Create the conditions for streamlining the university's entire operational support

There are opportunities for efficiency gains through digitalisation, improved coordination and unified ways of working. The task includes proposing concrete savings and efficiency improvements focusing on:

• Unified ways of working for the university's overall financial support in terms of management support, budgeting and project accounting that lead to more efficient financial management and reduced administration
  
  
• Unified working methods in financial administrative processes with a particular focus on purchasing and invoicing processes, expense management through increased use of digital tools and forms.

Administration: Joakim Karlsson, chief financial officer, and Achim Lang, administrative director School of Business and Economics

Proposed savings: Four posts

The mission in its entirety regarding the University's financial support (in Swedish).

Research support is provided by the University Library, central departments and faculty offices. It includes support for researchers and research projects as well as strategic support to university and faculty management. There is a large number of staff involved in research support, which is why coordination and streamlining are needed to provide relevant and accessible support to researchers and management. This is in line with the conclusion of a portfolio project in which the external reviewer recommends that support for external funding of research needs to be coordinated and developed. One option is to gather parts of the central research support in a department that is Administration for overall coordination. 

The assignment does not include support for doctoral education beyond the support doctoral students receive in their research role.

Administration: Annett Wolf, acting office manager Office of External Relations, Lotta Gustafsson, library director, Karin Järplid, planning manager, and Achim Lang, administrative director School of Business and Economics

Proposed savings: Three posts

The mission in its entirety regarding the University's research support (in Swedish).

Faculty ICT support is often specialised and should be coordinated for greater efficiency and reduced vulnerability. ICT support should be based on knowledge of pedagogical development, while it is important to ensure that it is anchored in the organisation and working methods. The mission includes:

• Proposing a model for the coordination of ICT support to ensure effective and relevant operational support to teaching staff.

Administration: Lotta Gustafsson, library director, and Emma Vestberg, administrative director Faculty of Health and Life Sciences.

Proposed savings: Two posts

The mission in its entirety regarding the University's ICT support (in Swedish).

The operational support for internationalisation in education and research mainly involves staff at the Student Affairs Office, the External Relations Office, the Communications Office and the Faculty Offices. In total, there are about 40 employees within the support who work with internationalisation in the broader sense. A review of the internationalisation support shows a need to strengthen the support at faculty level, to have common objectives for internationalisation and that the joint support for internationalisation needs to be gathered in one section.

Administration: Charlotte Kipowiski, office manager Office of Student Affairs, Annett Wolf, acting office manager Office of External Relations, and Emma Vestberg, administrative director Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Proposed savings: Three posts

The mission in its entirety regarding the University's internationalisation support (in Swedish).

There are around 60 posts in the IT area, mainly in the IT department but also in the faculty offices. There is a need for rationalisation through increased coordination and changes in working methods. The task includes:

• organising and centralising all standardised IT support
• streamlining working methods
• creating the conditions for a universally resourced digitalisation organisation
• transferring more resources to more development-oriented IT support and implementing the necessary change of skills

Administration: Peter Bergehamn, Head of IT, and Mari Gerdin, administrative director Faculty of Technology

Proposed savings: Five posts

The assignment in its entirety regarding the university's IT support (in Swedish).

During the spring, deans and heads of department have pointed out that the communication closely connected to the organisation needs to be strengthened and streamlined based on the needs of organisation. The central communication and marketing support consists of about 45 positions. In addition, there are functions at the faculties that partly work with communication and marketing support, which means a total of about 50 employees.

The task of streamlining communication and marketing support should include the mapping of resource allocation and how the allocation is shaped by orders and decisions from different parts of the university. The work includes identifying any duplication of work, clarifying processes and priorities and making suggestions for savings.

Administration: Katarina Ek, chief communications officer, Håkan Sandström, administrative director Faculty of Social Sciences, and Mari Gerdin, administrative director Faculty of Technology

Proposed savings: Three posts

The mission in its entirety regarding the University's communication and marketing support (in Swedish).

