SILS Effective Handover Project Report, December 2017

SILS Effective Handover Project Report, December 2017

Scholarly Information and Learning Services (SILS) review and realignment occurred in 2015-2016, based on client perception and feedback about SILS’ purpose and effectiveness. A process for developing a new engagement model was conceived by the leadership team as a key component of implementing the new SILS structure. This process involved a number of consultation and planning workshops, including follow up experiments. These experiments were designed to test particular aspects of the suggested engagement model.

A fundamental aspect of the proposed engagement model is the practice of ‘effective handovers’: that clients can contact any part of the organisation and be directed to the relevant section for assistance. Stakeholder feedback at USQ has consistently indicated that accessing appropriate SILS support is challenging. For this reason the effective handover of client enquiries was identified as a potential issue for the SILS engagement model investigation. A mixed methods approach was used based on a literature review, survey data, and a mystery shopper activity.

To ensure best practice of client handovers, the following recommendations are provided:
SILS to provide staff with a set of guidelines for best practice (see Appendix 2). Staff are encouraged to use handover guidelines as appropriate. As enquiries may differ a universal set of guidelines may not address the full range of scenarios. Staff to continue the positive and effective handover process, where applicable. As effective handovers requires an understanding of the roles of colleagues, staff should develop a knowledge of other departments within SILS. Information provided by other SILS engagement experiments will also inform this process.

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