By Lea Laursen Pasgaard, AAU Communication. Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication

- It is no secret that the university's finances are under pressure and that we are looking at some years with tight financial management and cutbacks that will affect all units. In the management, our concern is that cutbacks compromise the quality of the work as little as possible. Instead of across-the-board savings in all areas, we are looking at resources, competencies and tasks in an overall strategic perspective.

These are the words of University Director Søren Lind Christiansen who on Friday, 25 August convened an extraordinary meeting of the staff representatives in the Shared Services Joint Consultation and Occupational Health and Safety Committee. The agenda included a briefing and a discussion of various initiatives that the administrative management plans to introduce in Shared Services. The aim is to ensure smarter work procedures and to contribute to the DKK 20 million that the university must find in the budget.

The University Board decided that the university's dwindling equity must be rebuilt so that by the end of 2025 there will be DKK 60 million in available resources. At the same time, money must be found for new investments in, among other things, a new study administration system and an upgrade of information- and cybersecurity.

For the Shared Services units this means an overall savings of DKK 4.2 million. Part of this amount is found in not re-posting a number of unfilled positions. At IT Services and Study Service, the budget framework and changes in task focus meant that a minor staff adjustment could not be avoided. The local consultation committees in the Shared Services units concerned were involved in parallel with the Joint Consultation and Occupational Health and Safety Committee and the affected staff members have been notified.

Shared Services in the finance area

The administrative management assesses that some of the tasks dealing with management accounting can be solved more efficiently by moving the tasks from the individual Shared Services unit to the Finance and Accounts Department.

- We can see that there are a number of tasks and processes that are currently being handled in several different units. It would be advantageous to handle them in one place. It is important to ensure critical mass in terms of expertise and reduce vulnerability in task solution. Specifically, we want to avoid the individual unit being left without a finance officer if, for example, long-term illness strikes, says the university director.

In principle, the relevant finance officers who handle tasks like basic registration, external projects and the rent model move to the Finance and Accounts Department. In some cases, the finance task moves while the staff member remains in the unit. The expectation is that this will take place within the current financial framework – without the need for staff adjustments. The staff members affected have been informed, and the Finance and Accounts Department is now in the process of ensuring the new colleagues and tasks a smooth transition to the unit they will join as of 1 January 2024.

New mobile team to ensure smarter solutions

In addition, management will create a process unit to ensure better work procedures across the organization. The unit will act as a kind of mobile team. The idea is that this team will help units and areas throughout the organization spot and create better processes that increase the quality of task solution and create greater coherence across the units.

- The work must of course take place in conjunction with the staff members responsible for the tasks concerned. The aim is to put an end to duplication of work and processes that for one reason or another do not make sense. It may also be a matter of automating tasks that are still being solved manually, Søren Lind Christiansen explains.

The unit will be part of the Shared Services unit Research Services that today is headed by Nina Schjoldager, Vice Director. The creation of the new unit is not expected to entail any staff adjustments.

The future of Shared Services

The university director emphasizes that external circumstances may change and that plans may need to be adjusted. The administrative management of Shared Services is therefore continuously looking at the need for new initiatives and adjustments to develop Shared Services in the direction the university needs.