In the field of operational support, the main areas involved are the University Management Office, the Faculty Offices and the Office of Teacher Education. The work is mainly based on three interrelated areas:

• Statutory monitoring. Requirements for follow-up and reporting have increased in recent years. Linnaeus University is highly ambitious in managing these requirements and there is reason to review ambition levels and efficiency improvements in terms of staffing, implementation and system costs so that more resources can be allocated to supporting core operations.
  
  
• Organisation planning, monitoring and decision basis. This approach creates a series of policy documents and dialogues, which in turn provide a wealth of data, key figures and indicators that are also used for preparation and decision-making. The work should be reviewed in terms of: 1. what information is needed for what purpose 2. division of responsibilities and coordination 3. ability to analyse information. Needs, production, preparation competence and use of data should therefore be coordinated.
  
  
• Quality. The Academy coordinates the work concerning quality in line with international and national requirements. However, the compilation of data and documentation is an administrative task and provides the basis for planning, monitoring and analysis. The university's needs, production and use of data should be better coordinated in these aspects as well. It is difficult to know how many people are employed in planning, monitoring and analysis, but according to the managers' assessment, it is about 15 positions.

Administration: Karin Järplid, planning manager, and Ulrika Bengtsson Verde, administrative director Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

Proposed Savings: Two positions

The mission in its entirety regarding the University's Planning, monitoring and analysis (in Swedish).

Study and career counseling, including career counseling, consists of approximately 25 positions located in faculty offices, the student department, external relations, and the teacher education office. There are opportunities for efficiency gains by coordinating working methods, while strengthening the existing network can simultaneously reduce vulnerability and contribute to work across organizational boundaries.

Administration: Charlotte Kipowiski, office manager Office of Student Affairs, and Johan Krantz, administrative director Board of Teacher Education.

Proposed Savings: Two positions

The mission in its entirety regarding the University's study and career counseling (in Swedish).

A changed security situation has recently increased the need to strengthen the cohesive responsibility for the university’s five security areas. Therefore, in 2024, the University Director established a security department led by an acting Security Chief.

The main task of the Security Chief is to strengthen, coordinate, and security of the university. A prioritised issue is to develop, strengthen, and coordinate the comprehensive work with information security and IT security. The costs for developing security are estimated to be 3–5 million. These costs must be covered within the existing budget framework.

Marie Brorsson, acting head of security, is tasked with proposing:

• how security responsibilities should be distributed within each security area
• how the security department can support and coordinate the university’s comprehensive work on security
• which security areas should be transferred to the security department.

The mission in its entirety regarding the University's security (in Swedish).

There is a need to develop universal working methods and create a consensus between the central level and the faculty level, as well as to relieve teachers and students. Increased coordination creates conditions to strengthen quality and efficiency while also resulting in savings. The assignment should primarily focus on:

• administrative processes and routines regarding support for the planning, implementation, and completion of education at the undergraduate and advanced levels, as well as developing the cooperation between the various support functions.

A starting point for the task is the university’s educational strategy.

Administration: Charlotte Kipowiski, office manager Office of Student Affairs, and Ulrika Bengtsson-Verde, administrative director Faculty of Arts and Humanities. David Svensson, office manager Office of Facilities Management and Services, will be involved in work primarily related to scheduling, room booking, and exam management.

Proposed Savings: Six positions

The mission in its entirety regarding the University's educational support (in Swedish).

How was the distribution decided? How did you arrive at the figures?
Based on the university’s financial circumstances, the starting point was that approximately SEK 30 million needs to be saved to balance the budget. This roughly corresponds to 30 full-time positions. These were then distributed between the focus areas based on the estimated number of positions in each area.

