A PASport to Service Quality

Part 1 of this article discussed the current service quality environment in which academic libraries find themselves operating, and the challenge for staff performance assessment as an integral element of maintaining and improving effective service quality levels. As referenced in Part 1, Millson-Martula and Menon in a 1999 article in College and Research Libraries suggest that no effort to enhance customer satisfaction will succeed unless students and faculty are convinced that library staff, as service providers, care about the quality of service they provide and the manner in which they do it. However, library staff will not demonstrate a high degree of commitment and caring unless they believe that library management cares about the staff as well. Simply put, customer satisfaction equals employee satisfaction. [Millson-Martula and Menon, p.46]. It is difficult to separate employee satisfaction from appropriate performance assessment. But this performance appraisal must be found in the context of a larger effort which includes staff interpersonal understanding (connection), service evaluation, personal and professional development opportunities, and appropriate recognition. Without those, performance assessment alone could appear to be punitive. It is in this broader context that the performance assessment system, PASport, was developed at the Centennial Library

A PASport to Service Quality: Developing a Performance Assessment System. Part 2: The Centennial Library PASport System

Presents information on the performance assessment system (PAS) or the PASport, a critical part of the evaluation element of the staff development effort at the Centennial Library as of January 2005. Preliminary actions necessary for effective implementation of the PASport; Purpose of the system; Discussion on the elements of the system