April 2022

2022 Annual Honorary Reappointment Process

A reminder that the deadline to return your School/Department’s completed Honorary Reappointment spreadsheet is Tuesday, May 10th, 2022. Please note that Faculty Relations confirms that a separate Termination BP is not required for anyone for which there is “N” in Column A (Terminate position as of June 30, 2022).

Please upload the completed spreadsheet to the 2022 HON Reappt folder we have shared with you and send an email to Aneri Dalal to let us know that it has been completed. A reminder that Board Notices are not issued, so Department/School administrators will need to inform the faculty members that they have been reappointed. A copy does not need to be provided to our office. 

2022 FoM Distinguished Achievement Award

Per UBC Medicine Announcement, nominations are now open for the 2022 UBC Faculty of Medicine Distinguished Achievement Award. Nominations must be made by Department Heads or School Directors by Friday, April 22nd

MSP & Work Permits

UBC Human Resources issued a memorandum regarding Work Permit renewals and Medical Services Plan (MSP) coverage. If a person works in British Columbia under a work permit and is enrolled in the Medical Services Plan (MSP), their MSP coverage will end at the end of the month that their work permit expires and will be reinstated upon receipt of a new work permit. Please refer to the memorandum for detailed information: https://hr.ubc.ca/working-ubc/news/january-01-2022/work-permit-renewals-and-medical-services-plan-coverage-january.

Clinical Faculty Compensation Terms for Teaching

The Compensation Terms for Clinical Faculty Teaching in the MD Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programs and the Compensation Terms for Standing Committees and Search Committees for Senior Leadership have been extended to June 30, 2022. The document can be found on the Clinical Faculty website.

Covid-19 Tenure Clock Extensions for Tenure Stream

For 2020 tenure track faculty hires that will have tenure-clock extension, it is recommended that their effective dates are set to the day that the transactions are processed rather than a future date. 

Centre for Workplace Accessibility

UBC Human Resources recently announced the launch of a new Centre for Workplace Accessibility (CWA) at UBC Vancouver. The CWA aims to help remove barriers, expedite the accommodation process, and where possible, minimize the medicalization of disability by identifying resources, supports, or workplace adjustments. Please visit the following link for complete announcement details https://broadcastemail.ubc.ca/2022/03/09/announcing-the-launch-of-the-centre-for-workplace-accessibility/ . 

Offer Letter Date Changes

Faculty Relations recently advised that, on a case by case basis, updated appointment documentation is needed when the appointment start date as stated in the letter of offer is different from the actual start date as we need to ensure the University has legal standing on a contract should any legal implications arise with regards to the employment agreement.

Faculty Relations has provided the following general guidelines in cases where the pushed back start date is at the request of the candidate:

  • If the request to push back the start date is only a few days, without any other changes to the contract, you have the option of preparing an Addendum or confirming the change via an email confirmation.
  • If the request to push back the start date is less than a month, without any other changes to the contract, please create an addendum.
  • If the request to push back the start date is greater than a month, FR recommends a new contract be drafted.  The Faculty HR team, in coordination with Faculty Relations, will assist with.

If the changes to a contract are more complicated or are at the request of UBC, the Faculty HR team should always be looped-in to discuss.

Please note:  If the candidate in question is a foreign national, it is recommended to also involve the UBC Immigration team to determine if there are additional steps required.

FoM HR Roundtable

A reminder that there will be HR Roundtable on Classification and Compensation on Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 1:30-3:00 pm. This will be a great session for you to learn about the classification and compensation process at UBC.  More information on this Roundtable session can be found here. To RSVP, please click  this link.

Minimum Wage Increase

Effective June 1, 2022, the minimum wage in BC increases from $15.20 to $15.65 per hour. We encourage you to run the ‘Job & Account Information for Current Employees – Distributed’ report in Workday to ensure that the compensation for affected employee groups meets or exceeds the new minimum effective June 1, 2022. Please submit an addendum and compensation change BP if a change is required.

Offer Letter Template Update with Payroll Direct Deposit Form

Faculty Relations recently updated the offer letters for term appointees not in the Faculty Association, including Research Associates, Postdoctoral Research Fellows, and Paid Term Appointments, to confirm that new hires will be paid by direct deposit. Additional language and a separate Payroll Direct Deposit Authorization Form have been added to the offer letter templates for term appointees, but not those templates for positions in the Faculty Association for this purpose. While direct deposit of paycheques has been strongly encouraged, this has not always been communicated to new faculty. With the change in the offer letters UBC is now making it mandatory.

 
A reminder that for tenure stream, partner stream and Without Review and Part-Time faculty offer letter templates, please continue using the FoM template which can be found on MedNet. Departments/Schools are welcome to add additional language in order to personalize offer and reappointment letters, however, if you wish to make substantial changes to the offer letter please arrange for review by the Assistant Manager, Faculty HR by portfolio breakdown.  For instance, the subject to Board of Governors’ approval language should never be deleted, and if the individual is not a citizen or permanent resident of Canada the immigration subject should also never be removed. 

