Halloween Edition of Finance Matters!

We blame the sugar high for this one. 

 Listen in for a short and lighthearted episode focusing on the professional and life lessons we can learn from Halloween candy. 

 It's a little silly and a little serious.

Happy Halloween!

 

Listen at this link:  Fun Size Professional Tips Inspired by Halloween Candy

UVAFinance Book Club

UVAFinance book club will discuss "The Power of Habit" on Tuesday,
January 8, from 12-1, in Carr 2.  Everyone is welcome!  Contact Patty
Marbury if you have questions or want to participate remotely.

NOTE:  The January 8 Book Club Meeting will be rescheduled.  Hold for more details!

Thanksgiving baskets for needy families

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and UVAFinance will once again be collecting food donations for the Community Feast Project. The Community Feast Project is an annual effort run by various churches and organizations in and around the Charlottesville area. Thanksgiving baskets are then distributed to needy families right here in our community.

Collection boxes will be placed around Carruthers Hall with a checklist of items needed. Additionally, monetary donations can be made to either Nicole Ferretti or Stacey Rittenhouse. 

All donations must be received no later than Wednesday, November 14th.
The following items are needed:

• Can of Yams (17.5 oz.)
• Can of Green Beans (14.5 oz.)
• Bag of Potato (5 lb.)
• Jar of Turkey Gravy (10.5 oz.)
• Box of Macaroni (14.5 oz.)
• Box of Stuffing (6 oz.)
• Can of Evaporated Milk (12 oz.)
• Can of Cranberry Sauce (14 oz.)
• Cake Mix (15.25 oz.)
• Can of Crushed Pineapple (16 oz.)
• Box Granulated Sugar (2-4 lb.)
• Box of Brown Sugar (1 lb.)
• Monetary donations for the purchase of turkeys

Thank you!

4th Annual Corn Hole Tournament and Fall Festival

Join us on Friday, November 16th from 12:00pm – 2:00pm, for the 4th annual Corn Hole Tournament and Fall Festival to benefit Virginia non-profits! This event will be located in the north lower lot of Carruthers Hall in the back corner.

Food will be provided to you at no cost but we do ask you to make a donation to a Virginia Non-Profit. Please bring cash or check and an idea of what non-profit you would like to donate to.

Sign up for the annual Corn Hole Tournament! Click here to enter.

Who will reign supreme this year? 

• 15 per person or $30 per team. If you are able to bring a set of boards and bean bags, you will pay only $10 per person or $20 per team.
• Winning team will choose the non-profit to donate to from a list provided.
• The Winning team will also get to sign and keep the Stanley Cup of Corn Hole trophy for 1 year.

Corn Hole Champions:

• 2017, Mike Beverage and Mike Hayton
• 2016, Logan Hobbs and Brandon Kenty
• 2015, Logan Hobbs and Brandon Kenty

Here are photos from 2017 and 2016.  It's a fun time!  Be sure to join us.

From Melody's Desk: October 24, 2018

October 24, 2018

Dear Colleagues,

The October 12 kick-off event for Finance Strategic Transformation (FST) left me feeling truly grateful for all the people who have agreed to be a part of our upcoming workshops or to serve a role on the FST Checkpoint Team, the Advisory Group, and the Steering Committee.

You can view a  video of the kickoff as well as the
presentation slides on our online community:
ubicommunity.virginia.edu 

We will not be able to make this a successful project without the thoughtful, collaborative, and active engagement of these team members. Now, as we embark on this journey together, is a good time to think about how we will interact with our stakeholders and how they will interact with us.

Our Pledge to the FST Stakeholders:

• UVAFinance seeks to be the valued and trusted financial partner that the University community turns to first. FST is an important step in delivering this vision by working with you to develop critical skills, improve service, re-imagine business processes, and deploy technology.
• We will communicate frequently, clearly, and directly through a variety of methods: FST meetings, Business Officer Council and Fiscal Administrator meetings, the online FST community, and the UVAFinance blog. Invite us to come into your team meeting and we will work out a time to join your team for a conversation about FST.
• We will involve and support our stakeholders as we design for the future. We will seek your frequent engagement but will also be conscious of competing deadlines and major events in order to avoid direct conflicts. We will engage with the University Project Portfolio to determine where we can make schedule adjustments to ease demands on time and energy.
• We will maintain strong governance and accountability to you and the senior leaders of the University.
• We will challenge the status quo, seeking best practices from the UVA community, the Deloitte professionals, and through our professional associations and peer institutions.
• We will assess the potential for consistent functionality and harmonized business practices.
• We will apply enterprise thinking that assesses the needs of the University as a whole but will respect and recognize local requirements.
• We will align with institutional data strategy standards and governance, to help ensure the data integrity, accessibility, and definition that are needed in a modern workplace.

