Exciting news! BIR Survey results presented at CILIP K&IM SIG Professionals week

BIR is delighted to announce that lead researcher and BIR board member, Stephen Phillips will be presenting some of the results of our annual survey at CILIP K&IM SIG professionals week taking place on 14th June.  This is the first time in its 30-year history that the results of the survey will have been presented outside of the published journal.

CILIP K&IM SIG professionals week entitled SHIFT: the future of knowledge and information management will be a virtual event running Monday 14th through to Thursday 17th June.  In addition to Stephen, other presenters include Natasha Howard, Paul Corney and Rory Huston.

As the focus of the event is on the future and changes to careers Stephen will be presenting on three key themes that were identified by our survey participants as areas of priority and focus for them in 2021.   These are:

Client engagement: We have seen from the results that client engagement was a significant challenge, but that this is not all bad news. Stephen notes that “the pandemic has also levelled the playing field when it comes to client engagement.  With everyone working from home, traditional hierarchies were eroded and IS teams found themselves with unprecedented access to stakeholders, although some found it harder to engage more junior colleagues.  For those organisations that continued to recruit through the crisis, reaching new colleagues to onboard and educate them about IS capabilities was especially challenging.”

Hybrid working: This looks to be a very popular theme for 2021 as we come out of pandemic restrictions but want to capitalise on the positives of working remotely whilst still maintaining good links with the office too.  Stephen says that “some IS teams have shifted their focus to support the hybrid working, capitalising on improved digital literacy of their users and stakeholders.”

Staying ahead of the research curve:  What will it take to keep pace with demand?  Our results highlighted 20% upward increase in demand for IS services during the pandemic.  Stephen notes that “there is widespread recognition that IS teams need to be more agile and nimble to prevent their contributions being rendered obsolete by the rapidly changing operating environment”.

Do book your place (open to CILIP members and non-members alike) and join us in what will be an interactive session – short presentation followed by the opportunity to reflect on and discuss with peers, these themes and ideas in breakout ‘café’ style sessions.