Create and share a draft vision and mission

In 2020, the SHCS Senior Leadership Team developed and finalized the SHCS Vision and Mission, announcing it in November 2021, then sharing it frequently over the subsequent years with employees on both campuses—on the staff website, through email communications, and on posters—in addition to integrating it into our staff awards criteria.

Ensure alignment with relevant UBC plans

Prior to 2023, the SHCS Senior Leadership Team met with leaders for each of UBC’s strategic plans and identified areas in each where SHCS can take aligned actions, which now includes the UBC Student Plan and Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence Task Force report.

In 2023, we continued to strengthen efforts on approximately 70 existing initiatives in SHCS—with completion or substantial progress on nearly 40—to advance the UBC Student Strategic Plan’s strategies: transformative learning, wellbeing and connections.

Build a more cohesive, collaborative, and aligned senior leadership team

Both as a result of COVID-19 and by design, the SHCS Senior Leadership Team met with increased frequency in 2020 and 2021 to collaborate and coordinate across departments and campuses.

In late-2022, we held a retreat at UBC Okanagan for members of the SHCS Senior Leadership Team, where they learned more about the dynamics of workplace culture and participated in activities that fostered connection and alignment, along with individual and collective leadership development.

In November 2023, we held a half-day session for roughly 60 leaders and managers from both campuses to discuss the 2023 SHCS Employee Survey results and help inform the updated People Plan for 2024 and 2025.

Throughout 2023 and 2024, we held six primary professional development sessions for the SHCS Senior Leadership Team. Topics included authentic leadership, emotional intelligence, cultivating an exceptional culture, giving and receiving feedback, conflict management, persuasion and influence, and generative AI.

Clarity in governance and decision-making

In 2020, we identified significant gaps and barriers to efficient decision-making between (and within) SHCS departments and communicated those issues to departmental leaders.

Additionally, our efforts to build a more cohesive, collaborative and aligned senior leadership team have also resulted in greater clarity in governance and decision-making within and between departments, where specific gaps and barriers were previously identified.

Develop unit/departmental 5-year plans, update annually and share with SHCS staff

In 2022, all operating and support departments developed 5-year plans, which outline current priorities and road maps for the next three years, along with aspirations for the next five; they also highlight intersections and alignment with UBC’s various strategic plans. The plan was published in early 2023 and is available at SHCS 5-year plan.

Each subsequent February, SHCS published annual updates, with the next planned for February 2026.

Visit the 2023 update

Visit the 2024 update

Recognize and reward people for their contributions

We successfully launched two new staff recognition programs, which have now gone through numerous cycles, and we have held five annual SHCS Awards Receptions, where we recognize recipients of these new programs, along with our Long Service Award recipients and Culinary Apprenticeship Program graduates. Plus, we continued to feature staff recognized through UBC award programs on our blog and on our new employee recognition wall in the SHCS Main Office.

Expand our awards program categories and review the nomination process to increase inclusivity

In late-2024, following the review of our Outstanding Contribution Award nominations, we decided to add a new category, focused on outstanding contributions in service, and simplify the nomination process for this new award category.

Identify opportunities for cross-departmental interaction

We’ve identified, initiated and stewarded many opportunities for cross-departmental interaction and collaboration: OWC committee meetings and events, VPS and SHCS professional and leadership development courses, Not Myself Today in-person events and ambassador gatherings—plus our twice annual leadership meetings that bring together roughly 60 SHCS leaders from Vancouver and the Okanagan.

Increase participation in workplace enhancement programs

In 2022, the SHCS Outstanding Workplace Committee (OWC) welcomed a new Chair, department representatives and support members and resumed its monthly emails/posters to SHCS Vancouver staff. With the return of in-person events, the OWC ramped up its employee engagement efforts, hosting a wide range of events, ticket and photo contests, fundraising efforts, and more. In 2023, the OWC ramped up its employee engagement efforts even further, with notable events including the OWC Summer Kickoff Carnival, SHCS Staff Appreciation BBQ and OWC Winter Festival.

Create greater equity, inclusion, respect and mental health literacy

We rolled out the annual Not Myself Today program (now the VPS Workplace Wellbeing Initiative) in SHCS, regularly highlighted UBC wellbeing resources, supported employees in completing UBC’s Preventing and Addressing Bullying and Harassment online course and the Preventing and Responding to Sexual Misconduct online course, and collaborated with central HR and UBC at large on anti-racism and inclusion work.

Two members of our HR team participated in an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) committee, along with colleagues from across the Vice-President, Students (VPS) portfolio, to pursue ways of enhancing our EDI efforts related to staff recruitment, hiring, onboarding, training and education.

In 2023, the SHCS Senior Leadership Team participated in a variety of workshops focused on equity, diversity and inclusion—delivered by colleagues from UBC’s Equity and Inclusion Office—and through these workshops, explored the various resources and tools available to help us make SHCS a more equitable, diverse and inclusive workplace. Plus, the Marketing and Communications team, including members from both campuses, participated in an inclusive marketing and communications workshop.

In November 2024, Facilities and Building Services leadership and collaborators from across SHCS participated in a professional development session—piloting it for departments across SHCS—with RADIUS, an equity-centred consultancy and social innovation hub based at SFU. The session focused on equity-centred design, a framework for organizations to integrate justice, equity, and inclusion directly into decision-making processes.