Our Ask of FST Stakeholders:

• We ask that committee members and workshop invitees commit to attending and actively engaging in order to make sure that we hear broadly from the UVA community. We ask that you be familiar with available resources in the FST online community and website so that you can re-direct your colleagues to resources. If you cannot answer a question asked locally in your school or unit, ask these questions on the community (someone else probably has the same question) or forward these questions to the FST team.
• We ask that you help us know when we have asked too much, but balance this with the understanding that we are just as frequently asked why we can’t deliver new services and tools more quickly. There is a healthy tension between the desire to quickly improve service and technology and the concern that too much is happening.
• We ask that you be vocal and frequent in expressing support and advocating for the project. If you feel you cannot support and advocate for the project, talk to us directly about this.
• We ask that you have and that you encourage your colleagues to have patience in the process and to know that we are striving to support and enable the University to be the best it can be. We won’t have all the answers immediately, we may take detours, we may pause or reverse course. But we should keep you informed and you should hold us accountable for that.
• We ask that you help us to eliminate rumors and squash back channel whispering. If there is an unanswered question or a concern, ask it directly. If we don’t have an answer, trust that we are working on a solution.
• We ask for grace and understanding that we will not be perfect, we may forget a communication, we may not be consistent in an answer. Mistakes will be made, but they will not be intentional and we will learn from them.
• We ask for compromise and collaboration. We will not be able to make everyone 100% happy, but we will listen… and if we make a decision that is completely counter to your request, there is a reason. Ask us what that reason is and understand that we have to meet the requirements of a diverse audience.

Again, I thank you for joining us on this journey! I look forward to working with each of you.

Mark Anderson and UBI recognized at Cornerstone Program Graduation

On September 27, the Fourth Cohort of the succession development Cornerstone Program graduated and presented their projects.

Representing UVAFinance in that Cohort was Mark Anderson, Business Intelligence Lead. During the past year, Anderson and the 29 other cohort participants have received customized leadership development, including a 360 assessment and coaching, and mentoring from senior leaders.

Anderson felt the program had many assets for him as a participant, but chief among them were the networking opportunities and the mentoring he received.

Read more after the jump!

Finance Strategic Transformation Kickoff

On Friday, October 12, UVAFinance and our stakeholders across Grounds officially kicked off Finance Strategic Transformation.  We're so excited to get started on this journey and so grateful for those who are partnering with us.

Our aim is to keep you in the know.  Please visit the online community for a wealth of FST and kickoff content.  Here's just a sampling of what you can find there:

• A video of the kickoff presentation
• Slides shared at the kickoff event (including timelines, project team members, and more)
• Upcoming events 

Helpful hint about finding things in the community:  You can browse recent content by looking at the homepage or the Activity tab, or you can search by keywords (think:  FST Kickoff)

You can also see pictures from the event here (Flickr).

Remember, your questions, ideas, and comments are welcome any time.  You can share those in the community, via financetransformation@virginia.edu, or directly with Finance leadership. If you prefer an anonymous route, share your  thoughts via the suggestion box in Carruthers Hall coffee area or online at Free Suggestion Box

What are you reading? A sampling of some of UVAFinance's favorites

A while back, we asked you to share what you're reading/listening to that inspires your professional and/or personal growth. 

