Kulturfairmitteln E-Book

Wencke Maderbacher

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 213

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

The term “cultural education” immediately conjures up images of interesting guided tours and fascinating workshops. But who actually works at this interface between the institution and the audience? And what are their working conditions like? How come salaried employment relationships are largely unheard of in this profession? The Austrian Technisches Museum Wien demonstrates clearly that there is another way: in 2010, the contracts of the entire team of cultural educators were switched from freelance service to salaried. This change has since had massive impact on an organizational level as well as on the daily working structure. Communication is increased, administration becomes more efficient, the cultural educators benefit from real, professional training and can be promoted according to their specific needs. Exciting tours, workshops, educational sessions and other projects are created within the constructive environment of a professional team. A staff management strategy of this kind in the cultural sector, particularly in the field of cultural education, benefits all those involved – cultural educators, cultural institutions and visitors alike. In this publication, you will find numerous suggestions and real-life examples to assist you in encouraging staff collaboration and organising your team.

Leseprobe

Foreword

Responsibility and conduct

People who work in the cultural sector are highly motivated and identify closely with the content and concerns of their cultural institution. Teams across all departments go to great lengths to safeguard the quality of the exhibition, performance or cultural education programme. For all those involved, the focus is on public image, visitor satisfaction and a successful media presence.

Seldom is any long-term thought given within the organisation to working conditions, i.e. working hours, overtime and types of employment relationship. At the Technisches Museum Wien, however, this is precisely what has been done in the interests of ending precarious employment relationships. Wencke Maderbacher from the Technisches Museum Wien has developed and implemented an exemplary model focusing on the creation of salaried positions for cultural educators, and promoting the personal and professional development of staff in a very systematic way.

This approach demonstrates respect for all those people who make an ongoing contribution to the success of their institution through their expertise and dedication; it also proves that a change in thinking is an attainable goal. Although it is always desirable and fulfilling for people to view their occupation as a vocation, this should not be used as an excuse for insecure employment relationships and poor working conditions in future.

This publication offers sound practical advice on implementing improvements, while potentially also stimulating discourse about future working conditions in the cultural sector. I am confident that many people in positions of responsibility will recognise the signs of the times and adopt in-house measures aimed specifically at further reinforcing and professionalising occupations in the cultural education sector.

Mag. Karin Wolf

Founder and Director of the Institut für Kulturkonzepte Wien

Owing to rising visitor numbers, the Education Department of the Technisches Museum Wien has grown considerably in recent years and boosted its target-group-orientated services. Programmes are now offered for all age groups and sectors of the population. In addition to the standard museum tours and themed tours conducted on a permanent basis, special action days are organised to accompany temporary exhibitions.

Due in part, but not solely, to the increase in the number of cultural educators, this key department was in need of restructuring. I am delighted about the initiative launched by Beatrix Hain and Wencke Maderbacher, who have developed an innovative, viable organisational structure and implemented it at our museum with the help of the entire team. This guide is intended to provide assistance for anyone interested in establishing similar structures in their own organisation.

Dr. Gabriele Zuna-Kratky

Director of the Technisches Museum Wien

I first became involved in education work at the Technisches Museum Wien back in 1990. At that time, educational work in state museums was in its infancy and performed by contract workers. Some preliminary groundwork was necessary, and educational activities had to be conducted in exhibition spaces for lack of study rooms. Over the years, educational work came to be regarded less as a disruptive factor in museum operations and more as an enhancement of the visitor experience.

The year 2010 represented a milestone in the history of the museum’s educational services: the cultural educators were given salaried positions. It had always been important to Wencke Maderbacher and myself to professionalise the occupation of cultural education. Salaried employment relationships, in-house training schemes and involvement with the collections led to the development of a separate department dedicated to the field of education. This meant establishing new organisational structures, providing further training opportunities and developing effective communication methods. At this point, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Wencke Maderbacher, whose organisational talent has had such a positive impact on the department. This publication – a guide for fair recruiting terms for cultural education teams – represents a further milestone in elucidating the complex profession of the cultural educator.