Why is the current situation analysis being conducted now? If you don’t know what changes will be made, how can you know how many positions need to be cut?
Based on the financial situation, we know how much needs to be saved to balance the budget, which is approximately SEK 30 million, corresponding to around 30 positions. Last spring, heads of department, division managers, and the library director, together with the university director, conducted operational analyses of their respective departments and offices. These analyses were then compiled into the report presented in September (Swedish only). Based on that report, more detailed supporting information will now be prepared. To show what changes in working methods are needed, managers will first describe the current situation. After that, proposals for organisational changes will be developed, followed by a plan for how the changes can be implemented.

What is the baseline date?
The baseline date is 1 October 2024, but we need to understand that the conditions may change due to external factors affecting the university.

What will happen to new employees?
Since we currently don’t know what a potential future restructuring process will look like, we can’t answer this question for the time being.

How did you arrive at the university-wide focus areas?
The work began with office managers, administrative directors, and the library director conducting an analysis of their respective units, followed by a joint analysis of those areas that span multiple organisational units. In this work, they identified challenges and opportunities in many different areas – more than those documented in the report. The ten most strategically important areas were selected as focus areas. These focus areas extend across several offices and faculty offices, so there’s a good chance that they will entail coordination benefits.

Why aren’t all offices included in the university-wide focus areas?
The ten focus areas are areas that both the central administration and the faculty offices work on – that is, they’re not office-specific. Operational areas managed by a single office for the entire university are handled by that office as part of its regular budget work. All the offices within the central administration, as well as several faculty offices, have had their budget frameworks reduced for 2025, so the entire operational support structure needs to change its way of working. The only exception is the Security Office, where the university needs to allocate increased resources.

What does it mean if “my area of work” is not included among the focus areas?
It doesn’t necessarily mean much. All offices within the central administration, as well as several faculty offices, are facing reduced budget frameworks for 2025, so the entire operational support structure needs to change its way of working. The only exception is the Security Department, where the university needs to allocate increased resources.

Will the office budgets also be reduced?
The university’s operational support as a whole has a budget deficit for 2024, so the entire operational support structure needs to change its working methods to increase coordination and reduce costs. All offices within the central administration, as well as several faculty offices, have had their budget frameworks reduced for 2025, meaning the entire operational support structure needs to adapt its way of working. This requires each office manager and administrative director to adjust their operations to the new conditions, so the impact on offices and faculty offices may vary. The only exception is the Security Office, where the university needs to allocate additional resources.

Will the work be the same across all the university-wide focus areas?
No, mandates will differ between focus areas. The areas face different challenges and conditions, which means the work will vary between the different focus areas.

Does the restructuring process mean that staff will be laid off?
The total number of employees in operational support needs to be reduced to achieve a budget that is sustainable in the long term, and we need to free up more resources for education and research. How the savings will be implemented is not yet decided. In March–April 2025, office managers and administrative directors will report the changes they have found to be necessary within their respective focus areas, and only then will it be possible to determine the outcome. The plan is for changes to be implemented during autumn 2025.

When will I, as an employee, have a chance to influence the work on the operational analysis?
The work and challenges differ between the focus areas, so we can’t give a general answer about if, when, and how you’ll have a chance to influence the work. If you have any questions or concerns, you should first speak with your office manager or administrative director, who can either give you an answer or pass the question on.

Will there be savings in other parts of the university’s operations as well?
We don’t know yet. Linnaeus University had reduced allocations in the government’s budget proposal presented in September 2024. The government’s research bill is expected to be released in November 2024, and it will outline the distribution of research funds. There’s also an on-going investigation into teacher and preschool teacher training programmes, which is likely to impact the university’s financial conditions from 2026.

Why are we transitioning to an ABW solution in the university administration if the staff is going to be reduced anyway?
Switching to other types of workplace solutions isn’t necessarily just about making room for more people. The plan is to create more flexible workspaces for the future so the university can manage both increases and decreases in the number of employees, while also being able to handle changing needs and potential organisational changes.  

Will there be an opportunity for early retirement?
We can’t say at this point, but retirement is a choice that lies with the individual. In connection with a restructuring, the university follows the collective agreements that regulate the benefits that may be applicable.