She sees the transition to SSC as a very major change and is not surprised that it is taking time and giving rise to some frustration before everything falls into place.
“However, this is not something we have chosen ourselves; there is a government decision behind the change and we are working to make the best of it”, she says.
Lund University is among the largest public authorities using SSC, which even has an office in Lund. This brings a great willingness to hear views and suggestions for improvement, as well as a simpler and closer collaboration between the officers at SSC and the University’s Human Resources division.
“Some of the staff from our old salary office now work at SSC”, says Ann Silbersky Isaksson.
Much of what the salary officers previously took care of has been handed over to the administrators and, to a certain extent, to the managers who have the main responsibility for their departments. Besides the additional workload, the heads of department at LTH, who have collectively written to the vice-chancellor, find Primula to be an unwieldy and inflexible system that is neither user-friendly nor quality-assured.
Tina Olsson, acting head of human resources at the Faculty of Science, thinks it is great not to have to deal with the paperwork and is happy about the digitisation process itself. However, she agrees with the heads of department that the system is not particularly user-friendly.
“It is not adapted to us. When I go in to approve something for my immediate colleagues, I am obliged to view all the cases pending for the whole faculty. And if something has gone wrong that I need to change, that particular case may not be visible if it is being processed by SSC at the time. It is stressful that so many cases are left lying around and it is so hard to find and follow up on your own cases”, says Tina Olsson.
Both the administrators and the heads of department would like a permanent contact person, an intermediary who can review cases from LU that are processed in the system. Currently, the cases go straight into the system which is based on self-reporting and a lot of things can go wrong.
LU’s Human Resources division regularly offers training sessions as well as assistance on site for those experiencing problems with the system. The HR website is also under review and quick guides are being updated. Telephone support for human resources administrators at the faculty level is up and running – and two new central human resources administrators are on the way, who will be able to review cases from LU to a certain extent. Ann Silbersky Isaksson urges patience and can already see some positive aspects to the transition.