Here are some great picks from the first few folks who've responded.  We'd still love to hear what you recommend, so please send your suggestions (blogs, books, websites, podcasts, even TED talks!) to finance_engagement@virginia.edu

BOOKS

Love Works: Seven Timeless Principles for Effective Leaders by Joel Manby

Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown

Fun is Good by Mike Veeck and Pete Williams

A Walk in the Wood (Mindfulness with a Bear Named Pooh) by Joseph and Nancy Parent

Slow: Simple Living for a Frantic World by Brooke McAlary

12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson 

Speed of Trust by Stephen M R Covey

The Power of a Positive No by William Ury

Start with Why by Simon Sinek

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Collaborative Leadership in Action: A Field Guide for Creating Meetings that Make a Difference by Patrick Sanaghan and Paulette A Gabriel 

The End of Diversity: How Leaders Make Differences Really Matter by Martin Davidson

WEBSITES

https://www.td.org/  (Association for Talent Development -- lots of great general content, too)


PODCASTS

The Accidental Creative (much of the content is great for any kind of professional, and there are lots of resources on their site): https://www.accidentalcreative.com/

New on Finance Matters

We're diving into some interesting territory on Finance Matters with three new episodes.  Check them out!  You can always take us on the go via Google Play or the App Store.  We love keeping you company on your commute. 

The Strength of Being Vulnerable, with guest Sarah Doran.

Vulnerability is one of the most obvious demonstrations of courage, and definitely is a desirable trait for leaders.  LISTEN HERE.

What We Learn from Failure, with guest Lynne Schwar

Managed correctly, failure is the secret to success.  LISTEN HERE. 

Cross-Functional Teams, with guests Shannon Wampler and Josh Breeden

Stories of cross-functional collaboration, lessons learned, lots of laughter, and a couple of really cheesy jokes. LISTEN HERE.  

Donation Drive at Carruthers Hall

from Mara Hilliar and Stacey Rittenhouse

UVA’s Exceptional Assistants’ Network (EAN) Fall Community Service Initiative

Beginning October 22nd and continuing through November 14th, UVA’s EAN will be collecting donations for Charlottesville’s Shelter for Help in Emergency. 

The Shelter for Help in Emergency is committed to providing a safe, supportive, confidential and respective environment in which survivors of domestic violence can seek services.

Carruthers Hall is hosting a collection box which you will find in the coffee break area right next to the UVA Finance Corner bookshelf. The Shelter’s Wish List includes:

• Toilet Paper
• Paper Towels
• Tissues
• Laundry Detergent Pods (HE only)
• Dish Detergent
• 13 Gallon Garbage Bags
• Bath Towels
• Kitchen Towels
• Grocery Gift Cards
• Pharmacy Gift Cards
• CAT Bus Tickets (available at C’ville City Hall)
• Old and/or Broken Cell Phones

If you want to donate gift cards or give cash towards gift cards, please see either Mara Hilliar or Stacey Rittenhouse.

The 2018 Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign is underway!

The CVC is an annual workplace giving opportunity for state employees to donate to nearly 1,000 charities, many of which serve the local community.

CVC runs Oct. 1 thru Dec. 20 (online ends Dec. 20).

How to give: 

• Give online here:  https://cvc.sites.virginia.edu/Home/Pledge
• Return your pledge card in its red envelope to Stacey Rittenhouse in the VP Finance Suite.

You can donate by cash, check, payroll deduction, credit card or stock gifts. Salaried employees may choose to give through payroll deduction. Payroll deductions begin with the first paycheck in January 2019 and end with the last paycheck in December 2019. Salaried employees may also pledge with a one-time deduction in January.  Wage employees may pledge with cash, check, credit card or stock.

Last year, UVA employees contributed $1 million, and 9 out of the top ten charities benefited the Charlottesville area. $15 million  has been raised since 1997.

For more information please visit the CVC website at http://cvc.virginia.edu/

PSDS Welcomes Patrick Wood

Patrick Wood, new to PSDS.  Wood
also serves on UVA's Staff Senate and
serves as Membership Director, Co-
chair, of the Staff Senate Executive
Board.

Procurement and Supplier Diversity Services is pleased to announce that Patrick Wood, formerly of the Office of Sponsored Programs, has joined their team as a Procurement Specialist. A University of Virginia employee since 2014, Wood has also worked in Printing and Copying Services and with the Administrative Services Group in UVAFinance.

In his new role, Wood will be a buyer for catering, athletics, and hotel services.

"I'm eager to learn everything it will take to perform my new role effectively," said Wood, noting that he has a great team supporting him as he gets acclimated.

Wood is no stranger to learning new things -- he successfully transitioned to administrative work at UVA from a 16-year career in Elementary education, and is also currently halfway through attaining his Project Management Professional certificate.

