Name and AAU unit:

Ulla Langballe, Secretary, HR Department

Name three things you spend the most time on in your work?

That’s hard! I have a huge number of tasks that I deal with on an ongoing basis, but I’m fortunate to be surrounded by the best possible management team and wonderful colleagues in HR. I’m an octopus. One minute I'm discussing ambitions, strategies and development with our management team, then helping a distraught colleague with a coffee machine that’s acting up, and then discussing the HR budget with my finance partner.

In HR, we’re currently working on our strategic ambition. We’re in the middle of an exciting process with lots of potential where I have several roles working with both the management team and other colleagues.
As the student trainee coordinator at AAU, I’m the link between our very talented student counsellors, the student trainees and the educational institutions we work with. Working in this area is very inspiring as we’re constantly doing our best to provide our student trainees with optimal learning conditions.
The versatility required in my workday makes me a fan. When we go to work, it is important to me that we feel good about being there, respect each other and make sure there is room for everyone and that we totally "rock" in solving our tasks. We spend so many hours every day at work, so those hours must be substantively interesting, humour-filled and value-generating for myself and my surroundings.

What would you like more of at AAU? 

Transparency, openness and cross-collaboration. We are one unified organization and we are all here for the same purpose. I often find that we forget to look at the overall flow of a process or procedure. We’ve improved over the years, but I still see a lot of potential at all levels of the organization.

What would you like to change at AAU?

That’s somewhat related to the above. There is a lot of good collaboration going on across AAU, but I regularly also experience that there is mistrust or "pointing fingers" at the work being done. I’m sure that we can have an even better work culture if we have more trust in each other and our areas of expertise, and focus on how to bring out the best in everyone. We can be critical, but it must always be constructive. We all get more energy from positivity than negativity.

What is your best AAU memory?

I have a lot of good memories at AAU. I organised conferences in Greenland twice. It’s a special experience to plan a conference for 100 participants in Greenland from the office in Aalborg, but it is also an absolutely fantastic feeling to go to Nuuk to see things go smoothly[LI2] , all participants happy and lots of exciting research results and networks established. I coordinated an EU project on tourism for Henrik Halkier where we collaborated with several universities in Siberia. The kickoff took place in Tomsk where I was lucky enough to take part. It was an absolutely amazing experience that I will never forget.

What is the best AAU tip you would give a new colleague?

Be curious – and don't despair because something is difficult. Most importantly: network, network, network. During my 15 years at AAU, I’ve been involved in many different projects across AAU, completed internal courses, worked at several departments, etc. Through all this, I’ve created a lot of networks, and they are integral to my day-to-day life. I often know whom to contact for help or whom to discuss a specific challenge with, so relationships are just so important for the best possible collaboration.

Who are you passing the baton to and why?

I’m passing the baton to Camilla Schwartz Nielsen. She is a student office assistant at AAU Business School. I think it’s important that we shed light on how many talented student office assistants we train at AAU. We have a lot of colleagues who make a huge effort locally to educate super talented technical and administrative staff. The student trainees don't get much attention, so I'd like to give them a shout out. I think it’s important that our organisation is aware that we are an educational institution in several areas.