Dr. Beatrix Hain

Head of the Education Department at the Technisches Museum Wien

Legal notice

Kulturfairmitteln

A Practical Guide to Fair Recruiting Terms for a Cultural Education Team

Edited by Wencke Maderbacher

on behalf of the Technisches Museum Wien mit Österreichischer Mediathek, 2015

Publication concept and author: Wencke Maderbacher

Graphic design: Ursula Emesz

Proofreader: Regina Danek

Translation: Dialog Ticket

Coordinator: Barbara Hafok

German Edition: Kulturfairmitteln, Praxishandbuch Anstellung eines Kulturvermittlungs-Teams TMW, Wien 2016

Important note:

All legal terms in the publication are based on the Austrian employment law.

Please make sure to acquaint yourself with the appropriate legalities for your country e.g. with the workers - and employers' representatives or at the regional health insurances.

In the interests of readability, we have refrained from using both masculine and feminine pronouns and possessive adjectives in this publication, instead restricting ourselves to the feminine forms in order to reflect the current employment situation: eighty per cent of the workforce in the cultural education sector are women. It goes without saying, however, that the text should always be construed as including our male colleagues, however few in number they may be. Should the ratio of men to women in the workforce become better balanced at some time in the future, this will of course be reflected in the way the text is formulated.

The Technisches Museum Wien reserves all rights to this document, including reproductions of extracts or images. This work and all its individual parts are protected by copyright. Any exploitation thereof without the consent of the Technisches Museum Wien is prohibited. This applies in particular to copies, translations, microfilms and the storage and processing of data on electronic systems.

Please note that, despite careful editing, all information in this specialist handbook is provided without warranty, and any liability on the part of the author or the Technisches Museum Wien is excluded.

Table of Contents

Introduction:Why hire cultural educators on a permanent basis if you can get by without?

