People & Change: Thomas Veal

The Southern Medical Program (SMP) at UBC Okanagan campus is educating the next generation of doctors, fostering new discoveries, and building new pathways to improve health for communities across the Interior Health region. It is part of the complex Faculty of Medicine that stretches across the province, meaning the successful adoption of new systems and initiatives such as Workday can only be accomplished through united efforts by the entire faculty.

Thomas Veal, Financial Officer at the SMP, understands the importance of innovative systems to a growing medical program. Leading the financial initiatives for SMP, he has seen the program develop from its infancy since joining in 2012. With growth in new programs comes the readiness required for the implementation of new systems such as Workday.

“Our teaching program is quite unique, so it requires a more efficient way to track the financial and payment data that comes with it. As a result, we went through a system change a few years ago,” says Veal. “Now, the important factor with Workday is making sure both systems become integrated seamlessly.”

This understanding of change within an organization has helped him in his role as a captain in the Transition Network (TN) at the Okanagan campus. Collaborating with other TN leads and captains from both campuses for the Faculty of Medicine, he is expanding his understanding of the system capabilities to help develop and define key functions within the Workday system while envisioning the eventual impact on workflow.

“With my background and my role here as Financial Officer as well as Transition Captain, I try and gather as much information on security role mapping, ensuring the right level of system access for the right roles, to put forward my recommendations for our program,” says Veal. “Educating myself on the capabilities of both systems is allowing me to recognize the importance of flexibility in the system to meet our future needs, and I believe Workday grants us that.”

Some key business functions at SMP, such as recruitment and payroll for the medical teachers, require both financial and human resources decisions, and will require new systems such as Workday to streamline.

 “Considering the complex system of HR operations for the Faculty of Medicine across both campuses, I am hoping the integration makes our workflow between financial and HR processes more efficient,” says Veal. “This efficiency will then allow staff and management to focus on the bigger goals for our program.”

Significant change in an organization comes with some trepidation among staff and the impact it will have on their day-to-day roles. Veal is confident that training provided by the Integrated Renewal Program on certain complex processes for employees will help ease minds with the coming transition.

“People worry about their role becoming obsolete or changing drastically. But I’m confident that they will see it is just an evolution of their roles that will help open up opportunities for more meaningful and exciting work.”

Working closely with other TN members as well as members of the IRP team allows for open communication on balancing the specific business operating needs of the SMP with the united goals for the overall Faculty of Medicine across the province.

“The important thing we will be focusing on is the integrative capabilities and refinement of operations the new system will offer us here, while continuing the cooperative mindset between the two campuses. So, it is immensely important that all teams, from the TN to the IRP, are involved to help us through this second evolution in order for our program to experience continued growth.”