Description of the head of group and service owner functions

What is a head of group?

A head of group is an employee who is given responsibility for a subject area on behalf of the formal manager. Tasks include management, distribution and control of the work carried out by a group of employees within the subject area in question. Heads of group do not have HR responsibility.

Heads of group are operating in units where there are no formal intermediary managers (head of section) and where the manager has such a large area of responsibility that it is necessary to appoint a head of group to guide the academic work.

Heads of group have an overall responsibility of a highly academic and administrative nature.

It is the faculty dean or the HR director who decides whether a unit should have a head of group. The decision is made following an assessment in which emphasis is put on:

• The number and type of tasks the unit is responsible for
• The number of employees in the unit

Who to appoint as a head of group (if the unit is to have one - see the section above), will be decided following an assessment done by the unit's manager. 

What is a service owner?

• The service owner is appointed for a limited period by the academic director following input from the administrative management network (LAO)
• The service owner reports to the management network
• The service owner does not have HR responsibility

The extent to which the service owner role causes noteworthy changes to the responsibility areas and tasks will vary. An individual assessment should therefore be made in each case. If the service owner role does cause significant changes to a responsibility area or to the scope of the work tasks, we recommend a compensation in the form of additions to salary table B for state employees. B-grade  20-40 can be given after an individual assessment. The final assessment is made by the HR Director after a justified application from the line manager. The supplement is given for the period in which the role as service owner is held.

The service owner is responsible for

• Coordinating the benefits included in the service
• Guiding the resource network for the service
• Carrying out defined development needs
• Ensuring high quality, cost-efficiency and user focus on the service
• Settings goals and standards for the service
• Ensuring continuous improvement and development
• Ensuring anchoring by contacting the right decision maker in the case preparation
• Providing for internal communication in order to anchor the work in the right forums and roles