Performance mea- sures assist managers in planning and monitoring activities.• Coordinating the students' work by the use of hourly, daily, or weekly performance measures can enable the students to know what is ex- pected of them and decrease the need for constant supervision while improving the quality and quantity of their work. James Evered has observed that "every employee is entitled to know ex- actly what he or she is expected to do, how well it needs to be done, and how performance compares against the stand- ards for the job.''5 Having a set of perform- ance measures for jobs students are expected to perform will increase the effi- ciency and effectiveness of utilizing stu- dent employees in the library. Such standards should be dearly communicated to students during their initial training pe- riod and referred to frequently thereafter. By doing so, supervisors communicate the importance of the work, increase stu- dent commitment to a particular quality of work, and provide an ongoing evalua- tion tool for student supervisors. ''Performance standards provide before- the-fact challenge and commitment, during- July 1992 the-fact monitoring and control, and after-the-fact review and appraisal," asserted Robert F. Smith and Kerry Tucker. 6 Performance measures repre- sent objectives of a particular job and expectations for employee perfor-mance in order to achieve the responsibilities of the job. Generally, supervisors already have measures of performance for their employees. These performance measures may not be in writing, but most supervi- sors have thought about what they expect of student assistants and are upset when students do not meet these expectations.7 Intuitive performance measures are, however, not sufficient. Supervisors need to have written measures based on data. If supervisors do not record and communicate written standards to em- ployees, they are neglecting an impor- tant managerial task and may not get the work done to their satisfaction. APPROPRIATE MEASURES What is an appropriate standard of performance? Mary Ann Joyce offers, "It's many things: one that accurately and completely measures the right things, with the right emphasis; one that's flexible; one that works for the organization, a standard that the current work force can reasonably meet; and one that can be administered equitably and efficiently."8 Measuring the right things means that librarians are attentive to the results expected, not the task needed to attain the results. Shelving books is a task; shelving books in the correct order is a result. The right emphasis means that we may need to weigh some results more heavily than others for a particular job. For example, we may weigh the ac- curacy of shelving books more heavily than the quantity of books shelved. Sometimes there is a need for a flexible standard. When something in the en- vironment changes that affects the na- ture of the work-uneven work flow beyond anyone's control or radical change in the nature of a given job-a standard may have to be changed. An example of uneven work flow might occur in processing materials. Although it may be desirable to have a relatively consistent flow of materials coming into the processing area each day, there are times of the year and external events that may make that impossible. Shipping strikes, year-end mass ordering, institu- tion-required moratoriums on ordering, or other such events may make it neces- sary to change the performance mea- sures for a particular job or jobs. Student employees assigned to processing will need to have other responsibilities if there are no materials to process. Con- versely, if there is a large backlog in pro- cessing, other employees may need to assist in this task. This need for flexibility should be communicated in the job de- scription and in the performance mea- sures for particular jobs. An example of the second need for a flexible work standard might be the im- pact of automation on certain jobs in the library. Implementing automation in circulation may drastically alter the standard of performance for student em- ployees in that department. The ability to wand in a bar code makes it unneces- sary to check for the correct book card in the pocket and eliminates the need to file book cards accurately. The circulation student employee must now make cer- tain that the light pen reads the book bar code and the patron bar code. The stu- dent employee must know what to do if there is no bar code on the book and what to do if the patron ID is not valid or does not read properly. In this case the supervisor will have to review the stu- dent position completely and establish new performance measures. The unique culture and work ethic of any academic library should be reflected in the performance measures for smdent assistants. Included in this consideration of culture and work ethic should be the mission of the institution, the nature of the student body, and the library goals. Different institutions put different pri- orities on various tasks. At some institu- tions picking up the books left on tables and having few books in the "to be shelved" area is of primary importance. As a result, student employees are tem- porarily shifted from other responsibili- ties to this task as a matter of priority. In Performance Measures 301 other libraries the rapid processing of materials is of prime importance. Again, students may be shifted