Monday update

Last week’s updates from UBC

• May 31: President’s Statement: Statement on the Missing Children of the Kamloops Indian Residential School
• May 28: President’s Weekly Update: Spring Graduation
• May 27: UBC Broadcast: Join the National Forum on Anti-Asian Racis

Updates on UBC’s response to COVID-19 are at covid19.ubc.ca.

Managing your mental health

HR has collected mental health resources to help you manage your ups and downs. Our VPFO HR staff is always available for a confidential conversation.

• Self-guided: Self and Community Care: Building skills to manage stress: Learn to integrate relaxation and your personal needs into your daily life in this self-paced webinar.
• Self-guided: Wellbeing in the Workplace: Learn tools and skills to support wellbeing while working within changing environments in this self-paced webinar.
• June 1, 2, 3, 4 & 7: 5 days of Mindfulness: Join your community for 5 days of mindfulness to feel more connected while working from home and improve your ability to manage stress.
• June 3, 10, 17, 24: 4-week Self-Compassion Series: Explore different practices, teachings, discussion or writing exercises all designed to help you build a foundation of mindful self-compassion.
• June 8 & 16: Positive Coping Strategies: Join this two-part webinar to explore a variety of positive coping strategies you can apply to improve your overall mental health and wellbeing.
• June 10 & 17: The Working Mind: Virtual Mental Health Training for Managers: Join our evidence-based training program designed to address and promote mental health and reduce stigma in a workplace setting.
• July 10: Self and Community Care Facilitated Webinar: This 2-part facilitated webinar focuses on increasing mental health literacy for individuals.

Operations updates

Facilities

Building Operations, Energy & Water Services and Infrastructure Development

• Buyers reporting directly to Financial Operations: Effective June 1, Buyers within Building Operations and Energy & Water Services will report directly into Procurement Services in Financial Operations. The change in reporting lines is needed to ensure proper support to all of our Buyers and teams, and to improve services to Facilities and our customers. For questions, please contact Philippa Horton, Associate Director, Procurement Partnership.

Finance

Comptroller, Finance & Operational Excellence and Treasury

• Karamjeet Heer highlighted in UBC Today: Learn more about Karamjeet and the important work she and the Comptroller team do in this week’s UBC Today Leadership one-on-one interview.
• Claiming unidentified payments: Please check through the list of unidentified wire transfers and direct deposits (updated as of May 25) to see if any payments belong to your department.
• A reminder of upcoming changes on importing goods to UBC: The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is introducing a new online client portal on May 25. At this point there are effectively no changes for our community to action, and the ordering of international goods should continue as normal. For more information, please visit the UBC Finance website.
• Supplier invoice requests with “Manual” payment type: A new Supplier Invoice Request will trigger an error if that supplier has no banking information in Workday. Learn how to tackle the issue in Workday this Week.
• UniForum activity on hold for 2020/2021: Moving forward for 2021/2022, instead of collecting UniForum information in June, as we have done in the past, we will collect data in October/November 2021. Read more on the UBC Operational Excellence website.

Operations & Advising

Communications & Engagement, Human Resources, and Safety & Risk Services

• Access Services joins Safety & Risk Services: Access Services will officially be transitioning from Student Housing & Community Services (SHCS) to Campus Security in SRS today. This transition will enable the university to align our access and security services under one team, strengthen the role SRS plays at UBC and contribute towards the safety and security of our campus.
• Rapid Testing program expanded: Eligible groups including SRS and Facilities can now get COVID-19 tests on UBC Vancouver Campus. Please reach out to your supervisor for more information or visit the SHCS website.
• Safety Planning process continues: The SRS team continues to socialize safety planning amongst the different work activities and areas to align our draft plans with the COVID-19 Return to Campus Primer and the recently released BC’s Restart 4-step restart plan.
• Communications planning: Good communications are always based on a well-thought-out plan. Visit the VPFO Comms website for resources and guidance on planning your next communication.
• VPFO HR on-site support schedule: Due to increased safety measures, the VPFO HR team will be working from home on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. For any questions, please contact Senior HR Manager, Arvind Kang (arvind.s.kang@ubc.ca).
  • May 31: Matt Furgal, Kasia Burza
  • June 1: WFH
  • June 2: Arvind Kang, Sonia Lachar, Matt Furgal, Kasia Burza, Gregor Macdonald, Rachel Lau
  • June 3: WFH
  • June 4: WFH

Other notable updates

Operational Excellence launches new website

UBC and the VPFO are currently undergoing a series of transformational changes. Our new Operational Excellence team has been created to help us navigate these changes. By committing to operational excellence and continuous improvement we can work smarter, reduce costs, enhance services, and increase revenues in support of UBC’s academic mission and vision.

Visit the newly launched website to learn more about what Operational Excellence does, who makes up the team, and how it will help UBC move towards a culture of continuous improvement.

Register for the National Forum on Anti-Asian Racism

On June 10-11, 2021, join the National Forum on Anti-Asian Racism. This is an opportunity for candid conversations about how to address the ongoing crisis of anti-Asian racism in Canada.

Through open conversations with key figures in education, health care, media, the corporate world, the not-for-profit sector and government, we’ll produce bold actions and key priorities to be implemented across the country.

For registration and agenda, please visit the event page.

In memory of David Meek

It is with a profound sense of sadness and loss that we share the news of the sudden passing of David Meek over the weekend. This comes as a terrible shock to us all.

Dave was a well-known and well-liked Project Coordinator with Building Operations and Infrastructure Development. He contributed immensely to the UBC community through his work and the many strong relationships he built across campus.

Our thoughts and deepest condolences go out to Dave’s family at this very difficult time.

Read the full announcement.

Helpful news

Some interesting news articles people have found informative, helpful, or fun! These are provided for information and entertainment only. Unless noted, UBC doesn’t specifically endorse or supply this content.

• A common challenge with virtual meetings is that people don’t know when to speak. The result is either silence or several people talking at the same time. This Harvard Business Review offers 3 tips to speaking up in a virtual meeting.
• Did you catch a glimpse of the total lunar eclipse — also known as a “Blood Moon” on Wednesday, May 26? Here’s a selection of the best photos of the blood moon from around the world.

Have an article for your peers? Email communications@vpfo.ubc.ca.