By Lea Laursen Pasgaard, AAU Communication. Photo: Lasse Møller Badstue, AAU Kommunikation. Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication

Linda Ibsen had not been at AAU for more than a few days before she felt at home. After her first 100 days as deputy director for HR, she is beginning to get an impression of the university, the staff and the development potential of the department of 55 staff members she heads.

- One of the things I hear myself telling others is that we have a good work culture at AAU. And it's really not a given that you have that, says Linda Ibsen.

For example, the good workplace culture is evident in her inbox. It's not overflowing with emails sent in the middle of the night or on weekends with ultra-short deadlines. Something she had been used to before. At the same time, she sees staff members who care about each other. Breakfast arrangements and good attendance at the university party are examples of this.

- I think there is respect for the fact that people are whole people. When I was hired, Søren (the university director - Ed.) told me that when the rector calls, you pick up the phone – no matter when. During the time I’ve been employed, he has called me once after 16.00, and that was around 16.30. So my impression is that the management also 'walks the talk'. I really want to be part of that too, she says.

More cross-cutting cooperation

In order to get to know the organisation well, Linda Ibsen has met with all the deans, and she is also in the process of touring the departments. Everywhere, she encounters the same entrepreneurial AAU spirit, but she also experiences a university where many processes run very separately in the main areas.

- I definitely see some opportunities for us to accomplish even more if we work more together. If we dare to use each other's expertise a little more across areas – in Shared Services as well as out in the main areas, says Linda Ibsen.

Closer to the departments

The deputy director makes no secret of the fact that she has great ambitions for the HR area. Overall, she wants the HR department more involved with the professional environments. The HR partners must handle several tasks for the departments and be so involved in their tasks, challenges and development that they are a natural source of feedback for heads of department and heads of secretariats.

Linda Ibsen sees an organisation that would like to collaborate more closely with HR, but also an organisation that wants a more open and modern HR.[LI1]  She has never met closed doors or crossed arms.

- I think there’s good energy around what we are trying to put on the agenda and what the organisation demands.

Break with long hiring processes

In conjunction with her team, she has formulated four strategic focus areas for the HR department in 2023-2024. This includes a professional and flexible recruitment process, one that ensures the right match at the right time and within the framework and conditions the university is subject to.

- There is a call from the organisation that we deal with the hiring process for academic staff in particular, says Linda Ibsen and continues:

The reason, according to the deputy director, is that over the years AAU has built up a large number of internal processes, approval procedures and habits that in principle are unnecessary and muddy the recruitment process.

A digital HR

Another task that landed on the new deputy director’s desk as one of the first things was to create a strategy for a digital HR. Several of the current systems are outdated and interact poorly, and this affects our ability to complete tasks.

- There are several processes in HR that are not electronic and still run in Excel[LI1] . The time has long since passed for us to be entering[LI2]  a lot of information manually that can be done digitally. But unfortunately, that’s not something you fix just like that, Linda Ibsen says, snapping her fingers.

- But we are in full swing with IT Services (ITS) and have a really good collaboration up and running, Linda Ibsen says.

Along with ITS, HR will also look at how the annual salary negotiation process and holiday and absence registration can be made more flexible and transparent.

Meaningful titles for everyone

Changes are also taking place internally at HR. Among other things, staff members have been put together in new teams; they all have to go through a competence development process where the focus is to create a shared HR mindset. All staff members also have or will get new, more meaningful and up-to-date titles.

- A title like Jens Jensen, Academic Officer says nothing about what you do. Rather, you are a payroll consultant, staff legal consultant or health and safety consultant. I’m very concerned with making sure we signal what we can do and what we actually do, says Linda Ibsen.