Monday Update

Managing Your Mental Health

HR has collected a great set of mental health resources to help you manage the ups and downs of our COVID-19 experience. Our VPFO HR staff is on campus every day for confidential conversations. See below for this week’s HR duty roster.

Articles from Central HR this week:

A few of the courses and resources available to you:


Last week’s updates from UBC

General updates about UBC and its response to COVID-19 continue to be updated at covid19.ubc.ca.


Department updates

Facilities – Building Operations, Energy & Water, Infrastructure Development

  • Non-urgent services request into Peoplesoft: As part of the Planon transition, please do not submit service requests into Peoplesoft after Friday, October 16. Building Operations’ Service Centre will still process and respond to urgent requests.
  • Electrical maintenance/upgrade freeze: UBC IT Workday team have asked the Facilities team to refrain from scheduling any electrical shutdowns, load bank and generator testing for the period of Friday, October 30 to Monday, November 2 (four days), to provide stability to the campus-wide electrical system during the transition to Workday that weekend.
  • Old Auditorium failed sprinkler system: Due to a failed sprinkler system in Old Auditorium on Friday, October 9, the building is under repairs for water intrusion.
  • Infrastructure Development/Properties Trust project list: The October 2020 project list is now available on the Facilities website.
  • Construction Office priority list: October 2020 project status and list is available on the Building Operations website.

Finance – Comptroller, Finance & Operational Excellence, and Treasury

IRP/AEP/ISC – Integrated Renewal Program, Application Ecosystem Program, and Integrated Service Centre

  • Upcoming call-in sessions: The following IRP call-in sessions are open for registration:
    • October 21, 11:00 am: Joint Finance & HR Call-in session: Preparing for Go-Live 2. Register here.
    • October 22, 9:00 am: IRP Community Call-in session: Workday Support and the ISC. Register here.
  • Reminder – Key Milestones: Make sure you review the key milestones for HR and Finance that the IRP has shared in advance of cutover to Workday (CWL login required).
  • Key changes to payroll: Important changes to UBC’s payroll due to the transition to Workday have been flagged for the university community through a UBC Broadcast message. Information about these changes is available in more detail on the UBC HR website, including:
    • Changes to pay dates for hourly staff and student employees
    • Correction to income tax deduction for employees in low tax brackets
    • Change to combined paycheques for employees with multiple positions
    • Change to timing of benefit premium deductions
    • New rate calculation for basic life insurance premiums.

Operations & Advising — Communications & Engagement and Human Resources

  • New UBC photos of VPFO team and COVID-19: In cooperation with SRS, Communications & Engagement has produced a new set of VPFO photos featuring our staff at work while adhering to COVID-19 safety measures. Thanks to Paul Gill, Janet Hankins, Isgo Nercessian, Daljit Rana, Sukhvinder Burchha, Fatemeh Haghjoo, Bhargavi Raghavendran and JP Oliveira for being our models.
  • VPFO HR on-site support schedule this week:
    • October 12: Happy Thanksgiving
      October 13: Gregor Macdonald, Arvind Kang
      October 14: Rachel Lau
      October 15: Matt Furgal, Kasia Burza
      October 16: Matt Furgal, Rachel Lau

SRS Updates

  • COVID-19 Safety Planning Tools: To support COVID-19 Safety Plan owners, SRS team members have recently updated the suite of COVID-19 planning resources, making it easier to make amendments/updates where required. Planning Resources are on the SRS website.
  • COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions: A series of FAQs about the reporting of COVID-19 cases at UBC has been published on the SRS website. Information about health authority contact tracing and how UBC may support it can now be found in the COVID-19 section of the website.
  • SRS Strategic Planning: Members of the SRS Leadership team continue the process of strategic planning for the department and last week held a facilitated planning session with the Strategic Decision Support team. Work on the plan is still ongoing with feedback sessions planned for November.

Other notable updates

SHAKEOUT 2020 THIS THURSDAY

Don’t forget to join the UBC virtual ShakeOut drill on Thursday Oct 15th. Learn how to prepare your home for an emergency, and practice “Drop, Cover and Hold On” with members of the Safety & Risk Services team. All VPFO team members were previously sent an Outlook invitation for the event, you can also find more information at Ready.ubc.ca.


Helpful news

People have been suggesting news articles that they have found informative or helpful at work. These are provided for information and entertainment only. Unless noted, UBC doesn’t specifically endorse or supply editorial to this content.

Sharing an article that may be helpful to your peers? Send it to communications@vpfo.ubc.ca at any time.