from other re- sponsibilities if for one reason or another a backlog occurs in the processing area. These priori ties should be made clear in the performance measures. How are performance measures deter- mined? To set performance meqsures, one needs to start with a job analysis for each job student employees are expected to perform. A job analysis begins with describing the tasks, duties, and responsi- bilities associated with each job and then identifies the critical elements.9 The results desired from the performance of the job are the critical elements. From this analy- sis one should be able to write a job description that emphasizes "responsi- bilities of the job, not the activities of the job."1° For example, a student working in catalogingmayhaveanactivityoflabeling books, but the responsibility is to label the ~ books accurately. The delivery of mail is a task, but the timely delivery of mail is a responsibility. Outlining job responsibili- ties is the first step in establishing perform- ance measures. The next step is to determine satis- factory levels of performance for each important job element. In developing performance measures, select any one of the responsibilities in a job description and complete this sentence regarding the particular responsibility: "I will be completely satisfied with your work when. . . ." 11 For a student shelving books, the performance measure could be to shelve fifty books accurately within an hour. Smith and Tucker stated, "Standards should be specific and quan- tifiable, hinging on hard-data answers to questions such as: How much? By what time? At what cost? Within what degree of accuracy? As compared to what?" 12 DEVELOPING SPECIFIC MEASURES OF PERFORMANCE Establishing measures means that su- pervisors need to think about the work module for student assistants. This is important for all employees, but espe- cially for students who work only a few hours per day and tend to be given re- 302 College & Research Libraries petitive and routine tasks. The work module refers to the fact that student work should be planned so that it leads to successful task completion-success- ful for the student and for the library. Planning a work module means that the supervisor determines how long a stu- dent can do a task before beginning to commit errors. For example, the supervisor of student employees responsible for accurately shelving books should look closely at the number of books that can be accurately shelved in his or her library and the number of hours a student employee can shelve books without a high error rate. If the supervisor determines that the aver- age shelver can accurately shelve fifty books per hour and that two hours is the maximum time that a person can shelve without errors, then the performance measure for this work is defined as shelving 100 books in two hours. If the average book truck holds 150 books or twenty-five books per shelf, then it would be appropriate to load only four of the six shelves. This communicates the standard that is expected in a two-hour shift and gives the student employee a sense of accomplishment when the truck is empty. It is important that this type of standard be worked out for each in- dividual library. The number of books that can be shelved depends on the size of the library, whether or not the books are presorted, and the size of the class range each shelver is expected to shelve. Using a given job description, the im- mediate supervisor should develop per- formance measures for each responsibility. The individual or group of individuals currently doing the job can provide in- valuable help in this process. The incum- bent can verify that the responsibilities reflect what is currently being done and may have insight into how much can be done in the amount of time allotted. This also assures that measures will be equi- table as well as efficient. It is important to remember that average performance is the expectation. The fact that the su- pervisor can do the task in 25 percent less time does not necessarily mean that that July 1992 should constitute the standard. It may be impossible in the training process to pro- vide the student employee with all of the information the supervisor has; thus the student employee may not have the knowledge necessary-to perform the task as quickly as the supervisor. It is important to remember that, as Smith and Tucker pointed out, performance measures "do not define outstanding performance but rather identify a baseline for degrees of excellence and failure." 13 This is why it is important to develop time data using a variety of people rather than figuring out how long it would take the supervi- sor to accomplish the task. Measuring the right things means that librarians are attentive to the results expected, not the task needed to attain the results. Shelving books is a task; shelving books in the correct order is a result. At the same time, the supervisor should look at the nature of the work module. Obviously a serials student as- sistant should not begin work before the mail is delivered and sorted. In addition, the supervisor should determine how much time it takes each day to complete the task. Is it necessary, for example, to have a longer work period on Monday than the other days of the week? For the sake of this example, we will assume that the responsibilities listed above can be ac- complished in two hours per day Monday