Report Specialist

The University of British Columbia ("UBC") is a global centre for teaching, learning and research, consistently ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world and recently recognized as North America's most international university. UBC is a diverse environment, with almost every industry vertical represented from healthcare, education, food and beverage, legal, media, real estate, etc. and with more than 70,000 members of the community UBC's service providers need to be able to meet a variety of stakeholder needs with both robust and mature operational capabilities combined with the agility and innovation required to meet the ambitious objectives laid out in its new Strategic Plan: Shaping UBC's Next Century.

The Integrated Service Centre ("ISC") is a newly formed unit within UBC that will align practices and processes from Human Resource, Financial Operations, Comptroller's Office, Student Services, and Information Technology. In supporting UBC's transition to an enterprise Workday Enterprise Resource Planning ("ERP") Cloud-based system, the ISC will provide a single, integrated service that will initially include Financial and Human Capital management services and later expand to include Student and Enterprise Planning. The ISC will seek to continuously improve and adapt to future needs and requirements of UBC while providing a simple, intuitive, consistent user experience for UBC students, staff, faculty, and community partners.

The Report Specialist is responsible to partner with the ISC and the broader UBC community to optimize the use of Workday reporting, analytics, and planning modules. Leads the translation of business requirements to technical specifications and is responsible for maintaining optimal operation of the Workday reporting environment in partnership with ISC and UBC Community Report Writers. Leads complex reporting, development of best practices, problem management, governance structure around reporting and the strategy behind the releases, enhancements and implementation projects.

Organizational Status

Reports to the Application Sustainment Manager within the ISC. Works in partnership across the ISC to provide effective reporting subject matter expertise, leadership and support. The Incumbent will actively engage with partners and customers who might have similar reporting needs and manages those relationships to assure effective solutions and operational best practices.

Work Performed

1) Manages report development and implementation analysis for the HR, Finance, and/or Student application(s) within the ISC product. This includes, but is not limited to, the collection and interpretation of stakeholder needs, enterprise risk analysis of change requirements and impact.

• Leads the translation of business requirements to technical specifications and supports implementation projects. This includes recommending appropriate solutions aligning to the needs, creating technical report specifications and data security impact assessments.

• Responsible for leading events management and utilizing subject matter expertise to resolve complex issues, performing related prototyping, report enhancements and changes, and providing future mitigation recommendations to leadership.

• The incumbent will report on activities to leadership, identifying continuous service improvement opportunities and remedial action to minimize risk, identifying the potential impact or degree of change for the UBC Community and Administrative Super-users.

• Develops and leads projects associated with reporting

• Leads the efforts to develop a reporting framework that provides user-friendly access to the right information for the right people at the right tim

• Directs the development and enhancement of methodologies, standards, procedures, processes, policies related to the improvement and/or maintenance of quality of reporting

• Oversees the design, development and implementation of reports, systems, data extracts

• Oversees the development of metrics to assess reporting goals Reproduces, test, resolve and documents software bugs, defects and problems.

• Resolves highly complex Tier 2 & 3, Service Centre tickets, engaging the product vendor for support when necessary.

• Manages and provides technical subject matter expertise and advice through every phase of the report life cycle in support of ongoing updates and evolution of the Workday product for the UBC community.

• Manages the execution of changes related to report management, integrations, and security for reports over their lifecycle.

• Creates and maintains technical documentation and training support for the internal knowledge inventory and overall customer service material development.

• Analyzes emerging trends in technology and reporting, evaluates alternatives, completes feasibility studies, and identifies customer-driven opportunities, provides recommendations to leadership to inform future strategic product initiatives.

• Develops, maintains, and socializes Reporting policies, guidelines and procedures for the ISC

2) Develops and maintains effective partnerships across the ISC and the broader UBC community.

• The Incumbent is the reporting subject matter expert and main point for reporting inquires across the ISC and technical professionals across campus where it relates to the ISC; collaborates across the ISC to align work, priorities and practices and to assess design needs for continuous improvement.

• Partners with UBC IT to support the definition of business needs, processes, and interdependencies in which guide the ISC's report administration.

• Builds and fosters good working relationships, partners across the UBC community to achieve enterprise reporting objectives and goals.

3) Advocates for a partnership that moves UBC's practices from "system of record" to "platform of engagement" through collaborative and innovative efforts.

