Honoring the 2019 Executive’s Performance Excellence Awards honorees
King County today announced the honorees for the 2019 Executive’s Performance Excellence Awards, recognizing employees and teams for their exceptional contributions to performance, leadership, service, and innovation, and for helping make King County a best-run government.
“These awards honor employees and workgroups for their exceptional contributions in performance, leadership, and innovation,” King County Executive Dow Constantine said. “They recognize people who are helping to build a best-run government at King County, people who show us what good looks like – what best-run government looks like – and what we can all do to become better.”
The Executive’s Performance Excellence Awards were created to recognize projects, improvements, and innovations in departments that are driving exceptional, measurable results. Employees and teams were recognized with Innovation Awards in five categories: people, cost, service, ESJ, and sustainability. Three leadership awards were also awarded in three categories: people leaders, individual contributors, and the Fred Jarrett Leadership Excellence Award.
“Recognizing great work is important; celebrating our accomplishments is important; and I am pleased that we can go on with this year’s awards virtually,” Executive Constantine said.
Due to COVID-19, several King County leaders – including Executive Constantine, Chief of Staff April Putney, and members of the Executive’s Senior Leadership Team, announced the 2019 award recipients by video. Click here to see the 2019 honorees and watch the videos.
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Training Spotlight for December 22
Winter classes are now available. Please visit our King County Eventbrite website and our Learning and Development website for available opportunities. For more information, contact the Learning and Development Team at KCTraining@kingcounty.gov or visit Learning and Development at www.kingcounty.gov/learning.
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Featured Job: Flood District Chief Engineer
Salary: $112,856 – $151,779
Location: Multiple locations in King County, WA
Job Type: Appointed
Department: KCC – King County Council
Job Number: KCFD12162020TC
Closing: 1/14/2021 11:59 PM Pacific
Learn more about this position or view all available positions.
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PeopleSoft HCM Outage Notice, December 23
To allow for system maintenance, the PeopleSoft system will not be available starting at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 23.
During this planned outage, the Business Resource Center (BRC) will apply vendor updates and maintenance.
This work will begin on Wednesday, Dec. 23 at 3 p.m. and is scheduled to be completed by 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, Dec 24.
The system will not be available for access by any County staff during this outage window. There will be a communication sent out to all County staff when the system becomes available.
We realize that this outage impacts all PeopleSoft users and we appreciate your understanding and support.
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New COVID-19 Child Care Reimbursement Program
Dear King County employee,
We are excited to announce that, in response to the overwhelming impacts of COVID-19 on working parents, including the closure of many in-person schools and child care providers, labor and management have agreed upon a COVID-19 Child Care Reimbursement Program to help those in the Regular Employees Benefits Plan with child care expenses incurred during the 2020-2021 school year.
This groundbreaking agreement, first proposed by a King County Coalition of Unions, will cover approximately 10,400 union and non-represented employees who receive the Regular Employees Benefits Plan through the Joint Labor Management Insurance Committee (JLMIC). The program is funded with $9M from the JLMIC’s Protected Fund Reserve.
Beginning Jan. 11, 2021, those eligible for the Regular Employees Benefits Plan will be able to submit receipts for child care expenses incurred between Sept. 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021. The amount of reimbursement an employee may receive will vary by the employee’s King County income and the number of children the employee has. Employees who earn lower salaries or wages are eligible to receive higher payments, up to the program maximum of $5,000 per child.
Covered expenses include payments to both licensed and unlicensed child care providers, including pre-schools, school-age programs, nannies, au pairs, tutors, extended family (such as an aunt, uncle or grandparent), friend, or neighbor.
We are extremely proud that our strong partnership permitted us to create a program that will help our working parents during this tremendously challenging time.
We look forward to sharing more details in early January 2021.
Happy Holidays!
Megan Pederson, Director, Office of Labor Relations, JLMIC Management Chair
Denise Cobden, Professional and Technical Employees, Local 17, JLMIC Co-Chair
Michael Gonzales, Teamsters Local 174, JLMIC Co-Chair
Please note: More details on this process will be available in early January 2021. If you have questions in the meantime, please contact your HR Manager or union representative.