1 THE START OF SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

1.1 New contracts and their implications for the Technische Museum Wien

1.1.1 Personnel management: fair partnerships start with fair contracts

1.1.2 Team leadership: joint efforts, joint planning for the future

1.1.3 Cultural educators: professionals as opposed to casual workers

1.2 Contract changeover – Let’s get on to it right away! But how?

2 PLANNING, CALCULATING, EXPERIMENTING

2.1 First point on the agenda: the contract

2.1.1 Overview of salaried employment relationships

2.1.2 There’s more to cultural education than guided tours

2.1.3 Averaging period and working hours

2.2 Keeping track of the current status

2.2.1 What education sessions have we got planned?

2.2.2 Who works here? Personal profile record: cultural educator

2.3 Realistic budgeting – Let’s get planning finances

2.3.1 Educational services under financial scrutiny

2.3.2 Those other things don’t come free either

2.4 The booking centre – key to a full house

2.4.1 When are bookings accepted

2.4.2 Time to clear up the education programme

2.4.3 Any special requests?

2.4.4 Exhibition launches, press conferences, family days, corporate events… it’s all go at the museum!

2.5 Playing sudoku with the duty roster

2.5.1 Rules of play for the duty roster

2.5.2 One move at a time – staff scheduling

2.5.3 There’s bound to be a hitch somewhere

2.6 The big picture and all the little details

2.6.1 High and low season – annual planning

2.6.2 A tree with lots of branches – the departmental organisation chart

2.6.3 Delegating responsibility – Sharing tasks

2.6.4 Planning projects

2.7 Where we’re heading next

2.7.1 What it takes to become a cultural educator

2.7.2 Defining our mission – the must-dos, should-dos, and can-dos

2.7.3 Pinpointing key areas of focus for the year ahead

2.8 Sharing knowledge and making it accessible

2.8.1 Creative chaos? Best avoided in the documentation!

2.8.2 Information transfer – Knowledge is our trump card

2.8.2.1 A team bursting with experts

2.8.2.2 An institution bursting with knowledge

2.8.2.3 A network bursting with experience

3 WORKING TOGETHER

3.1 Team leadership on a level playing field

3.2 Cultural education – a profession with prospects

3.2.1 New cultural educators wanted!

3.2.2 Training programme for cultural educators

3.2.2.1 Requirements and challenges in Phase 1

3.2.2.2 Structure of the training programme in Phase 1

3.2.2.3 Motivation highlights in Phase 1

3.2.3 Cultural educator

3.2.3.1 Requirements and challenges in Phase 2

3.2.3.2 Structure of the training programme in Phase 2

3.2.3.3 Motivation highlights in Phase 2

3.2.4 Advanced training leading to expert cultural educator status

3.2.4.1 Requirements and challenges in Phase 3

3.2.4.2 Structure of the training programme in Phase 3

3.2.4.3 Motivation highlights in Phase 3

3.2.5 Expert cultural educator

3.2.5.1 Requirements and challenges in Phase 4

3.2.5.2 Structure of the training programme in Phase 4

3.2.5.3 Motivation highlights in Phase 4

3.2.6 Never stand in the way of new opportunities

3.3 Time for some straight talking! The staff appraisal meeting

3.4 Ever in search of knowledge

3.4.1 Exchanging knowledge – all about the institution

3.4.2 Bringing in knowledge from outside – seminars and training courses

3.4.3 Out and about in search of knowledge – excursions

3.4.4 Team building

4 TAKING STOCK AND PLANNING AHEAD

4.1 Statistics – What do the figures tell us?

4.2 Visitor satisfaction

4.3 Our achievements over the past year – Updating the personal profile record

4.4 No more “It’ll do”! Introducing a feedback culture

4.5 The department, its staff and the audience

4.6 Summary

APPENDIX

Index

Real-life and worked examples

Table of figures

References

Wencke Maderbacher

Deputy Head of the Education Department at the Technisches Museum Wien Since 2006, Deputy Head of Department Wencke Maderbacher has played an important role in shaping educational work at the Technisches Museum Wien. Her career in cultural education started in 2001 when she began working as a freelance cultural educator. She soon became interested in personnel management and organisation and increasingly dedicated herself to furthering the education team. Wencke Maderbacher’s work bridges a gap between the development of creative concepts and economic feasibility in the cultural education sector.

In 2015 Wencke Maderbacher took over the office of ICOM CECA National Correspondence Austria.

Introduction

Why hire cultural educators on a permanent basis if you can get by without?

The term “cultural education” immediately conjures up images of interesting guided tours and fascinating workshops. The aim is to captivate all manner of visitors by means of anything from VIP programmes to low- threshold offerings. But who actually works at this interface between the institution and the audience? And what are their working conditions like?

Which of them benefit from salaried employment – and which from freelance service contracts?

How come salaried employment relationships are largely unheard of in this profession?

Are these questions as easy to answer as might be assumed at first glance?

In reality, the most important question we should be asking ourselves is: “How do we want to work?” Or to put it more precisely: “How do we want to work together?”

What would be on your personal wish list for the ideal job?

The first things that spring to mind are probably fair working conditions not dictated by (self-)exploitative contracts, realistic workloads, a good team atmosphere, amenable colleagues, meaningful work, respect and recognition for performance and, last but not least, creative freedom.

Is that a fair assessment?

In order for a team or a department to deliver good results, it needs to have stable framework conditions. The mere introduction of unlimited salaried employment relationships is not enough. A great deal more is required, such as transparency, open communication, staff development and career opportunities.

Staff are among the most valuable “resources” in the cultural sector. Their commitment is crucial for the success of the cultural institution. Cultural educators form the link between the institution and its audience. They bring objects to life, stimulating enthusiasm and interest among target groups of all ages and from all social and cultural backgrounds.

At many cultural institutions, cultural educators work as freelancers or on the basis of a works contract, which means they are only involved in the institution’s operations to a limited extent. It is somewhat unusual in this sector for salaried employment contracts to be concluded with the entire team, as has been done at the Technisches Museum Wien.

The shift from freelance service contracts to salaried employment relationships entails numerous changes in the organisation and day-to-day operations of a department, but also opens up entirely new opportunities in terms of educational formats and project work. The effects of these measures – improved communication, greater organisational efficiency, long-term planning of advanced training courses, knowledge transfer and, last but not least, increased staff motivation – can be felt outside the institution and are reflected in a higher standard of educational and project work.

A staff management strategy of this kind in the cultural sector, particularly in the field of cultural education, benefits all those involved – cultural educators, cultural institutions and visitors alike.

This book provides you with a practical tool, tried and tested over a period of several years, for organising workflows and collaboration within a salaried education team. The measures have been evaluated internally and externally in the course of numerous feedback meetings, and their cost effectiveness is continually being optimised. You can spare yourself a long process of trial and error – we have learned a lot since embarking on this journey and are now pleased to have the opportunity of sharing our experience with you.

This publication is divided into three main chapters.

