During challenging budgetary times, King County’s Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) allows approved agencies to offer retirement-eligible regular employees a financial incentive of $20,540 to leave County employment in a mutually beneficial agreement. Currently, there are a few agencies that have been approved to offer the program for a limited time in 2020.

In order to be eligible for the program, an employee must:

• Have at least five years of continual current County service,
• Not be a temporary employee, and
• Be eligible to apply for a pension from the Law Enforcement Officers and Firefighters Retirement System, Public Employees Retirement System, Public Safety Employees Retirement System or the City of Seattle Retirement Plan, before December 31, of the calendar year in which the employee applies for the program.
• While the employee must be retirement-eligible and must separate from the county, the employee need not actually begin drawing a pension to be considered eligible for the program.

An employee’s request to participate will be considered by their agency and reviewed on a case-by-case basis. However, merely meeting the minimum eligibility threshold does not guarantee approval. Approval is discretionary and consideration will be given to the impact to service delivery, impact on retention of skilled employees, cost of refilling the position, short- and long-term savings, and length of service.

In addition to the employee receiving a financial incentive, benefits to the agency will include:

• It helps to minimize the number of employees subject to layoffs (reductions in force) – the position of the separated employee may be eliminated instead of laying off an employee
• It provides for cost savings and efficiencies
• Agencies can better align resources and work programs with its priorities by creating greater flexibility.

Not all agencies or divisions within agencies are eligible to participate each year. Approval to participate is received by the Director of Performance, Strategy and Budget (PSB) and generally depends on the agency’s financial situation. A current list of participating agencies can be found here.

To learn more, view the Frequently Asked Questions, or speak with your department’s Human Resources Manager (employee access only).

The coronavirus is fundamentally changing the way millions of people live and work. Facing the challenges of the new workplace landscape, King County retirement educators Carmen Johnson and Matt Munson have made innovative adjustments to better meet the needs of employees looking toward retirement. 

Carmen and Matt, members of the Benefit Engagement Team supervised by Brian Czerwinski, began modifying their retirement classes, Road to Retirement and Rev Up for Retirement, so they could be offered to employees who are telecommuting or working different schedules.  

“We identified a set of urgent challenges facing our employees who need information about retirement,” said Carmen. “Using the tools and technologies at hand, we were able to quickly chart new, more adaptive classes.” 

Road to Retirement is geared for employees interested in retiring in the next six months, and on July 8, more than 240 employees helped celebrate National Retirement Planning month by participating through Zoom. Matt and Carmen offered this class at four different times throughout the day, including an early morning and an evening session, to accommodate those with schedules outside normal work hours.  

They also recently shifted the Rev Up class—for employees who plan to retire in six months or more—to a Zoom meeting, enabling more than 100 employees to join. Participants said: “It was very well organized and allowed time for questions from the attendees” and “Excellent job of making this event work even though we participated online” and “I appreciated the seminar being online and would suggest keeping this format in future to make it easier to attend for those who would otherwise need to travel some distance to take part.” 

“These online classes have been incredibly successful, and now, more people are attending the virtual sessions than previously attended the in-person classes,” said Matt. “We plan to continue expanding our educational offerings and are even considering weekend options.” 

To learn more about retirement and classes, go the Retirement page and read the Retirement Guide. If you have questions, contact Carmen Johnson, retirement navigator.