In 2024, UBC Child Care Vancouver leaders participated in a unique anti-racism workshop with Nadine Nakagawa from Ablaze Services.

Additionally, the VPS Manager Hub, launched in 2024, contains a comprehensive recruitment toolkit, which has Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) best practices embedded throughout.

Identify and address communications gaps

We provided all current SHCS staff with UBC email addresses and set up a system to ensure that all new staff received an email address as part of their onboarding. Plus, we held regular Town Halls and provided frequent updates via email throughout COVID-19.

Define and develop SHCS-wide and department-specific communications approaches

In early-2022, we redeveloped our SHCS-wide internal communications plan and schedule, which includes a bi-monthly SHCS staff newsletter alternating with memos from the AVP, SHCS at key milestones throughout the year. Plus, we launched a news and updates section on the staff website to publish shorter-form updates—in addition to staff newsletters and longer-form storytelling—to increase access and visibility. In 2023, we continued to execute on the plan and schedule, featuring a range of stories, news and updates from departments on both campuses.

Throughout 2023, SHCS Marketing and Communications also met with departmental leadership teams to kickstart the development of a more comprehensive and cohesive departmental internal communications plan, which was developed in 2024 and officially launched in early-2025.

In February 2024, to increase reach to staff whose work is not computer-based, we created a suite of posters to prompt staff to read the SHCS newsletter or memos from the AVP, SHCS. Posters were distributed each time a newsletter or memo was emailed to staff, and the posters featured a prominent QR code that staff could scan to read the communication on their mobile devices. While these posters saw an initial surge in activity (tracked via QR code), interest ultimately declined; we have since replaced these posters with a permanent poster in staff areas providing information about how to access UBC email, which includes a QR code that sees consistent daily activity.

In November 2024, we launched an SHCS Staff Hub on Microsoft SharePoint, with sites for four support departments: HR, Purchasing, Safety, and Communications and Marketing. These internal SharePoint sites offer comprehensive information for staff in SHCS business departments and a starting point for a robust and comprehensive staff intranet.

And in spring 2024, we launched a Key Dates poster to help staff, especially those whose work is not computer-based, stay connected to what’s happening at UBC a little more easily, since this information is published across numerous different websites. We publish and distribute one poster per term, totalling three per year.

Identify and address gaps in the orientation process

We launched an overhauled set of onboarding and orientation processes and resources to ensure a more comprehensive and consistent welcome to SHCS, which includes every SHCS staff member receiving a UBC email address. Effective fall 2022, staff email accounts are set up automatically, removing manual steps and reducing potential setup delays.

In 2023, our Organizational Development and Learning team from HR conducted needs analyses in SHCS departments to better understand their operations and onboarding processes. We were able to identify gaps and start to redesign the onboarding and orientation programs for Food Services, Facilities and Building Services, and Child Care Services.

Review recruitment and address any gaps and opportunities

Through collaboration between HR, Marketing and Communications, and several departments, we established a new approach for more active employee recruitment, including the development of a new careers web page, social media campaigns and boothing materials. Plus, we cross-promoted job opportunities in staff communications and streamlined the process of posting jobs on sites such as Indeed and HigherMe, among other efforts. This new approach resulted in job postings being filled much more efficiently and consistently.

In 2024, VPS and SHCS HR launched the VPS Manager Hub, which provides a single online space with information and resources for managers, including SHCS-specific recruitment.

Create new courses for SHCS employees and support supervisor-employee career progression discussions

We created a suite of online courses specifically for SHCS staff, and we have offered several cycles of Coaching Conversations, which has provided training for over 90 supervisors and managers.

We also created Development Conversations, a training course for managers and Supervising in a Unionized Environment, which both include encouragement, guidance and support for managers and supervisors to have career progression discussions with their staff.

In 2023, in addition to workshops offered through Not Myself Today, the Occupational Health and Safety team, in collaboration with the Outstanding Workplace Committee, offered two Micro-Wellbeing Lunch and Learn sessions, focused on informing staff about paramedical services covered by our benefits, such as Occupational Therapy.

The Residence Dining team in Food Services began to offer leadership development courses through LinkedIn Learning, with learning paths curated for supervisors and managers who wanted to increase their leadership skills and capacities.

Food Services also created a new course in UBC’s Workplace Learning Environment for all Food Services’ employees, which helped address new and changing food safety requirements.

In 2024, Not Myself Today continued, with even greater emphasis on in-person gatherings, we offered nine in-person professional development sessions—on subjects such as de-escalating hostility, customer service and navigating challenging conversations—and we started the process of creating two new courses, Essentials of Supervision and Essentials of Leading Student Staff.

Implement a cross-departmental peer mentorship program

While this goal to implement a formal mentorship program was originally set for 2024, based on emerging feedback from staff, we decided to reevaluate this plan in our 2024 survey. Data from that survey indicated a strong preference among staff for stronger, ongoing development support from direct managers/supervisors, rather than a formal SHCS-wide mentorship program, so we focused on our efforts to build mentorship and career development support into manager and supervisor training.