Chapter 1 examines the pros and cons of salaried employment relationships. What are the implications of salaried employment contracts for the cultural institution and its staff? To what extent is this change in employment relationships evident to visitors?

The two central themes – organisation (Chapter 2: “Planning, calculating, experimenting”) and working together (Chapter 3) are constantly interlinked in everyday practice. Good collaboration calls for clearly defined procedures and a significant amount of planning behind the scenes so that resources and ideas can be unleashed for creative processes. A team that operates on a level playing field, where mutual respect and appreciation prevail, is able to pull together, pool the strengths of its individual members, and achieve new things. This kind of team is composed of exceptional members of staff who need to be offered support by the management and the institution as well as attractive opportunities and challenges. No easy task, to be sure – but one that is nevertheless possible and definitely worthwhile!

1. The start of something completely different

Humans are allergic to change. They love to say: “We’ve always done it this way.”

Grace Hopper, computer science pioneer

When education work was initiated several decades ago, it consisted of free interaction with school groups in museums; nowadays, organised art and cultural education experiences are offered by most cultural institutions – particularly the larger ones. Responsibility for activities of this kind can be allocated to various departments within the organisation: In some cases, the education department is part of a larger division: Marketing, Visitor Services or Collections. In others, such as the Technisches Museum Wien (TMW), it constitutes a division in its own right. This disparity is due to the fact that organisational structures differ from one institution to the next.

Generally speaking, two to five members of staff are responsible for organisational and conceptual development tasks in education departments. The education sessions themselves, involving direct interaction with the audience, are usually conducted by art and cultural educators in atypical employment, i.e. freelancers or contract workers, or by seasonal workers in marginal employment. A particularly contentious issue is the fact the workforce in the art and cultural education sector is mainly composed of women, who find themselves in a precarious employment situation by virtue of their cultural educator status. Given these circumstances, cultural educators are at the mercy of constantly changing employment relationships and sometimes have difficulty supporting themselves. All too often, cultural educators willingly prepare education sessions in their spare time, work highly flexible hours and accept suboptimal working conditions because the socio-political mandate or project is so riveting.

There is nevertheless constant emphasis on the importance of art and cultural education if institutions are to reach out to their target audiences and fulfil their educational mandate. Every institution and every collection it houses deserves the best possible target-group-orientated education service. However, this does not preclude improvements in working conditions. Lessons can and should be learned from industry, where staff development schemes have been commonplace for decades – in theory at least.

1.1. New contracts and their implications for the Technisches Museum Wien

The TMW is in a position to draw a direct comparison between a cultural education team with freelance service contracts and one with salaried employment contracts.

Up until January 2010, the team consisted of freelancers who were awarded extra works contracts for developing concepts; in January 2010, all cultural educators at the Technisches Museum Wien were offered permanent salaried positions.

The following comparison shows how the cultural education team at the TMW has developed. Every cultural institution and cultural education department is organised in a slightly different way, but there are always certain similarities in terms of the educational work performed and the staff.

All members of staff involved in the reorganisation of the cultural education team were interviewed: the staff from the personnel department responsible for the contracts and the payment of salaries, the direct supervisors (team leader and head of department), and the cultural educators who had previously conducted guided tours of the museum on a freelance basis. The most important questions addressed the positive and negative changes experienced with respect to work, responsibilities, organisational structure, the team and the management.

And then came the burning question: whether staff would want to revert to freelance service contracts having now had several years’ experience of the new system.

1.1.1. Personnel management: fair partnerships start with fair contracts

A salaried employment relationship not only offers legal certainty, but reflects staff recognition. Discontent arises primarily as a result of differing contracts or rates of pay being offered to workers carrying out similar tasks within a particular organisation or, worse still, within a department or team. The key question here is: “What do you want for yourself?”

One way of establishing whether or not a genuine employment relationship exists is to consider the following criteria:

Is the cultural educator under an obligation to perform the service in person?

Is the cultural educator bound by instructions from a supervisor and is she integrated in the organisation’s hierarchy by virtue of her work?

Is the worker at liberty to decide when and how much she wants to work?

Is the worker free to organise her work processes herself – with respect to assignments, fees, place of work, materials, procedures?

