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Until recently UK universities have paid little attention to managing the personnel function. However, matters changed in the 1980s, and surveys at the beginning of the 1990s suggested that all institutions had established personnel departments. Discusses research recently completed in 14 universities. Finds that there is still considerable variation in the conduct of the personnel function, and that the boundaries of the personnel department and the roles played by personnel differ from one institution to the next. Suggests that much more thought remains to be given to the way that responsibility for human resource functions is devolved to heads of departments. Further, it suggests that while greater recognition may have been given to the importance of the human resource function within universities (and that it may be seen to have a more important role in strategic planning) this has not led necessarily to an increasing role for the personnel department as such.

Examines the training needs of practising professional librarians in the Kenyan public university libraries. There is a general, but false assumption, in this sector that professional librarians who have attained the minimum professional qualifications need no further training on the job. Many changes have taken place and many more are likely to occur, which are likely to affect the working environment of librarians. Librarians must be trained in preparation for managing such changes. Suggestions for sources of funding are given. The specific training needs of practising librarians are described.

Scholarly studies on student engagement are mostly focused on the perceptions of students and academic staff of higher education institutions (HEIs) with a few studies concentrating on the perspectives of professional staff. To address this knowledge gap, this paper aims to examine how professional staff who are members of a professional community perceive their contributions to enhancing student engagement in a university.

Data for the current study were gathered using semi-structured face-to-face interviews among 41 professional staff who were purposively sampled from a public university in South Africa. The data gathered were analysed using thematic analysis that involved a process of identifying, analysing, organising, describing and reporting the themes that emerged from the data set.

An analysis of the narrative data revealed that when professional staff provide students with prompt feedback, support the development of their social and cultural capital and provide professional services in the area of teaching and learning, they foster student engagement in the university. However, the results showed that poor communication flow and delays in addressing students’ concerns could lead to student disengagement. The study further argues that through continuous interaction and shared norms and values among members of a professional community, a service culture can be developed to address possible professional knowledge and skills gaps that constrain quality service delivery.

The current paper contributes to the scholarly discourse on student engagement and professional community by showing that a service culture of engagement is developed among professional staff when they share ideas, collaborate and build competencies to enhance student engagement. Furthermore, the collaboration between professional staff and academics is important to addressing the academic issues that confront students in the university.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the information and communication technology (ICT) literacy level among the staff of anglophone (English‐speaking) university libraries staff and their counterparts in francophone (French‐speaking) university libraries in West Africa.

A survey was conducted among the professionals, paraprofessionals and “other” members of staff of 28 university libraries comprising 24 anglophone university libraries and four francophone.

The result of the findings showed that out of about 370 professional librarians, only 179 of them were ICT literate while the remaining 191 professional librarians were ICT non‐literate. This constitutes an overall percentage of 48.38 percent for the literate professionals as against 51.62 percent for ICT non‐literate professionals. Also, out of 526 paraprofessionals, only 84 of them were ICT literate while the remaining 442 were ICT non‐literate. This also constitutes 15.97 percent for the literate paraprofessionals as against 84.03 percent for ICT non‐literate paraprofessionals. Other staff totaled 1,471. Only 190 of them were ICT literate while the remaining 1,281 were ICT non‐literate. This also constitutes 12.92 percent for the literate other members of staff as against 87.08 percent for ICT non‐literate other members of staff.

Only two categories of skills, “literacy” and “illiteracy”, without gradations between these categories could be considered. The questionnaires were not design to catch the grades of these two categories of skills.

The paper concludes that of all the 28 university libraries surveyed, only the 40 Senegal university professional librarians have an ICT literacy level of 100 percent. Thus other West African university libraries should encourage all their professional librarians, as well as other staff, to become ICT literate.

The paper contains original work relating to the differences between English and French‐speaking university staff as regards ICT literacy and as such will be useful for library technology planners and educators.

The study discusses the professionalization of academic leadership in Israel by analyzing and comparing two different training programs: the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s (HUJI) program and the CHE-Rothschild program. The HUJI program began in 2016 to train the professoriate to take charge of leadership positions alongside a separate program for administrative staff, while the CHE-Rothschild program was launched in 2019 to train academic leaders, both professors and administrators from universities and colleges nationwide. The analysis reveals two “ideal types” of collegiality: While Model A (exemplified by the HUJI program) bifurcates between the professoriate and administrative staff, Model B (exemplified by the CHE-Rothschild program) binds administrative and academic staff members through course composition, pedagogy, and content. The study suggests a pattern of redefinition of collegiality in academia: we find that while academic hierarchies are maintained (between academic faculty and administrative staff and between universities and colleges), collegiality in academia is being redefined as extending beyond the boundaries of the professoriate and emphasizing a partnership approach to collegial ties.

University intellectual output such as theses and dissertations are valuable resources containing rigorous research results. Library staff who are key players in promoting intellectual output through institutional repositories require skills to promote content visibility, create wider outreach and facilitate easy access and use of these resources. This study aims to determine the skills of library staff to enhance the visibility of intellectual output in federal university libraries in southeast Nigeria.