Feel free to stop by and welcome Wood officially back to the UVAFinance family soon. Just don't look for him on November 6, as he'll be out of the office performing his duties as an election official (for the tenth year!).

Celebrating UVAFinance at the Employee Appreciation Breakfast

Earlier this month, UVAFinance celebrated the achievements of our team at the Annual Employee Appreciation Breakfast.

View a recap of employee achievements on our Flickr page:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144779052@N06/albums/72157699079293282


We also celebrated several awards:

• The UVA Office of Sustainability recognized Carruthers Hall as a certified Green Workplace.
• Kelly Hochstetler was lauded by UVA Compliance for her work on updating and revising finance policies. 
• UVAFinance as a unit received an award from ITS for our dedicated work on information security.

Way to go, team!

Microsoft Teams: Kristin Floyd's User Story

Training sessions for Office365 Teams are available now!

Efficiency in Communications, Empowered to Share

by Kristin Floyd

I am currently using Microsoft Teams to administer, track and store all of the various projects the new Strategic Procurement Group is working on in Procurement and Supplier Diversity Services.

Kristin Floyd of PSDS

This tool assists in our communications with our managers as they are able to go into the tool and review our projects at any time. It also gives us one platform to record information on our progress so that if any of our projects are interconnected, we can review their status without having to track each other down for a status update.

In addition, we are able to have a dedicated conversation board that tracks important ideas, notes, or discussions that we want to be able to search for and retrieve easily at a later date.

How many times have you thought – “but we discussed that at X-meeting already” but don’t have notes to prove it? Teams gives you a searchable Notebook to keep all your meeting notes.

Plus when we are doing research on the current manufacturing markets or reviewing strategy that other Universities used for a specific procurement we can store all that information in Teams as a Wiki or OneNote so that others in the team can see that information and share their research too.

Ultimately, Teams has made us more efficient in our sharing of information and our collaborations. It helps to empower me and those around me with information.

Check out an Office 365 training session soon!

Read more about training in this post.

Using Office 365

Office 365 is being used by more and more people across Grounds. Be proactive and learn how to use these tools for collaboration and productivity. This class will go over the basic navigation and some of the applications of Office 365. You will also see and hear how other UVAFinance professionals are already using Office 365 in their work.

The following sessions will be offered in Carr-1 &2 (register by logging into the Integrated System and then clicking the link for the session you want to attend).

30 October – from 1:00-2:00

15 November – from 12:30-1:30

Updates from the Carruthers Hall Green Team

Composting Available

The Carruthers Hall Green Team (CHGT) has placed compost bins in several shared spaces around finance in addition to the bin in the upstairs break area.

The additional locations are as follows:

• Downstairs by the sink/break area
• One within SFS
• One back in PSDS break area
• One by the upstairs sink area

Please only put compostable materials in the bins such as food, paper products, wooden stir sticks, tea bags and more as listed on the bin itself.

If you are unsure your compostable k-cup is 100% compostable please put it in our K-Cup Recycle Bins!

Carruthers Hall is now Green Workplace Certified!  

Thanks to the Green Team's efforts and partnership with the UVA Office off Sustainability, we are now champions of sustainable practices. 

Read more about the Green Workplace program on the Office of Sustainability's website. 

Thank you to everyone who helped!

Changes on the Green Team

Thank you to Mariah Kier for all she has done as Greet Team Lead.  We will miss you, Mariah!

Welcome to Heather Landes of Audit, who will serve as the new Team Lead.  We also welcome Judy DiVita as our new Leadership Sponsor.  Other new members include Jennifer Meyer and Linda Ferguson of ITS, John Rodgers of OSP, and Devin Foster of FP&A.

Have any ideas for the Green Team?  Please share below!

Announcing a new course: Lean in Daily Work

Would you like to learn practical ways to implement Lean strategies into your daily routine? Lean in Daily Work will provide you with practical, easy-to-implement strategies to make your current processes more efficient, leaving you with more time to innovate and create. Through hands-on activities and sharing practical examples, you will gain skills to help you:

• Use the 5S strategy for organization to help with identifying and eliminating waste and continuously improving processes;
• Document how you do your work using the Standard Work approach;
• Manage work through tools such as a Kanban Board; and
• Implement time saving ideas to improve efficiency and increase productivity.

