The British Library is widely regarded as one of the world’s great libraries. Founded in 1753, its collection includes well over 150m items, with 3m new items added every year. One might have expected that attracting staff to work in such a revered institution would prove relatively straightforward.

Yet oddly, the library’s own research into how it is perceived externally reveals a different picture.

Commissioned around two to three years ago, as part of work on the library’s brand, it found that outsiders saw the library as very hierarchical, bureaucratic, slow and inward looking. In other words, not the leading-edge employer to which the brightest and best would aspire.

As Mary Canavan, the library’s HR director, explains: “If you stopped someone in the street, it is highly likely they would say we were a traditional library.”

At the same time, research into the views of the library’s own employees showed a radically different picture. “They saw it as a leading-edge, dynamic, exciting organisation, where people were passionate about what they did,” says Canavan.

Canavan’s philosophy Not one thing drives resourcing. For me it is the lynch pin of our people strategy. Ultimately the strategy has to be flexible, proactive, and certainly with my team, I always want to be ahead of the game

While the irony is certainly not lost on Canavan, more importantly this perception gap has informed and driven much of her work and that of her team over the past couple of years. “There was quite a gap there and we needed to move that perception,” she said.

And so began Canavan’s work on the library’s employer brand, with advertising agency Euro RSCG Riley to get across the staff’s positive feelings towards the library to potential employees.

The first major step was September’s launch of the library’s career website. “We wanted to create a profile that presented the library as a leading, visionary organisation that was creative, innovative and dynamic,” says Canavan

Key to this was to target key messages at particular types of jobseeker. For example, “being a visionary organisation with world class connections” is often included in the text used for IT and digital posts. While “highest quality and breadth of activity serving multiple users” is used for just about any type of job.
Staff themselves were heavily involved, featuring in a range of case studies which highlighted their work, for example the digitisation of historic manuscripts such as Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks.

“This is not spin. These are some of the opportunities if you want to come and work for us,” adds Canavan.

The results have been impressive, with the number of hits on the new careers website almost doubling to 32,000 in its first month.

Canavan says the quality of management information has been also been improved by a range of tools that sit behind the website. Her 33-strong team can now track visitors by location, gender and when they have visited the site. “This is fascinating, qualitative information that informs our strategy and where we want to direct future recruitment,” she says.

The library continues to use recruitment agencies and headhunters for some roles, but with a 60% reduction in recruitment advertising, most of the library’s recruitment is now driven through the website. And irrespective of the source, all candidates must now apply online.

This in turn allows more efficient sifting of candidates. “We have moved away from this hugely manually intensive resourcing operation, where hard copy applications were coming in, and managers had to check through whether or not they had addressed the requirements. This is far more effective.”

That said, Canavan, who joined the library in 2003 after “a traditional HR career” in local government boroughs throughout London, is careful not to attribute all the progress made in attracting high-quality candidates to the new system.

“I think it helps, but it is only part of what has been a continuous journey around our resourcing strategy,” she says. In the six years she has been at the British Library, there have also been big improvements in helping hiring managers to be clear about job roles, and the experience, skills and abilities required of candidates. “We are very good at that now,” she adds.

Canavan adds that another indication of success is that so far the library has successfully recruited into every advertised post.

As her frequent references to the recruitment life cycle indicates, Canavan is keenly aware that resourcing is not just about meeting immediate needs, but about meeting future needs too. “The start of the process has got to be workforce planning,” she emphasises.

Canavan says that her team spend a lot of time identifying and developing people with the potential to move upwards, using a succession planning and executive talent management tool called TalentLAB. “We are pretty strong in terms of leadership talent,” she says.

And Canavan is already hard at work contributing to the library’s ’2020 vision’, looking at what skills and capabilities it might need in 10 years’ time. One clear trend already identified is a shift towards a workforce with digital skills.

A certain amount of stargazing is evidently an significant aspect of Canavan’s role. But it is also clear that immediate matters are more pressing.

As a public sector organisation, under the control of the Treasury, the library’s pay rates are outside its own control. And Canavan admits that the library has not always been able to pay as much as it or its candidates would like.

“None of us know what we are going to face in the next couple of years. But one thing is certain: it is going to be challenging,” she admits.
But at the same she is defiant that whatever the demands of the Treasury, the wheels at The British Library will not come off. “Absolutely not,” she asserts.

“Whatever we face in public sector spending we cannot shut up shop. It will require us to be more creative and to think outside the box, and to do more with less. We can’t stand still as an organisation.”

Already, she says, managers spent a lot of time thinking whether the post is really needed before they recruit.

And as someone who clearly accentuates the positive, Canavan also points to ’pull factors’ for prospective employees, such as a range of non-financial benefits, as well as job insecurity in the private sector, which makes the public sector more attractive.

Many people chose to work in the public sector because of their value base, she adds.

A further plus is the increasingly high profile of the library internationally. “For many people, coming to The British Library is the highlight of their career,” says Canavan.

Having spent her whole career in the public sector, it’s no surprise to hear Canavan say that’s where her own values lie. Furthermore, she regards her earlier career, during which she specialised in industrial relations, as “an incredible experience that has put me in a good place for dealing with the challenges here”.

As the public sector faces up to a squeeze in its budgets, Canavan will need to call on all that expertise - and more - if she is to ensure that The British Library’s future lives up to its distinguished past.