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Thank you to you, our employee audience
Our top stories and videos for 2020
Throughout 2020, the Department of Human Resources Employee Communications Team highlighted the professional accomplishments and successes of our employees, resources to help them navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, learning and advancement opportunities, and important events. These were shared in our twice weekly Employee News newsletter, the KC Employee News blog, and the King County Employees YouTube channel. Additionally, these same stories were also shared on the KCEmployees Twitter account and the King County, WA LinkedIn account.
Thank you to all our readers for engaging with our content, sharing it with others, and continuing to show us how we can provide you the information you need to succeed in your career, live a healthy life, and do great work for our residents and our community in what has been tremendously challenging year. If you have any story ideas, suggestions, or recommendations, please email us KCEmployees@kingcounty.gov.
The 10 most-clicked Employee News newsletter stories for 2020 were:
10. Unemployment fraud is escalating. Learn how to protect yourself – 853 clicks
9. Support setting up remote workspaces – 854 clicks
8. Administration Building to close in early 2021 – 897 clicks
7. New telecommuting resources site – 917 clicks
6. Get a flu shot this fall – 954 clicks
5. Guidance on cloth face masks – 1,037 clicks
4. Black Lives Matter silent march and general strike Friday, June 12 – 1,076 clicks
3. Governor Inslee COVID-19 press conference today at 2:30 p.m. – 1,174 clicks
2. Get to know the Voluntary Separation Program – 1,219 clicks
1. Emergency Deployment Program now available to support COVID-19 efforts – 1,248 clicks
The five most-watched videos were:
5. King County Affinity Groups – 557 views
4. Budget Update III: Dwight Dively – 582
3. Budget Update II: Dwight Dively – 705
2. Values: We lead the way – 1,084 views
1. Dwight Dively 2021-2022 Budget Update – 1,460 views
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Tech Tip: Teams Breakout Rooms are here
Microsoft Teams offers users the option to use a Breakout Room. Meeting organizers can use Breakout Rooms to break meeting attendees into small groups during you meeting.
Breakout Rooms rolled out the week of Dec. 7. Meeting organizers should now see the icon in their meetings.
Only meeting organizers can create and manage Breakout Rooms. Anyone in a Teams meeting can participate in a Breakout Room though.
To use Breakout Rooms, as a meeting organizer, select the Breakout Rooms icon (a square within a square). Follow the instructions that pop-up in the next screen.
To learn more about Breakout Rooms, read this short article from Microsoft. For questions, submit a ticket to the KCIT HelpDesk.
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Safe holiday activities for kids during the pandemic
If you have children at home, you may be wondering what types of activities you can do to provide entertainment and help them feel the spirit of celebration during the pandemic. Balanced You has put together a list of seasonal activities you can do as a family that foster connection and well-being while observing guidelines for staying healthy. Visit this Balanced You blogpost for more information.
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Give the gift of safety this winter season
Crossposted from Public Health Insider
As winter approaches, you may find yourself driving in the snow, skiing, snowboarding, sledding, ice skating, or giving gifts this season. Here are some tips for giving the gift of safety for the holidays:
- If you are giving a bike, scooter, skateboard, snowboard or skis, remember to give a helmet too!
- If you are giving a toy to a child, check the warning labels and instructions to make sure it’s age-appropriate.
- If you have a friend or loved one who owns a gun and want to give them a locking device, you can get 10-15% off storage devices or lockboxes at participating retailers by mentioning Public Health or Lock It Up.
Enjoy a safe and healthy winter season! Read more.
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Creating Effective Application Materials online workshop, January 13
This one-hour virtual workshop will provide you tips and strategies on how to make your application materials stand out. Learning objectives include:
- Understanding the purpose of the job application, resume, cover letter and supplemental questions and how to make each of them more effective
- Deciding what to include in your resume and the best format to showcase your qualifications
- How to write a cover letter tailored to the specific position
- Identifying and showcasing your accomplishments
This workshop will take place Wednesday, Jan. 13 from 1-3 p.m. Register here.
For additional online workshops offered by King County Career Support Services (CSS), visit their Eventbrite page. For more information about CSS along with links to career related tips and resources, visit www.kingcounty.gov/CSS.
Employee News 