Completion of Lean Fluency is a prerequisite for this class. Two classes are currently scheduled: Wednesday, October 24, 3:00-4:30, and Monday, December 17, 10:30–12:00.

Log into Employee Self-Service and then click on this course link to enroll: Lean in Daily Work

Both Lean in Daily Work and Lean Fluency will be part of a UVAFinance Lean Certification which will be offered beginning in early 2019. In addition to these two classes, the certification will include another course, Advanced Lean, and Lean Labs, which will be focused on one specific Lean concept, approach, or tool. Completion of the certification will require successful completion of all three courses and at least 3 of the labs.

Get a head start by participating in Lean Fluency and Lean in Daily Work now!

The UVA Marketplace Registration Portal is now live!

The UVA Marketplace Registration Portal enables Procurement & Supplier Diversity Services (PSDS) to better manage the University's registration processes. More importantly, by improving our operations, we're reducing the time it takes to get a new supplier or non-supplier into the Marketplace. 

Here's what you can do:

• Invite new suppliers to register with the University for Purchase Orders/payments
• Register or invite new non-suppliers (research participants, honoraria recipients, individuals)
• Request updates or add new sites for existing suppliers and non-suppliers

The UVA Marketplace Registration Portal is easy to use. We've put together a page full of information, training, and frequently asked questions to get you started:

http://www.procurement.virginia.edu/pagevendorregistration

Are you ready for Workday?

In three months, the advent of Workday will change the way we handle HR and Payroll tasks at UVA.

Workday has been on its way to us for quite a while now, and when change seems distant, it's easy for us to ignore its impending arrival. . . but go live is now on the horizon, and the Ufirst team has you covered with helpful information on their website and blog.

Information on the rollout, training, fun videos and key dates can all be found on the Ufirst site here: https://ufirst.virginia.edu/awareness

New on Finance Matters for your listening pleasure

A plethora of new episodes of Finance Matters is available via the links below or on iTunes.  

_________________________________________________________________

• A New Approach to Learning
• A Discussion of Brave Space, with guest Valencia Harvey

                  Part One
                  Part Two

• Improving the Way We Work, featuring Judy DiVita
• Giving and Receiving Feedback
• Common Mistakes Managers Make

_____________________________________________________________________

Teaser alert:  we've got a ton of new content scheduled for the upcoming weeks.  Watch for the following: 

• What we learn from making with mistakes, featuring Lynne Schwar 
• Cross-functional Teams, with guests Shannon Wampler and Joshua Breeden
• Vulnerability as a Manager, featuring Sarah Doran

See all past episodes of Finance Matters here.  

Got a great idea for a podcast?  Email Patty or Brandi!

Payroll Employees + Hours of testing = Correct pay when Workday goes live!

Click the image for a larger view

UVAFinance is working hard to make sure everyone gets paid correctly when Workday goes live.  This infographic breaks down the time and effort that goes into moving from three separate payroll systems to one in Workday.  

Lunch & Learn: Finance Online Community

The Finance Online Community is live and ready for your questions, ideas, and thoughts about Finance Strategic Transformation.  Have you logged in and checked it out?  If you'd like a little more information about how to use it, please come to our Lunch & Learn on October 24, from 12 - 1, in Carruthers Hall, Carr-1.  

Special Ticket Offer!

Virginia Football hosts ACC rival Pitt on Friday, Nov. 2 at Scott Stadium. Kickoff set for 7:30 p.m. Join us for University Night as we will honor the accomplishments and contributions of University faculty, staff, and students throughout the game!

UVA faculty and staff can save up to 58% on tickets for this game through the special link below. Go Hoos!

PURCHASE TICKETS

Hoos Seen This?

Cool stuff around the University that you might've missed

In October 2018, UVA will host a pan-University Bicentennial Sustainability Leadership Summit to showcase the breadth of UVA’s interdisciplinary work in the multi-faceted realm of sustainability, and to collaboratively envision UVA’s longer-term role as a global sustainability leader. We invite you to join fellow alumni, students, faculty, and staff to commemorate our history and to share your voice in continuing and developing next steps for UVA’s leadership role in a sustainable future.  Check out the schedule and register here:  https://sustainability.virginia.edu/about/overview/bicentennial.html