Findings from the workforce mapping survey report
Introduction
A consortium including CILIP, Archives and Records Association (ARA), The National Archives and the Information and Records Management Society (IRMS) has undertaken a mapping survey of the archive, library and information sectors. This 2022 survey follows up on the 2015 workforce mapping exercise, which was one of the first of its kind in the UK to attempt to map the workforce of these sectors.
The Workforce Mapping Survey 2022 sought to better understand the workforce’s demographics and their attitudes towards their employment and employers. It also looked at the factors influencing recruitment, engagement and retention.
ARA will be drilling down into the data to produce recordkeeping sector specific data and will report back to the sector on this shortly.
Workforce demographics
The 2022 workforce mapping survey confirmed that there is a lack of diversity across the library, archive and information sectors, showing little improvement on the 2015 survey.
92% of 4,336 respondents were white
75% were female
63% were over 45 years old
The results of the survey’s other questions shone a light on some of the reasons why the archive, recordkeeping and information sector is not diverse. These reasons can be explored through the two ways that the composition of the workforce is shaped:
Recruitment - people being willing and able to join the sector
Retention - new and existing professionals being willing and able to stay in the sector
Recruitment
The survey confirmed that there are substantial barriers to joining archives and other parts of the recordkeeping sector, starting with the qualifications required to be an archivist. 37% of respondents had a Master’s or PhD, and 19% of respondents gained their first role after completing a postgraduate qualification. A further 18% gained their first role after an undergraduate degree and 13% after volunteering or doing other unpaid placements. In comparison, only 7% gained their first role after leaving school or college, and only 6% through a paid internship, traineeship or apprenticeship.
This shows that new professionals too frequently need to acquire postgraduate qualifications or undertake unpaid experience to secure work in the recordkeeping sector. Both of these routes create financial barriers that prevent a wider range of people from working in archives or the wider recordkeeping sector. Respondents from working class backgrounds also reiterated these barriers, citing a feeling of imposter syndrome in a predominantly middle-class working environment.
The archive and recordkeeping sector is very aware of this lack of diversity and, positively, 78% of respondents said that their organisation’s leadership encourages and supports equality, diversity and inclusion. The sector wants to make improvements but the survey results showed that practical steps have not always been taken: only 61% of respondents in comparison said that their organisation takes active measures to seek a diverse candidate pool or encourage people from different backgrounds to apply for higher positions.
Retention
The survey revealed several key drivers that influenced professionals desire to stay, including the organisation’s concern for their wellbeing, job security, opportunities for continued professional development and satisfaction with their employment deal.
Archives and recordkeeping roles performed well in several of these areas, including continued professional development (CPD). 60% of respondents reported that their organisation invests in developing their capabilities (although only 50% had a dedicated budget for this). 62% of archive respondents had undertaken professional development in the last year, with 58% intending to do so next year. The most popular answer for how people did their training was online (34%), indicating a potential way forward at a time of limited training budgets.
Wellbeing also performed well, apart from situations where workload affected this. Many respondents spoke of supportive teams, a sense of autonomy, and cultural values that match their own. Some respondents also spoke about how the flexibility of their role – working from home several days a week, working compressed hours or in a casual capacity – helped maintain a good work-life balance.
However, this very flexibility links to the problem of job security. While part-time or casual work suits some people, many respondents expressed concerns that archives were resistant to creating permanent roles. Others were worried by frequent service reviews or restructures, especially after COVID-19. As well as causing some people to leave, this lack of guarantee of permanent work is also a contributing factor as to why people from different backgrounds, albeit willing and interested, would be unable to accept a role in archives in the first place.
Similarly, pay was an issue, with only 54% of respondents saying they felt their pay was reasonable in comparison to other roles in the sector. The mid-range salary in 2015 was £25-30k and, while the top end of this has increased slightly, the range still starts in the same place at £25-35k. 30% of respondents also earned less than £22.5k. Without resolving the issue of pay, archives risk losing talented professionals and will also be unable to attract candidates from a wider range of backgrounds.
