The right pay and on time - even with corona
In a new series of articles from University Director Arnold Boon, we highlight important operational tasks being carried out in different corners of the administration. This month, focus is on the payroll department at AU HR, who make sure that everyone is paid on time, even while we are all working from home.
It feels good when your payslip turns up in your e-box just before the end of every month, and even better when cool cash ticks into your bank account a few days later. A small team at AU HR work hard every month to make sure this happens and to live up to their own goal: ‘the right pay and on time’.
"Our goal is simple but effective, and our dedicated and competent staff strive to meet it every single day. Among other things through continuous development and optimisation of our work processes," says Tim Strandgaard Laursen, the head of AU HR Payroll.
Payroll administration is not only about paying salaries on the last day of the month. The department also deals with many other tasks, as he explains:
"Our team is responsible for a large number of payroll-related tasks. Besides paying salaries, we’re also responsible for advising employees on collective agreements, pensions and tax matters. We administrate refunds from the state and municipality and we have control tasks in relation to management information and AU's auditors. Moreover, we’re responsible for settling holiday pay, making holiday deductions and ensuring a smooth transition to the new Holiday Act, which is currently taking up a lot of the time of our specialist holiday team."
AU HR Payroll has a staff of 13 divided into three teams covering the five faculties and the administration. The department also works closely with the local payroll departments at the faculty administrative centres.
"Seven years ago, parts of the payroll task were decentralised to the administrative centres, with whom AU HR Payroll has a good and constructive collaboration. As a unit, we also work closely with colleagues at AU Finance and AU IT, among others," explains Tim Strandgaard Laursen.
Critical role during the corona crisis
AU HR Payroll has been designated as one of AU ?s emergency services. When, on 13 March, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen shut down Denmark and sent public employees home, Tim Strandgaard Laursen had to set up a team who would still have to meet physically at AU to perform their duties.
"Four of us each worked in a different office. But after the first week of the shutdown, we decided that we could do all our work from home, as it is all digitalised. After this, the biggest challenge was getting hold of laptops for all employees, but we managed to do this in the end,” says Tim Strandgaard Laursen, who stresses that everyone is looking forward to returning to normal.
And development projects have not come to a standstill either, even though they are now being managed from a distance. For example, AU HR Payroll are developing a robot to administrate holiday deductions. The aim is to release capacity for more development-oriented projects. The transition to the new Holiday Act is also taking up a lot of time – and it will continue to do so up to 1 September 2020, when the new Act comes into force, and after that too.
Read more:
Read previous articles in the series: