This section of the careers hub is designed to help anyone looking to employ an archivist, records manager, archive conservator or other record-keeping professional.
You may already employ record-keepers in your organisation and are simply looking to replace a staff member or add to your staff team. You may still find some of the guidance here helpful and if you haven’t refreshed your recruitment pack (job ads, job descriptions, person specifications etc) recently some of this information is definitely for you!
If this is the first time you have employed a professional record-keeper then the following advice and guidance will be essential in helping you find the right person.
The Archives and Records Association has produced three competency frameworks covering:
Archivists
Records Managers
Archive Conservators
There are many overlaps in the frameworks but you will also be able to see the different competencies required for these roles.
You can find all three frameworks here.
We recommend using qualified staff for any role that will not be supervised by someone who is already qualified and experienced.
You can find more information about this on the National Archives website here: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/advice-and-guidance/running-your-organisation/writing-a-job-description/about-this-guidance/
In regard to archivists – the Archive Accreditation standard outlines where qualified staff are required:
The Archive Service Accreditation Standard Guidance (PDF, 1.4MB) includes a clear statement on where a qualification is required for an archives post:
“It is expected that all publicly funded archive services will employ one or more staff with a post graduate archives qualification. Accreditation recognises that for some services non-archivists will be engaged in caring for archive collections, e.g. curators and librarians.
Furthermore, Accreditation accepts that the smallest services may be limited in both the number of professionally qualified archivists and paid staff generally. It may be that volunteers deliver certain responsibilities. However, every service applying for accreditation is expected to have access to professional archival expertise appropriate to the type and nature of the organisation and collection.
Some small private archive services may not employ a professional archivist on staff but will be expected to have access to professional archival advice e.g. formally contracted support from a professional archivist.”
Archivists:
There are two key routes into the sector: either the postgraduate qualification accredited by the Archives and Records Association, or by completing a Level 7 Archivist and Records Manager apprenticeship. If you receive an application from a candidate with an overseas archives qualification, check whether the qualification is still offered and whether the content of the syllabus meets your requirements. While careers in Librarianship, Museum Curation and Heritage Interpretation may have points in common with Archivists, including complementary and transferable skills, they are nevertheless discrete professions with their own distinct professional practices, ethics and training.
Records Managers and Information Governance professionals:
There are many more routes into records management and information governance. Both the routes shown above for archivists are also appropriate qualifications for records managers. However, there is no one qualification and many experienced and successful records managers have furthered their career via on the job training and undertaking short courses and cpd opportunities. Most archivists are also qualified in Records Management.
Archive Conservators
There are also many routes into the profession for Archive Conservators. Although the Archives and Records Association does not formally accredit any courses in this area it recognises:
• West Dean College – MA in Conservation Studies
• City & Guilds of London Art School – Book Conservation course
as offering courses that are specific to archive conservation.
ARA also offers the Archive Conservation Training Scheme and this is a recognised sector-wide as a key qualification for archive conservators.
Archive Conservators may also be members of ICON the conservation sector membership body. However, membership of ICON does not mean that they are specifically qualified to carry out archive conservation.
In addition to qualifications many record-keepers also achieve professional registration with ARA. To be registered and to use the following post-nominals: RMARA or FMARA they must have completed a programme of registration where they measure their competency against the three competency frameworks.
ARA Registered members and Fellows can also use the titles:
• Registered Archivist
• Registered Records Manager
• Registered Archive Conservator
Professional registration is something that occurs after a record-keeper has qualified and for entry level posts it is unlikely that you will receive applications from people who have completed registration – but it is a useful indicator for more senior roles. Find out more about the Professional
For smaller projects or discrete pieces of work you may decide that it would be better or more convenient to employ someone on a freelance basis.
The Archives and Records Association has a list of freelancers with a variety of skills and specialities – you can search the list online here.
All freelancers on the ARA directory are members of ARA.
However, there will be other suitably qualified freelancers also working in the sector and asking other archive services for recommendations is also a useful exercise.
In planning your budget for freelancer work you may find ARA’s guidance here helpful.
Recruitment
Here are some helpful resources for use in developing a post (if it is a new role) or checking and refreshing a post (if it is an existing role)
This suite of pages from the National Archives talks you through developing a job description but also touches on a number of other topics relevant to recruiting a record-keeper:
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/advice-and-guidance/running-your-organisation/writing-a-job-description/
Each year ARA produces salary guidelines based on very broad pay bands – these should ideally be used as a minimum but it is recognised that each employer offers different job benefits in addition to salaries and these should also be taken into account.
You can find the salary recommendations here.
The record-keeping sector is not as diverse as we would like it to be and both the National Archives and the Archives and Records Association would like to see this change.
Here are some resources that could make a difference:
Inclusion https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/advice-and-guidance/running-your-organisation/inclusion/resources
Embedding Equality, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Archive Sector: seven part online training course.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has a comprehensive suite of guidelines here https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/guides/inclusive-employers/
You can use our free to use and access Job Board here.
This is promoted by the Archives and Records Association to its members and to the wider record-keeping sector.
For entry-level posts, apprenticeships, traineeships etc you may find you get a more diverse range of candidates if you look at locally available opportunities for advertising – eg Job Centres, local job boards.
For senior roles you may want to also use ARA’s paid-for recruitment service: ARC Recruitment – this puts your job directly into the in-box of ARA members – reaching people who may not be actively job-seeking but who may see your role as their next opportunity.