Human Resources Assistant

Job Summary

The HR Assistant coordinates Human Resources functions within the School of Population and Public Health. This includes, recruitment, hiring, and appointment/reappointment processes for staff, student, Postdoctoral Fellows, and Research Associates within the School. The incumbent is also responsible for completing all administrative clerical tasks regarding human resources management for the School relating to faculty, staff and students.

Organizational Status

The Human Resources Assistant position is in the School of Population and Public Health (SPPH), which is in the Faculty of Medicine at the Vancouver Campus of the University of British Columbia.

The School is an innovative unit that encompasses many of the health-related groupings at UBC that focus on population and public health and epidemiology. The School is structured around four divisions: Occupational and Environmental Health; Health Services and Policy; Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Public Health Practice; and Health in Populations. The resulting mix of professions and disciplines is seen as a means of connecting individuals and learners to galvanize the relationship between health research, public health and health services and to enhance learning.

The SPPH is one of the most research-intensive units at UBC, and is home to the Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Health, Centre for Applied Ethics, Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, Human Early Learning Partnership, and the WHO Collaborative Centre in Global Health. The School has 60 primary faculty members, 350 graduate students and 176 staff positions.

The incumbent interacts regularly with faculty, students, visitors and staff within the School. Also, regularly liaises with UBC staff outside the School such as staff in central Human Resources, Integrated Service Centre (ISC), Financial Services and, Faculty of Medicine (FoM) Dean's Office, etc.

Work Performed

• Provides information to faculty and staff on current UBC human resources policies and practices, such as attendance and leave management, vacation and sick leave benefits, appointments and reappointments.

• Advises faculty and staff on applicable collective agreements terms, including limited interpretation (e.g., sick/vacation accruals, notice periods, posting deadlines, etc.).

• Responsible for the full-cycle appointment and termination activities for all staff, students and some faculty appointments within the School, including preparing, verifying, processing and tracking staff, student and non-bargaining faculty (e.g., post-doctoral fellow and visiting scholar) appointments and other employee changes using Workday.

• Responsible for ensuring sufficient funding to support appointments and solicits appropriate financial approvals for workflow, verifies salary entitlement, benefits eligibility and employee eligibility for the role. Coordinates with Principal Investigators and administrators for alternate worktags, as required.

• Records and coordinates HR procedures.

• Enters job descriptions, updates and maintains hiring documents and other required data into UBC systems, such as Workday, as well as submits job descriptions for classification and processes hires according to established guidelines.

• Prepares, verifies and processes full-cycle paperwork related to appointments, reappointments, funding transfers, salary increases, promotions, transfer and severance notices, leave of absences etc. for all appointees within the School, including staff, students, faculty, Research Associates and Postdoctoral Research Fellows. Tracks and follow-ups on problems related to appointments and processing.

• Responsible for running upcoming appointments ending reports in Workday and maintaining SPPH Appointment Tracker to ensure all appointments are extended without a break in pay. Maintains database by entering, updating and retrieving data and ensuring payroll accuracy.

• Responsible for communicating with Payroll, Human Resources, and FoM Dean s Office to investigate and solve complex payroll and personnel discrepancies.

• Supports staff recruitment activities, including shortlisting candidates, scheduling employment interviews and testing, participating on interview panels, completing reference checks and preparing offer letters and onboarding documents. Completes health and safety site-specific orientations for new core staff located in the SPPH building as required.

• Monitors, verifies and corrects vacation and sick leave data for staff in Workday.

• Ensures integrity of employee records when entering data (Workday, Excel, etc.), updating, and retrieving data as well as with the maintenance of paper files.

• Prepares complex reports and analysis.

• Maintains and updates electronic mailing lists and corresponding spreadsheets for SPPH faculty, staff and students.

• Arranges catering, schedules committee meetings, takes minutes, files and other duties as necessary.

• Provides backup coverage for the SPPH Administrative Coordinator and Executive Assistant as required.

• Assists the HR Manager, Senior HR Manager and Director of Administration on projects as required.

• Performs other related tasks as required.

Consequence of Error/Judgement

Strong attention to detail, accuracy, problem solving, sound judgment, tact, discretion and initiative to an outstanding degree as they relate to HR matters is required. This position handles matters of both routine and non-routine nature in the absence of established policies, procedures and guidelines and requires the ability to easily adapt to continuous change. The incumbent will work with conflicting demands and initiates, adapts and prioritizes procedures to meet unusual situations. This position handles sensitive and highly confidential matters and confidentiality of information handled must be respected. Participates in making decisions concerning the planning, organization and utilization of staff. Errors may lead to conflict and/or legal situations, financial consequences, inefficiency of operation, delayed results, and could harm the reputation of the School, the Faculty and the University.

This position will be responsible for the access, collection, use and disclosure of personal information in accordance with the BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (RSBC 1996) and other UBC privacy and security policies. This position requires employees to work under strict confidentiality requirements; internal procedures and policies to protect personal information must be followed, and adherence to these requirements will be regularly reviewed by the employer.

Supervision Received
This position primarily reports to the School’s HR Manager, but will also receive direction from the Senior Human Resources Manager and Director of Administration.

Supervision Given
Formally trains new staff on work procedures, and/or oversees work of students and/or temporary staff. Completes health and safety site-specific orientations for new core staff located in the SPPH building as required.

Minimum Qualifications
High School graduation, plus two year post secondary diploma, plus four years of related experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

- Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own

- Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications

• Diploma or certificate in human resources management preferred.

• Preferred experience in the area of human resources as well as experience with UBC systems and procedures.

• Trained in office procedures. Computer experience at an intermediate level with Microsoft Office (e.g., Word, Excel, and Outlook) required, and experience preferred with Workday or other Human Resources Information System.

• Ability to perform word processing at 50 words per minute.

• Ability to be thorough. Accuracy and attention to detail are critical.

• Ability to take initiative, effectively manage multiple tasks and prioritize tasks as required. Strong organizational skills are required.

• Ability to communicate effectively verbally and in writing. This includes the ability to compose routine correspondence and other material, using clear, concise business English.

• Ability to research and compile information from various sources, and to review, analyze and synthesize complex information into summaries and reports.

• Actively listens and probes for further information to ascertain complexity of request and make thoughtful, informed and thorough decisions.

• Ability to develop and maintain cooperative and productive working relationships.

• Highly effective interpersonal skills including the ability to deal with a diversity of people in a calm, courteous, and effective manner.

• Ability to effectively work independently and in a team environment.

• Ability to exercise tact and discretion.

• Possesses the knowledge and practical skills required to keep HR issues confidential and personal data secure.