Welcome to Workday!

Pay dates for hourly employees will be the 15th and last day of each month instead the 8th and 23rd of each month

Applicable to: Hourly staff, hourly faculty, and student employees

Beginning in November, hourly employees will be paid on the 15^th and last day of each month. Pay days falling on a weekend or holiday will be moved to the day before the weekend or holiday.

As we complete the transition to Workday during the month of November, payroll processing completed in PeopleSoft and began in Workday on November 2, 2020. There will be three pay days in November for hourly employees to account for the transition. See table below for a summary:

Time Entry / Approval Reminders

On-time time submission and approval in Workday is critical to ensure hourly employees get paid accurately. Therefore:

• Hourly employees will receive Workday generated reminder emails to submit their time in Workday throughout the pay period.
• Managers will receive Workday generated reminder emails to approve hours waiting for approval in their inbox.
• Timekeepers will not receive email reminders.

Why the change?

• Pay days will align with typical bill payment dates (e.g., rent) 
• Time entry deadlines can be communicated in a consistent way, which reduces confusion and makes it easier for managers, supervisors and employees to remember approval and pay dates
• Employees with multiple positions will be paid for all positions on the same days each month, enabling them to better understand their total income
• There will be reduced administrative impact of running separate payrolls for hourly and salaried workers in each faculty and unit. Introduction of automated approvals and timesheets within Workday will also contribute to time saved for departments

For eligibility details to access one-time bridge funding available to accommodate the transition, contact UBC Payroll (604-822-2187).

Benefit premiums will be deducted twice per month instead of once per month

Applicable to: All employees enrolled in one or more benefit plans with an end-of month employee paid deduction

All benefit premiums will be processed twice per month on each paycheque (the 15th and end of the month). This includes Extended Health, Dental, Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP), Optional Life, and Optional AD&D premiums that are currently taken once a month, at the end of the month.

Since the majority of employees are eligible for employer-paid Extended Health and Dental premiums, this change primarily impacts employees’ EFAP premiums. In addition, Faculty and staff enrolled for Employee and/or Spouse Optional Life/Optional AD&D are required to pay premiums. This means the monthly premium they currently pay will be divided in half and taken each paycheque.

If you are a Sessional Lecturer with an appointment less than 50% FTE or less than 4 months and you selected Extended Health and/or Dental, you are required to pay half the premium. This means the monthly premium you currently pay will be divided in half and taken each paycheque.

This change allows for consistent frequency of premium deductions. Overall, there is no change to the benefit premium you pay.

Note: there is no change to income-based premiums and contributions as these are taken every pay period (e.g., BGL, IRP/DBP, Pensions)

EXAMPLES

Table below is an example of an employee participating in the Employee and Family Assistance plan.

Table below is an example of an employee who is between age 45-49, non-smoker and enrolled for $250,000 Employee Optional Life.

Table below is an example of a Sessional Lecturer under 50% or under 4 months and enrolled in family coverage for Extended Health (table below) and Dental (further below).

Basic Life premiums will be calculated based on coverage amount instead of salary for salaried employees

Applicable to: Salaried faculty and staff, who are enrolled in the basic group life insurance program

In HRMS, Basic Life premiums for all employees were calculated based on salary. In Workday, Basic Life premiums are calculated based on the Basic Life coverage amount (what the employee’s beneficiary will receive in the event of their death).

Example

M&P employee is age 50 and annual salary is $75,000; coverage amount is $150,000 (2 times annual salary)

Premium calculation:

In HRMS:   $75,000 / 12 * 0.236% = $14.75/month or $7.37/paycheque

In Workday:  ($75,000 * 2) * $0.0082 / 100 = $12.30/month or $6.15/paycheque

Basic Life premiums are paid by UBC, so employees will not be impacted financially by this change. However, employees who are on an unpaid leave of absence are required to pay the premium for continued coverage will pay more or less than what they currently pay depending on their age and salary.

Note, premiums for hourly workers will be continue to the calculated based on salary because we cannot correctly calculate their coverage amount (all hourly employees are entered as 1.0 FTE).

Employees with multiple positions will receive one paycheque instead of multiple paycheques

Applicable to: Any employee with multiple positions that are either ALL salary or ALL hourly in more than one union. For employees with one salary job and one hourly job, there will be no impact because they will continue to receive two cheques.

