HoD News - 28 May 2021

Dear colleagues,

Returning to campus

I’ve been delighted to finally be able to meet colleagues and PhD students on campus again this week. We are still in the early stage of the reopening, and it is late in the academic year, which means that many of you prepare for examinations at home, so naturally campus life is still rather quiet. As we slowly move towards a further reopening and a full vaccination roll out, I look very much forward to 1 August when all the university’s employees will be able to work on site again. However, hybrid or blended ways of working have now become an integrated part of most people’s working habits, and it is important that the department as a workplace focuses on finding a good balance in this “new normal”.

Work place environment

As mentioned in a previous newsletter, a number of initiatives to work with (preventive) stress management, workplace culture, gender and diversity balance have been on the agenda in 2020 and will continue to be so.  As a step towards encouraging a more appreciative work environment at the department, the management team is hosting a workshop on 16 June facilitated by AU HR involving, among others, the section councils, the teaching coordinators, the union representative and the occupational health and safety representatives.

Also, LSU (the local liaison committee) and ECON’s Departmental Forum are important co-players and participants in this focus on strengthening different aspects of the work environment at ECON. If you would like to hear more about the different initiatives, I encourage you to contact an LSU or DF representative.

For employees returning after parental leave, the management team has decided that it will be possible to get a teaching reduction corresponding to 50 % of the leave period in our norm system, i.e. 1 month of parental leave will result in a time-reduction in our norm system of 1.5 months. This will take effect from 1 February 2020, when we introduced the new norm system. Adjustments will be made to the already registered leave periods. Our hope is that this initiative will be supportive in contributing to ensuring and improving a better work-family balance and to fertilize the ground for improving the gender balance along the career ladder.

Promotions and new colleagues

A list of new hires and promotions to the associate and full professor level is included in this week’s ECON Newsletter. I would like to congratulate those of you who have been promoted, and I look forward to welcoming new colleagues in person (including junior faculty) during the next couple of months. My hope is that the department will be able to host a welcoming (back) event in early September to catch up with colleagues across sections and enjoy good food and drinks. More information will follow.

Annual salary negotiations

Lastly, this year’s salary negotiations have now been completed, and the results have been communicated to the applicants as well as some non-applicants. The frame available was limited to 0.5% of the 2020 wage sum, corresponding to approximately DKK 500,000. I have had an excellent collaboration with the union representative as well as section and centre leaders in allocating the available frame. Both groups mentioned above have been accommodated to some extent, others have not been accommodated in this round, unfortunately. However, I would like to express my appreciation of the good work in all dimensions that you are doing - This applies for all staff categories.

I wish you all a nice weekend.

Niels Haldrup