A survey research design was adopted for the study. The questionnaire was used to obtain responses from library staff on the extent of computer skills and their abilities for digital conversion, metadata creation and preservation of digital content.

Library staff at the university libraries had high skills in basic computer operations. They had moderate skills in digital conversion, preservation and storage. However, they had low skills in metadata creation.

The study has implications for addressing the digital skills and professional expertise of library staff, especially as it concerns metadata creation, digital conversion, preservation and storage. It also has implications for the university management to prioritize the training of their library staff in other to increase the visibility of indigenous resources and university Web ranking.

This study serves as a lens to identify library staff skill gaps in many critical areas that require expertise and stimulate conscious effort toward developing adequate skills for effective digital information provision. It sheds light on the challenges that many Nigerian university libraries face in their pursuit of global visibility and university Web ranking.

The professional development needs of university professional staff are an under-researched area. More data were needed to understand their needs to ensure that employers invest their resources appropriately. A conceptual framework is developed for the workplace learning of career development activities using concepts of professional learning communities, adult learning and non-formal learning. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the success of a professional development network in meeting the needs of university professional staff after a re-structure.

A case study of the development of a staff career network at an Australian university after a restructure is presented. An online survey was sent to 75 staff who had attended at least one professional development event. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis.

This study has shown that a university professional staff career network has been a positive influence for its participants after an organisational restructure. The value of this network was to increase confidence and provide opportunities for self-improvement, career planning and networking.

A conceptual model integrating the concepts of professional learning communities, adult learning and non-formal learning has resulted in a model of social non-formalised workplace learning that may be of use in other contexts to improve staff motivation, outside of more formal learning opportunities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perception of university staff and students in implementing flexible working arrangements (FWA) to increase space efficiency, lower overheads and improve productivity at the Namibia University of Science and Technology.

Data was collected using questionnaires, interviews and document searches. A total of 253 university staff (academic and support) and students were surveyed to solicit their perceptions on the extent to which FWA could be implemented to ensure space optimisation, minimise property related costs and improve employee productivity.

The study confirms that the successful implementation of FWA needs coordinated institutional policy to effectively support and cater to university staff’s different needs while meeting those of the university. Implementing FWA may reduce demand on utilities resulting in lower overheads for the institution. Based on the findings, the study is inconclusive on whether FWA improves or reduces staff productivity.

In the era of austerity measures in institutions of higher education (IHE), with rapid advances in communication information technologies, FWA are not only a possibility but inevitable to ensure optimal use of space, lower operating costs and improved work productivity. This study provides a cursory understanding of the possibility to implementing FWA in higher education.

This study contributes to the FWA body of knowledge from the perspective of both academic, non-academic staff and students in IHE.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of the use of people surveys to enact change in human capital organization and practices in a University library.

The study covers seven years of people surveys and the consequent interventions applied based on this and other data and evidence at the University of York, UK. The case describes measurement of staff’s lived experience, leading to innovation and intervention in management strategies, structures and policies. The research employs a mixed methodology; the paper draws on quantitative evidence from surveys, qualitative evidence from focus groups and desk research on human capital measurement and emotion in the workplace.

The paper describes the findings of investigations across seven years, discusses the available methods for people assessment, and the different theoretical foundations of the engagement, climate and excellence surveys used across the period. Strategic and structural interventions are described and their effectiveness discussed.

The limitations of research in the field of human capital are discussed, including the participant observation of the library director, together with the potential confounding factors affecting data collected during the period of research.

The paper reflects on advances in the understanding and practice of people evaluation in libraries. The development of a people strategy based on evidence, and repetition of surveys to gauge the effectiveness of interventions, with consequent refinement of solutions, appear to have had a real effect on the lived experience, culture and service provided by the case library.

The originality and value of the paper is that it provides a unique long-term case study of people surveys, strategy and structure in an academic research library.

Scrutiny of staff turnover in large organisations is traditionally reactive, involving benchmarking against peers at institution level. Not being an outlier tempts the inference that turnover is “satisfactory”. However, individual departments exhibiting varied, counterbalancing patterns might be masked; meaning situations that present challenges and require action could be missed. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the degree to which headline staff turnover can mask internal variations in a large post-1992 English university with over 2,000 staff.

The methods scrutinised related mainstream benchmarking sources, and analysed turnover for both new recruits and staff leaving, as well as net turnover. The inverted Nomogramma di Gandy helped highlight overall patterns and identify outliers. Staff categories and characteristics examined included: age, gender, diversity, staff type and contractual status.

It was found that (wide) internal variations were masked between university departments and between different gender and age groups, with Generation Y presenting issues for future recruitment and retention. Localised high turnover rates were found, with particular issues involving research staff. A proactive approach is essential, analysing local data to reflect internal structures, and staff categories and characteristics. Understanding internal and external staff dynamics supports organisations to meet strategic aims and objectives, and target local action.

The approach and findings provided lessons for staff management relevant to universities, which are critical to many, if not most large organisations in the UK and internationally, particularly in times of uncertainty.