Strategies For Supervising Part-Time Employees

Part-time staff are often on the front line of library services. Whether you manage student employees, part-time LTEs, or permanent part-time staff – supporting and supervising part-time personnel takes extra consideration. When an employee isn’t in the office every day it can lead to unintentional communication and training gaps and sometimes even a harmful sense of exclusion.

This course explores how we can be strategic as supervisors and colleagues of part-time staff to engage, motivate, and empower all employees on our team. Discover practical strategies based in structural empowerment theory to create a culture that encourages employees across all levels to be change-agents at your organization. By examining ingrained institutional rituals – everything from emails to meetings to evaluations – we can develop more inclusive practices that address the unique needs and concerns of part-time staff.

Learning outcomes:

• Understand individual and structural empowerment
• Establish inclusive communication practices
• Implement effective training and assessment strategies
• Create opportunities for professional development and advancement
• Ensure access to formal & informal power across organizational hierarchies

Course Audience:  This course focuses primarily on public and academic library settings through the supervisory lens. However, Structural Empowerment strategies have been successfully applied across a wide array of organizational settings and this course is intended for anyone who seeks to make their workplace more equitable and inclusive for part-time employees.