Questions and answers on the review of Professional Services

To consolidate KI's operational support for the future. We are not facing any savings at the moment, but many other universities and higher education institutions are. At the same time, increased demands from the outside world and a higher security situation mean that we need to coordinate better to be able to do more with the resources we already have. This was also a clear message in the inventory of development needs at KI that the current university management made when it took office last year. More coordinated and efficient operational support was high on the list of priorities expressed by various representatives from KI's core activities.

The review is being carried out in many steps over several years. We have previously conducted several studies, such as Harmonized professional services 2019-2021, which point out the need for increased coordination within operational support. When the current university management took office, they had a broad dialog throughout KI to identify development needs. This resulted in the nine strategic focus areas that comprise this assignment.

One of the entry points of the University Director was to try to keep the subject areas from strategic to operational work together within each office and be more equal in size. This is still the ambition, but we need to be pragmatic and take one step at a time. There are no perfect solutions and different trade-offs need to be made; this is why the next steps with input from all staff is important. The changes that are now being discussed may be followed by other changes depending on the further work.

At present, there are problems of compartmentalization and a lack of clarity about functional responsibility in some places within PS. Fewer offices will facilitate coordination and more efficient use of resources and expertise. The ambition is for each office to be responsible for its entire area of expertise so that communication and support can be designed based on the needs of different target groups and the increased demands from the outside world. A smaller management team take a better joint responsibility for priorities and strategically developing GVS' work through for example operational planning.

This is part of the strategic focus area A. Greater dialogue and transparency. The offices of HR and Communications are already collaborating and developing various managerial trainings for and with managers to promote collaboration, networking and skills development.

The project team is currently examining this issue together with HR. In general, there are currently no savings requirements in the changes and we want to make use of the good competence that exists within PS.

A PS safety representatives will be part of the project group from August. The project manager, Marie-Louice Isacson, has had regular meetings with the main safety representatives since the review began. The issue is also discussed at regular work environment meetings at all levels (GVS, KIB, TL and central).

The organization of PS that we are now gradually working towards must be sustainable regardless of how the collegial bodies are put together. The operational support must be able to support academic leaders and decision-making bodies based on each office's area of responsibility. This work needs a clearer coordination. During the autumn, we will also work in parallel to develop focus area B. Clearer responsibilities and roles within the organisation and management.

This issue is not part of the review of PS, but will be addressed in sub-project II starting at the end of 2024.

Assignment F. Coordinated and optimised administration is identified by the university management as one of KI's nine strategic focus areas. In the project Review of adminstrative organisation and procedures, the academic management is represented by the deans in the steering group. The university management is continuously informed about the development of the project.

There are different ways of looking at their activities. For example, the organization of university libraries in Sweden and abroad differs - sometimes they are seen as core activities, sometimes as support, they are simply in between. Whatever organization is decided, the cooperation with the core activities remains important and the mission of these different activities will continue. An organization closer to PS facilitates coordination with related operational support functions and we will now analyse more closely at how this could look.

The university management has assessed that regardless of KIB's location, the best solution is for MHK to be organizationally part of KIB. This is partly to reduce the vulnerability of MHK by being coordinated in a larger operation where, among other things, resources for communication and administration can be shared. But there are also advantages of coordinating and developing KI's different library activities together towards users and stakeholders.

To avoid concerns that may arise from speculation about changes, we want to share the information that is available so that responsible managers can start a dialogue and address any concerns before the summer season begins. The actual work of deepening the analysis of the proposed change is planned for after the summer.

Within this sub-project, no such plan exists at present. The issue of changes in our physical workplace is part of the project Modernizing ways of working and workplace. If you personally have wishes or needs regarding the revision of PS, you can raise them with your manager.

The processes need to develop in different ways, for example as part of the next steps of the review but also within the project Modernizing ways of working and workplace, as well as within the assignment B3: A common governance, planning and follow-up process for the entire university (which will begin this autumn).

Organization is important, but the most important thing is how we work together. We need to ensure that our offices meet our demands for a flexible way of working where we are sometimes remote and sometimes at work. We currently lack offices that are optimized for the new hybrid working day and that promote enhanced collaboration within and between our offices to provide optimal support. The hope is that both of these projects will lead to better and closer cooperation within the operational support so that we can provide optimal support to the entire organization at KI. 

The term "PS+" has been used in discussions about the review of PS to signal that, in addition to the offices within PS, the review also includes KI's University Library (KIB), the unit Teaching and Learning (TL) and the activities of Medical History and Heritage (MHK).