The circumstances prevailing at the TMW clearly indicated that the education team had employment status. What precluded freelance status was the daily work routine of the museum’s cultural education team. The cultural educators featured in the organisation chart, and they were not at liberty to decide who covered for whom when. Nor were they free to plan their own work schedule, as education sessions are always fixed in terms of location, room and topic. The fact that the cultural educator is able to compile her own work schedule by accepting or rejecting assignments does not constitute sufficient grounds for freelance status. Similarly, a works contract only makes sense in the case of a clearly defined “piece of work” – which in the field of cultural education could be the drafting and development of a concept, for example. Conducting an education session, on the other hand, does not qualify as a “piece of work”, but as a service with characteristics typical of an employment relationship; this is comparable to the situation of an orchestral musician whose prime responsibility is to provide a service on a regular basis.

Beware: Even if you award a freelance service contract or a works contract, what counts is the situation as lived out in practice. If the cultural educator is personally bound by instructions from superiors and the work processes are dictated by the employer, this indicates the existence of an employment relationship1

From the personnel department’s perspective, an employment contract makes considerably less work: once the contracts have been written, very little changes. This is in marked contrast to freelance service contracts which require each cultural educator to bill her services on a monthly basis by submitting a fee invoice, which has to be checked by the education department as well as the administration department. This time-consuming verification process requires separate payroll accounting and an additional payment run. Depending on the billed fee, partial national insurance (in the case of marginal employment) or full national insurance may apply. This often means that a subsequent change notification has to be sent to the regional health insurance provider if the freelancer has undertaken more or fewer assignments than planned, e.g. as a result of changes to the duty roster, cancellations or sickness. Under certain circumstances, insurance cover for the employee may cease at short notice.

As far as working hours are concerned, freelance service contracts undoubtedly offer institutions the advantage of employment law flexibility, particularly with respect to maximum working hours and rest periods for staff. As a fundamental principle, freelancers are not covered by labour protection in Austrian employment laws. Freelancers are at liberty to work non-stop if they wish to do so. The statutory regulations concerning working hours and rest periods in salaried employment relationships could therefore be viewed as an organisational drawback.

As far as costs are concerned, there is no significant difference for the employer between freelance service contracts and salaried employment contracts. From the end of the 1990s up until the middle of the first decade of the new millennium, it was financially advantageous in Austria to hire staff on the basis of freelance service contracts, as this allowed partial exemption from ancillary wage costs. Under current legislation, the ancillary wage costs for freelance service contracts are almost as high as for salaried employment relationships. However, in the case of freelance service contracts, there is still no entitlement to holiday pay, holiday bonuses, Christmas bonuses, carer’s leave or paternal leave, and the provisions of the Maternity Protection Act do not apply.

It is worth noting that, by offering all staff fair working conditions, state-owned cultural institutions can serve as a role model. A cultural institution not only has an educational mandate towards society, but also a responsibility towards its staff in its capacity as an employer.

1.1.2. Team leadership: joint efforts, joint planning for the future

When work is carried out in a stable team on a permanent basis, the quality and diversity of the programme increase. Previously there were occasional complaints from visitors about the educational activities, but since the reorganisation in 2010 visitor feedback has been very positive across the board, and negative comments are now virtually unheard of. Thanks to experience, training and the exchange of information, the cultural education team is even better able to respond to the requirements of different target audiences and act in an even more customer-orientated way. Mutual feedback within the team allows colleagues to learn from each other on a continual basis.

Previously, the leadership strategy consisted mainly of issuing instructions, as freelancers were only superficially involved in most projects; however since the change in the employment relationships, members of the department have been working together on projects on equal terms. As freelancers, the cultural educators generally used to implement ready-made concepts rather than developing concepts themselves. Today, the team leader assigns project work according to staff experience and educational background and communicates these decisions in a transparent manner. The cultural educators receive support and encouragement in carrying out their work.

Project work brings variation to the standard routine; staff are allotted time and scope to develop concepts during working hours. Through implementing their own concepts, staff gain increasing self-confidence; cultural educators are inspired to achieve their best. Each individual assumes greater responsibility for her own actions within the department. If the staff are happy, so is the institution, and the positive atmosphere does not go unnoticed by the audience.

From an organisational perspective, the improved scope for planning departmental activities and staff deployment on a long-term basis is particularly advantageous. The annual planning of projects and bookings can be carried out in a structured manner and advanced training measures put in place. Following induction training, responsibilities can be delegated to the team, which considerably simplifies day-to-day operations.