• Solicits feedback fostering an agile, innovative, and collaborative transformation experience.

• Partners with relevant stakeholders to resolve issues related to engagement, adoption, sustainment, and continuous improvement.

4) Actively promotes best practices in the security and privacy of personal information and data; makes recommendations to improve processes and procedures where necessary.

5) Performs other related duties as required.

Consequence of Error/Judgement
Contributes to the broader Application Sustainment team and UBC's IT strategies. Supports decision-making regarding reports administration within an existing large, complex and campus-wide product. Focusing on partnerships and product delivery will ensure optimal functionality and customer satisfaction in support of ISC's strategic goals.

Supervision Received
Reports to the Application Sustainment Senior Manager. Works in partnership on a team with wide latitude across the ISC. Work is reviewed in terms of execution quality, achievement against objectives, and focus on collaboration and innovation.

Supervision Given
Acts a mentor or coach to peers as required.

Minimum Qualifications
Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. In-depth knowledge of applications and the business requirements supporting them. Minimum of five years of related experience, or the 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

Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. Relevant Disciplines include Computer Science and Management Information Systems. A minimum of 5 years of experience, in-depth knowledge of applications and the business requirements supporting them or the equivalent combination of education and experience. Experience working in ERP implementation/report development is required. ITIL certification minimum basic level is an asset. Experience working with Workday in an HR, Finance, or Student function is strongly preferred. Experience working in complex, academic environments is preferred and specifically within UBC.

Proven experience in report life cycle best practices within an evolving, complex product.

- Experience working a variety of software including Jira, Confluence and ticketing systems, such as ServiceNow.

- Demonstrated ability to recognize indicators of product performance and actions required to improve the performance.

- Proven knowledge of HR and/or finance business processes and related interactions within complex organizational contexts.

- Working knowledge of quality assurance disciplines including best practices for continuous improvement.

- Proven ability to take initiative to drive team alignment

- Demonstrated ability to work in a collaborative and inclusive manner, fostering equitable experiences and a respectful environment through reflection, empathy, sensitivity, and curiosity towards differences across teams.

- Proven experience working on cross-functional teams and communicating to a diverse audience technical and non-technical.

- Excellent interpersonal skills including active listening, written and verbal communication, and conflict management.

-Collaboration: Actively solicits ideas and opinions from others to efficiently and effectively accomplish specific objectives targeted at defined business outcomes. Openly encourages other team members to voice their ideas and concerns. Shows respect for differences and diversity and disagrees without personalizing issues. Utilizes strengths of team members to achieve optimal performance.

-Communicating for Results: Conducts discussions with and writes memoranda to all levels of colleagues and peer groups in ways that support troubleshooting and problem solving. Seeks and shares relevant information, opinions, and judgments. Handles conflict empathetically. Explains the context of interrelated situations, asks probing questions, and solicits multiple sources of advice prior to acting when appropriate.

- Problem Solving: Applies problem-solving methodologies and tools to diagnose and solve operational and interpersonal problems. Determines the potential causes of the problem and devises testing methodologies for validation. Shows empathy and objectivity toward individuals involved in the issue. Analyzes multiple alternatives, risks, and benefits for a range of potential solutions. Recommends resource requirements and collaborates with impacted stakeholders. - Analytical Thinking: Coordinates the information gathering and reporting process. Reviews trends and compares to expectations. Conducts research to define problems and prepares responses to anticipated questions. Prioritizes multiple issues and opportunities. Identifies relationships and linkages within several information sources. Anticipates issues that are not readily apparent on the surface. Identifies root causes and effects. Defines priorities within performance objectives. Reports and identifies areas that need guidance in order to resolve complex issues. Anticipates the possible outcome of potential solutions.

- Information Systems Knowledge: Resolves escalated problems of technical support. Identifies root causes. Sets up and integrates new and enhanced information systems. Identifies customer needs and determines the appropriate approach to apply and ensure resolution. Solicits the input of appropriate technical experts and managers as required.

- Thoroughness: Demonstrates operational agility. Uses organizational systems that result in multiple critical activities to be identified and completed on time. Renegotiates priorities as necessary. Puts systems in place and uses them to monitor and detect errors and problems. Tests and inspects outputs and applies quality checks prior to work submission