through Friday. Care should be taken to en- sure that equitable measures are developed for jobs with varying work flows. The first step in writing performance measures begins with the job descrip- tion. It is essential that time measures be developed from job descriptions at each individual library. Although there are some suggestions in the literature on how long it should take to perform various tasks, the size of the library, division of labor, work flow, physical location, and the degree of accur~cy needed can all have a dramatic effect on how long it takes to perform a specific task. Sam- piing the work being performed, time studies, and standard time data are fully covered in the book by Richard M. Dougherty and FredJ. Heinritz, Scientific Management of Library Operations, for those interested in investigating this further.14 The next step is to add up the time to see if the job can be done in the time available. All performance measures should have the following characteristics: be based on an up-to-date job description; be focused on results, not activities; be realistic and reasonable; be observable and measurable; be controllable; and be understandable, not too wordy, and not too numerous. PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS The quantitative and qualitative per- formance measures or expectations for any student position could be sum- marized in a performance expectations worksheet such as the following: PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS WORKSHEET 1. List three or four key activities of the job 2. List the key results or outcomes of these activities. (What are the results you want?) 3. List the behaviors or skills to be used in achieving the results. (How do you want the job done?) 4. Write the specific performance ex- pectations, by combining numbers two and three above. Performance Measures 303 EVALUATION If both the supervisor and the student employee have and understand both the job description and the performance ex- pectations of a given position, then eval- uation becomes easier. Both the quantity and quality of the work to be performed are clear and the evaluation process can revolve around the degree to which the student employee meets these clearly stated expectations. With performance measures in place, evaluation of student work can become an ongoing process rather than an end-of-the-year summa- tion. Combining the use of performance measures with ongoing evaluation al- lows for a more productive work ex- perience and prevents "problem workers." This focuses both the supervisor's and the student's attention on the results ex- pected from a job. CONCLUSION Performance measures set our expecta- tions for how student employees should perform in our libraries. Perfor-mance measures are important in identifying how much a given student can be expected to do. Even though each library needs to tailor performance measures to its unique situa- tion, performance measures clearly assist in planning and monitoring student work. Standards can improve the students' com- mitment to their work along with their sense of accomplishment. Finally, per- formance measures are invaluable in the management of student employees, par- ticularly in motivation and evaluation. REFERENCES 1. Michael D. Kathman and Jane M. Kathman, CE 107: Managing Student Workers in Academic Libraries (Chicago: Assn. of College & Research Libraries, 1983). 2. Michael D. Kathman and Jane M. Ka!hman, "Integrating Student Employees into the Management Structure of Academic Libraries," Catholic Library World 56:328-30 (Mar. 1985). 3. James Evered, "How to Write a Good Job Description," Supervisory Management 26:17 (Apr. 1981). · 4. Richard M. Dougherty and Fred J. Heinritz, Scientific Management of Library Operations, 2d ed. (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1982), p.237. 5. Evered, "How to Write a Good Job Description," p.14. 6. Robert F. Smith and Kerry Tucker, "Measuring Individual Performance," Public Rela- tions Journal 38:27 (Oct. 1982). 304 College & Research Libraries July 1992 7. Donald Shabel, "Performance Standards and Cost Analysis,"Illinois Librarian 64:875 (Spring 1982). 8. Mary Ann Joyce, "Developing and Negotiating Job Standards," The Bookmark 40:213 (Summer 1982). 9. Stanley P. Hodge, "Performance Appraisals: Developing a Sound Legal and Manage- rial System," College & Research Libraries 44:240 (July 1983). 10. Evered, "How to Write a Good Job Description," p.16. 11. Ibid. 12. Smith and Tucker, "Measuring Individual Performance," p.27. 13. Ibid. 14. Dougherty and Heinritz, Scientific Management of Library, p.237. IN FORTHCOMING ISSUES OF COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES Joumal Price Escalation and the Market for Information Bruce R. Kingma and Philip B. Eppard New Norms for Reference Desk Staffing Adequacy: A Comparative Study Deborah Rinderknecht Strategic Planning as a Catalyst for Change in the 1990s Meredith Butler and Hiram Davis College Libraries and Resource Sharing: Testing a Compact Disc Union Catalog for the As- sociated College Libraries of Central Pennsylvania Charles Townley On Becoming Faculty Librarians: Acculturation Problems and Remedies W. Bede Mitchell and Bruce Morton Research Notes Conference Proceedings in Plzysics H. H. Barschall and W. Haeberli Available Now From ACRL ··:. : ··: .,· •:';' ·: "' . 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