Despite these issues, the sector has managed to retain staff members, as demonstrated by the fact that 40% of respondents have worked in archives for more than 20 years and 63% of respondents are over 45. While it is good that professionals want to remain in the profession – with people referring to their pride (83%) and confidence (83%) in their job – length of service does not necessarily mean that people are able to progress in their careers and so it is important to explore how to make more opportunities for this available. Equally, this extremely high percentage of long-serving professionals reiterates the lack of inclusive entry routes, with less than 5% of respondents joining in the last year.
What action are The National Archives, ARA and IRMS taking?
Embedding workforce development in our strategies
Both the ARA Strategic Plan and The National Archives’ sector vision Archives Unlocked commit to diversifying the archive workforce as a key area of focus.
The ARA Diversity and Inclusion Allies are a group volunteers who organise around the principles of improving diversity and inclusion across ARA and the wider record-keeping community. Their aim is to work with the ARA Board to promote best practice in relation to diversity and inclusion across the sector, forging new paths for positive change.
The IRMS takes a number of continual steps to embed diversity and inclusion within our operations. This includes ensuring that: the speaker base at their annual Conference and other events is equal between genders; that their content (electronic and other) is as reader-friendly as possible; events are in venues that ensure ease of access where possible; volunteers can work remotely and collaboratively with ease. They are also developing a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy to help continue to grow as an inclusive and diverse Society.
Developing alternative non-academic routes into the sector
ARA Professional Registration (a quality benchmark across the sector) is awarded to those able to demonstrate standards of professional competence. It recognises academic and non-academic career routes.
The Level 3 Library, Information and Archive Service assistant apprenticeship is already available and current apprentices are supported by both ARA and Information and Records Management Society (IRMS) with free membership.
The National Archives has been leading on the development of the Level 7 Archivist and Records Management apprenticeship, working with ARA and the trailblazer group. These apprenticeships will be a new technical training route into the archives sector and will be equivalent to the Master’s degree typically required to become an archivist. We see the academic and apprenticeship routes as complementary, while the Master’s degree will continue to be the right path for some future professionals, the apprenticeship will provide an alternative path for people who would encounter financial or educational barriers to getting the Master’s. Having multiple routes into the archivist profession will allow people from diverse backgrounds to bring new skills and ideas to help archives thrive. The first apprentices will start in autumn 2023.
ARA are also running two initiatives funded by The National Archives. One will support the new Level 7 Archivist and Records Manager apprenticeship by offering four weeks paid ‘pre-apprenticeship’ work experience. This will help employers attract interest from new audiences. The other initiative will fund opportunities for existing support/admin staff to study one online module from an ARA-accredited postgraduate course so that professionals can build their skills.
The IRMS also believes that there should be as many supported routes into the profession as possible. Therefore, as part of theit commitment to supporting the development of the profession they are supporting some schemes directly as the ‘named trade body’ and promoting others where they find them and believe them to be of interest.
Creating inclusion resources to support the sector
The National Archives and ARA both have a series of inclusion resources on their websites to help archive services welcome as wide a range of people as possible, both as a place to work and visit:
ARA Diversity and Inclusion resources
The National Archives Inclusion Hub
Providing salary recommendations
Although salaries may not always be able to keep pace with inflation, especially in publicly funded organisations, ARA’s Pay Review Group continues to provide salary guidelines each year to help employers understand what the minimums should be and to empower workers to negotiate.
Notes
Conservators were not included in this survey (although they do form part of the recordkeeping sector) as they constitute a different professional area which is not covered by all the members of the consortium and have a different UK government recognition.
ARA’s members in Ireland were similarly not covered for the above reasons.
The report on the workforce mapping survey was released on 14th June with this accompanying press release from CILIP on behalf of the consortium.