Please note: This is an anonymous response to an online survey; I do not have any way of contacting the respondent or verifying responses. Their answers may reflect good, bad, or middling hiring practices. I invite you to take what’s useful and leave the rest. If you are someone who hires Library, Archives or other LIS workers, please consider giving your own opinion by filling out the survey here.
Current Hiring Practices and Organizational Needs
These questions are about your current hiring practices in general – the way things have been run the last year or two (or three).
Where do you advertise your job listings?
On our organization’s web page, Linked In, Indeed.com, specialized email lists, associations, or sites particular to the position
Do you notice a difference in application quality based on where the applicant saw the job ad?
Yes. Broad sites like Indeed can bring in candidates who tend to apply for a job for which they have no qualifications, such as IT people. However, our job postions automatically go to these sites.
Do you include salary in the job ad?
√ Other: We include a salary range
Do you use keyword matching or any automation tools to reduce the number of applications a human reads while considering candidates?
√ No
Do you consider candidates who don’t meet all the requirements listed in the job ad?
√ Other: We have requirements that people have to meet, such as citizenship if the position requires a security clearance, or a degree or years of experience if the job class requires it. But no candidate ever meets all of the requirements.
Does your workplace require experience for entry-level librarian positions? (Officially or unofficially…)
√ Yes
What is the current most common reason for disqualifying an applicant without an interview?
Not matching the KSAs on the job posting in any reasonable way
Does your organization use one-way interviews? (Sometimes also called asynchronous or recorded interviews)
√ No
Do you provide interview questions before the interview?
√ No
Does your interview process include taking the candidate out for a meal?
√ No, but we used to
How much of your interview process is virtual?
√ Other: Right now it is entirely virtual, but we haven’t had a candidate for a position since the pandemic that has been in the area to be interviewed. If we did, we’d do in hybrid interviews.
Do you (or does your organization) give candidates feedback about applications or interview performance?
√ No
What is the most important thing for a job hunter to do in order to improve their hirability?
Answer the questions that are asked!
Your Last Recruitment
These are questions about the last person you hired (or the last position you attempted to fill). This person may not have been a librarian, and that’s ok.
Think about the most recent time you participated in hiring someone (or an attempt to hire someone) at your organization. What was the title of the position you were trying to fill?
Manager, Classified Research Support
When was this position hired?
√ Within the last three months
Approximately how many people applied for this position?
√ 25 or fewer
Approximately what percentage of those would you say were hirable?
√ 25% or less
And how would you define “hirable”?
Appropriate KSAs
How did the recruitment for this position compare with recruitments in previous years?
Have not recruited for this position in a long time; in comparison with another position recently hired, fewer applications, but it’s a different sort of position.
Your Workplace
This section asks for information about your workplace, including if you have lost positions in the last decade.
How many staff members are at your library/organization?
√ 10-50
Are you unionized?
√ No
How many permanent, full time job openings has your workplace posted in the last year?
√ Other: I’m not sure I understand this question. My workplace as a whole?? We have an organization of around 2000 people; we hired around 300 new staff
How many permanent, full time librarian (or other “professional” level) jobs has your workplace posted in the last year?
√ 1
Can you tell us how the number of permanent, full-time positions at your workplace has changed over the past decade?
√ Other: If looking at the total workplace, more. My organization, the same
Have any full-time librarian positions been replaced with part-time or hourly workers over the past decade?
√ No
Have any full-time librarian positions been replaced with non-librarian, lower paid staff positions over the past decade?
√ No
Is librarianship a dying profession?
√ No
Why or why not?
Librarianship is changing for sure, but not dying. New skills need to be developed and the field needs to be reimagined.
Demographics
This section asks for information about you specifically.
What part of the world are you in?
√ Western US (including Alaska, Hawaii and Pacific Northwest)
What’s your region like?
√ Urban area
What type of institution do you hire for (check all that apply):
√ Special Library
Are you a librarian?
√ Director of library, archives, IT applications
Are you now or have you ever been:
√ A hiring manager (you are hiring people that you will directly or indirectly supervise),
√ A member of a hiring or search committee