Staff development policies: summary

The SCONUL Advisory Committee on Staffing (ACoS) has compiled a working paper containing 26 staff development policies from SCONUL member libraries. These could be useful for any institution drawing up or revising their own documentation.

The paper highlights good practice in a wide range of institutions. The policies demonstrate the ways in which the following key criteria are addressed:

• Statement of overall policy
• Links to institutional policy
• Objectives
• Responsibilities (employer/employee)
• Identification of training needs
• Resources (time/budget)
• Equality of access
• Appraisal and other review mechanisms
• Evaluation

The main document includes a number of examples of staff development policies from new and old universities, colleges, a converged service and a consortium. Included in the appendices are a number of staff development documents which cover useful points and demonstrate the various ways in which staff development can be approached.

To order a copy of this working paper go to the SCONUL Publications page.

Readers' comments:

"I read the whole thing from cover to cover"

"I found the publication extremely useful ... it was useful in terms of content, and also in terms of examining the structure of other organisations' staff development plans."

"All in all a valuable, and in my case, timely document! Allowed me to cover a lot of ground relatively quickly."