In HRMS, employees with more than one position in more than one union – either ALL salary or ALL hourly – had separate pay calculations, statements, and paycheques for each position. In Workday, their pay is calculated together and they will receive one pay statement and one paycheque.

This means that this group of employees may see a decrease in net pay due to more accurate tax calculations (i.e. based on total earnings), CPP and EI.

Please note, this change will not impact the total income tax an employee pays. While income tax, CPP and EI deductions for some employees may have been lower throughout the year, these amounts would have been payable when you submitted your income tax return.

Employees who had additional tax taken each pay to account for the underestimated tax in HRMS should update their TD1 in Workday.

Example

An M&P person also has a faculty sessional job. This person received two paycheques in HRMS but will receive only one in Workday:

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Employees in low tax brackets will have less income tax deducted from their paycheques

Applicable to: Employees in low tax brackets; primarily student employees

HRMS had a known issue of over-estimated income tax deductions for employees in low tax brackets. Employees affected by this issue typically had slightly higher taxes deducted from their pay throughout the year, and saw the amounts refunded when they submitted their income tax return.  

Workday does not have this limitation, which may result in less (more accurate) amounts of tax being deducted and consequently a smaller amount refunded when they submit their income tax return.

Please note, between payroll deductions and income tax returns, the total amount of income tax that an employee pays is not changing.

A reminder to staff and research associates to use available professional development (PD) funding and submit claims for the current PD funding year (April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021) before the annual funding pool is exhausted or by March 5, whichever comes first. 

The following message is an update to the original announcement on February 5, 2021, in which we communicated different deadlines. These earlier deadlines allow for the required workflow approvals within Workday in time to meet UBC’s year end expense report deadline of March 19.

• Staff and research associates, submit your claims for the current funding year by Friday, March 5.
• Managers must review and approve claims in Workday by Friday, March 12.

Note there is a planned, brief Workday outage on Friday, March 12 at 11pm to Saturday, March 13 at 7am.

PD Funds are intended to encourage and support learning activities that enhance your knowledge or skills and support your career growth at the university. Prior to making purchase or submitting a claim for reimbursement, check the Professional Development Funding page for fund guidelines as well as updates on remaining funding pool balances.

View this full message on the HR News page. 

If you're internal, apply through Workday. 

If you are external please apply through our job boards for

• Staff
• Faculty
• Students 

View our Tips for Applying.

Beginning December 8, 2020, employees can submit tuition waiver applications through Workday, including applications for:

• Undergraduate credit courses
• Graduate credit courses, if eligible
• UBC Extended Learning non-credit courses
• Approved Sauder School of Business Continuing Business Studies non-credit courses

Please note the tuition payment deadline for Term 2 credit courses or programs is January 14, 2020. If you submit your Tuition Waiver application after the tuition payment deadline, you will be charged late fees and/or interest that will not be covered by the Tuition Waiver. ​​​​​​

• Eligibility: If you have general questions about tuition waivers or your eligibility, please refer to the Tuition Waiver page or contact UBC Benefits.
• Submitting an application: For step-by-step instructions on how to create, edit, or cancel a tuition waiver in Workday visit the Workday Knowledge Base.
• To view a list of all of your tuition waivers from both the legacy HRMS as well as the new Tuition Waiver system, please navigate to “View my Created Tuition Waivers” in Workday. “View my Submitted Tuition Waivers” will only show tuition waivers submitted in the new system.
• Processing: If you have submitted a tuition waiver application, and have questions about processing, please contact UBC Payroll.

KNOWN Issues

• Due to minor technical issues with the Tuition Waivers application system that are in the process of being resolved, faculty and staff may run into technical glitches or have concerns about tuition waiver amounts available during their Tuition Waiver request submission or viewing of tuition waiver balances. If you experience any problems during this process, please contact the Integrated Service Centre and describe the issue in detail.  

Resolved Issues

• Faculty was experiencing issues using the system to apply for Tuition Waivers and a manual process was put in place. The issue is now resolved and Faculty can continue using the Tuition Waiver system to submit their requests. 
• Choosing courses from Extended Learning / Sauder Continuing Business Studies in the Tuition Waiver process was limited to the first 100 courses and has now been resolved with all courses viewable and selectable.