As we transition from our focus on the go-live for Workday, Planon, the Integrated Service Centre, we are probably all ready for a break. I encourage you to look at your vacation balances and plan the best break times for you and your teams as we enter the holiday period. Keeping rested and balanced will be important as we look forward to the new year and an environment of continued rapid change for the university.
The first change we will need to address together will be coming over the next 3 weeks, as your senior leaders work with you to find operational efficiencies and savings to help the university navigate our changing financial environment. We have been asked to find:
- 1 per cent of our operating budget, across the VPFO, for 2020/21.
- 2 per cent of our operating budget, across the VPFO, for 2021/22.
- Savings to absorb costs from COVID-19.
Fortunately, we are at a unique point. We are already poised for transformational change through our strategic plan’s focus on renewal and optimization. This means we have an opportunity to work differently, to work more closely, and to transform into a more unified portfolio.
To achieve this, we are going to come together to build on frameworks drafted by the portfolio executive. Together, we will take a holistic view of our portfolio to better understand how our individual team strengths can be used across the portfolio, while finding efficiencies and savings. In this process we will approach this challenge as one VPFO team, supporting each other no matter our position or work location.
Our best way to succeed through rapid change is to follow a shared path — our strategic plan. While not all parts of the strategic plan apply specifically to each unit, by considering the whole strategic plan we can see a shared mission that will keep us on track to achieve the best results for the UBC community.