Early Access for Foreign Faculty

As mentioned in our February newsletter, the early pre-hire access to systems can be provided to new faculty appointments except for foreign workers who is not yet in Canada.  Due to system requirements early access cannot be provided for foreign faculty.  If your unit wish to provide early access for a foreign faculty member who is not yet in Canada you can process a hire of an Honorary or Affiliate appointment in Workday once the Offer of Employment (OOE) or the positive LMIA has been issued.  No new offer letter is required – simply upload the tenure stream offer letter already provided and accepted by the faculty member.  When you are instructed to attach a work permit, upload a copy of the OOE or LMIA confirmation. The SIN will need to be entered as 999.  Make sure to add a comment indicating that the appointment is to provide early access for a new faculty member.  Because there are sometimes delays in the issuance of work permits, it is recommended that the end date of the honorary/affiliate appointment be later than the expected start date of the tenure stream appointment.  Once the new faculty member enters Canada and receives their work permit, administrators will need to end the honorary/affiliate appointment and complete a Reappointment BP to process a new faculty appointment.

Fellowship Compensation Plan Name Change

The previously named “Faculty Fellowship” has been updated to be “Faculty & Postdoc Fellowship” to better reflect the usage of this earnings type.

Postdoctoral Fellow Compensation Plans

Postdoctoral Research fellow appointments at UBC need to have compensation recorded in Workday and will be in one or a combination of the following earnings types:

  • General Salary Plan:  Where the supervising faculty member’s grant is providing compensation.
  • Faculty & Postdoc Fellowship: For fellowship funds that are paid via UBC.
  • External Allowance:  For any funds that are paid directly to the Postdoc from the funding source.

Compensation needs to be recorded in Canadian dollars and as the monthly amount.  These are the defaults in Workday and should not be adjusted. It is also possible for a full-time Postdoctoral Fellow to receive honoraria earnings for additional duties, either as a payment paid over a period of time or as a lump sum. 

Postdoctoral Research Fellows who are assigned formal teaching will be given an additional appointment as Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow. The earning type for the Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow appointment will be General Salary Plan.

In Workday the whole range of compensation plans are available for selection, but not all apply to Postdoc appointments. Only the ones noted above should be selected for Postdocs and selecting other compensation plans may have an affect on taxes and other deductions.

Retroactive Earnings/Compensation Plan Changes

Please be aware that making retroactive changes to compensation plans may only occur within the tax year and that retroactive changes to a prior year may not be made. For example, if a Postdoc’s earnings were incorrectly coded under General Salary Plan from September 1, 2021 to February 28, 2022 instead of Fellowship earnings, the earnings from September 1 to December 31, 2021 may not be changed and will remain as General Salary Plan.  Earnings can be corrected as of January 1, 2022 as long as the BP is initiated and approved in 2022.  

Reappointments in preparation for the July 1st salary increase

Please be reminded that faculty appointments in the Faculty Association ending on or before June 30th need to be reappointed as early as possible. This is to ensure that they are “caught” in the systematic increase process. In order for individuals to be included in the process, reappointments must be initiated and approved in Workday by early May so please initiate transactions to reappoint Tenure Stream faculty, Lecturers, and Without Review as soon as possible. Increases for reappointments received after this date will have to be processed manually by the department. To find out the termination dates of faculty members in your unit, run the report ‘Upcoming Appointment End Dates’.

Visa ID Type

The Visa ID Type of “Implied Status” in Workday has been updated to reflect the new terminology “Maintained Status”, as per Immigration, Refugees & Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

 There are several Visa ID Types to indicate the type of work permit.  Please do not use the “Work Permit”.  This option will eventually be phased out, but we are unable to do so if anyone has been assigned that type. Please use one of the 3 others as applicable. 

If you’re not sure which option is the correct one please contact the Faculty HR Team.

Missing Academic Appointments & Missing Positions

All tenure/confirmation stream and teaching appointments must be provided with an Academic Appointment.  The adding of an Academic Appointment is part of the Hire & Reappointment/Rehire BPs, but occasionally we see individuals without Academic Appointment.  Additionally, the Academic Appointment is a criterion in many Workday reports and a missing Academic Appointment will result in inaccurate data.

There is a specific report (Faculty Positions Missing Academic Appointment – Distributed) that administrators can run to find missing academic appointment data.  We encourage administrators to run this every once and a while to find those in their units that have missing or erroneous Academic Appointment data. This report will provide a list of faculty members & postdoctoral teaching fellows whose academic appointment data needs to be updated for one of the following reasons:

  1. There is no academic appointment
  2. There is an academic appointment, but it has an end date in the past
  3. There is an academic appointment, but it is associated to an old position
  4. There is an academic appointment, but it does not have the academic appointment identifier of ‘Primary’ or ‘Joint – Primary’

The ISC has s also created a report (Academic Appointment Missing Related Position – Distributed) to identify Academic Appointments that are not matched to a position.

Running and checking these reports will be helpful for to ensure that data is kept up to date.

Promotion Business Process – Promotion Action Reason

A reminder that Departments/Schools should not process promotions for tenure-stream faculty members in Workday as they are processed centrally by Faculty Relations. The promotion action reason can be used only for clinical faculty and partner faculty by Departments/Schools. If you need to move a term faculty or Postdoc appointment to another appointment, please do not use the promotion action. If you are uncertain on which BP process to follow, please contact the Assistant Managers, Faculty HR.

Study Leave Information on the Human Resources website

Please be aware that a Study Leave specific page has been created on the Human Resources site that provides details on Study Leaves for members of the Faculty Association. The following are among the important topics discussed on the webpage: accrual of time towards study leave, how to complete study leave applications, MSP coverage while on study leave, conversion of salary to research grant during study leave and cancellation of study leave. Please consult FoM Faculty HR team if you require further guidance on study leave administration.