Staffing Services

Estimating the staff you need is a critical part of understanding how the services and support within a space will work. This should be an iterative process of going back-and-forth between the spaces anticipated, the current staffing, and the forecasted additional staff need.

Aligning Staff Support Needs to Space
How will each space be served?

To work through this process, you need to look at four key factors:

FTE: The total number of staff needed, as full-time equivalents (FTE). For example, 1 student intern could be considered 0.5 FTE
Discipline: How that staffing breaks down by service area or discipline. The most basic could be public services (e.g.: service desks), tech support, facilities support, or other specialists
Level: The degree of experience, knowledge and skills required, generally divided into four levels, with Level 1 as the most basic and Level 4 as the most advanced expert
Space: The assignment of staff to spaces or service areas, for instance, the proportion staffing the helpdesk vs. group study rooms vs. infrastructure behind the scenes

The diagram above illustrates how you move through considering these different factors and the table below explains the function and knowledge/skills required of staff by discipline and level to arrive at this.

Staff function and skills per area of discipline

Technology Staff

Levels	Job Function	Skills
L1	First-line interaction with users Triage Basic Setup Reactive to Issues	Familiarity with technologies Customer service and communication skills Problem solving skills
L2	Imaging and setup High-level troubleshooting Support functionality of hi-tech spaces Event setup, presentation, av support Proactive	Technical proficiency Understanding of context
L2 +	Higher level consulting, training Technology design and integration IT outreach Content and delivery services Proactive	Technical specialization Consulting skills Instructional technology expertise Understanding programmatic needs, context, domain knowledge
L3	Custom application development Interfaces and graphics Systems design	Relevant education and training Experience related to platform/language Communication and teamwork
L4	System administration Systems engineering Network services Pro-active	Relevant education, training and experience Communication and teamwork

Public Services Staff

Levels	Job Function	Skills
L1	Front-line interaction with users at service desk Opening/closing buildings Monitor safety and security Scheduling rooms and services Office reception	Familiarity with basic computer programs Customer service and communication skills Problem solving skills
L2	Respond to special requests/issues Provide specialized services (e.g. large format printing) Provide desktop support Give tours Providing hardware troubleshooting and maintenance Maintain schedules of other staff	Intermediate knowledge of specific computer programs Understanding of context of learning spaces Ability to resolve non-routine problems
L2+	Advanced support for users, answer/solve complex problems Hire, train, and manage staff Maintain documentation	Technical specialization, advanced knowledge of specific computer programs Consulting skills
L3	Help create and maintain policies Lead teams Provide formal instruction Liaison to external units	Relevant education and training Communication and teamwork Management skills

Example

If you were planning a Learning Commons and estimated that you would have 11 FTE staffing it, you could end up with a table like this:Once you know (or can guess): (1) the number of FTE you anticipate; (2) the breakdown of those FTEs by discipline/area and level of seniority; and (3) how those staff would be distributed by space type, then go directly to the Integrated Budgeting Tool.

	Level-1 Basic	Level-2 Intermediate	Level-3 Advanced	Level-4 Expert
Public Services	3.0	1.0	0.5	0.5
Facilities		0.5
IT	2.0		1.0	1.0
Other		1.5
TOTAL FTE BY LEVEL	5.0	3.0	1.5	1.5

PDF