We will pay to train you
Crossposted from Clean Water Stories
Our business is unconventional – and that works for a lot of our employees.
We get it. Any of us who work here at King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) have been asked what we do for a living – and we’ve seen the smirks and heard the giggles when we explain we help run the region’s sewer utility.
Most of us did not seek out a career in wastewater, but many of us were pleasantly surprised when we found one. The people who operate our treatment plants and build our projects say things like…
- “I like that my job is more than just working in an office.”
- “I was hooked on the first treatment plant tour.”
- “I love the water, and why not be a part of protecting it?”
Read more at Clean Water Stories
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Success! Nonprofit Expo hosts a full house
Crossposted from KC Employee Giving
On November 1, Chinook hosted the final Nonprofit Expo Roadshow for this year’s Annual Giving Drive. The conference room was filled from wall to wall with 14 nonprofit organizations, and 70 County employees filtered through from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Organizations that attended the Expo run the gamut from the Make-A-Wish Alaska and Washington to Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to Project Canine and Feral Cat Spay/Neuter Project. Other nonprofit organizations that attended offer services that empower women, provide assistance to marginalized groups and environment preservation.
Read more at KC Employee Giving
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Honoring our Veterans through workplace giving
Crossposted from KC Employee Giving
In observance of Veterans Day 2017, we would like to encourage King County employees to give back to the men and women who have served to make America the land of the free. Here are some nonprofits who work to support veterans:
Heartbeat Serving Wounded Warriors (9525) PO Box 704 Snohomish, WA 98291 – provides emergency assistance, morale building programs and innovative therapeutic services for Wounded Warriors and their families.
Last year, Heartbeat assisted 4,730 Wounded Warrior families. Although the organization’s primary focus are families, 20% of soldiers are single. Most notably, Heartbeat recently began providing assistance to disabled children of wounded warriors in their Equine program.
Read more at KC Employee Giving
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Prosecuting Attorney’s Office profile: Sean Goode
If you wanted to create a profile for the type of kid who would end up involved in drugs, in gangs, in the juvenile justice system, Executive Director of the Choose 180 Program Sean Goode says the description would match his childhood.
Both of Sean’s parents struggled with mental health diseases: his father with schizophrenia; his mother with a personality disorder. His drug-and-alcohol-dependent father was also highly abusive.
“We left my father when I was 8,” Sean says. “I lived in 12 different places in 12 different years of school. As a result, I dealt with a whole lot of issues, including suicide attempts when I was small.”
Sean’s sister ran away from home. His brother was sent to juvenile prison as an early teenager for murder. Despite all the factors that might also have landed Sean in the juvenile justice system, Sean’s life took a different turn.
Read more at the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office website.
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King County introduces new medical plan option for employees in 2018
Crossposted from Healthy Incentives
For the first time in more than 10 years, King County employees have a new medical plan option in 2018: KingCare Select. Employees who choose KingCare Select will choose one of four Accountable Health Networks (AHNs) in the Puget Sound region. An accountable health network is a group of health care professionals working as a team to provide affordable, high-quality health care.
The four Accountable Health Networks are:
- Eastside Health Network (EvergreenHealth Partners-Overlake)
- The Everett Clinic
- MultiCare Connected Care™
- UW Medicine
Read more at Healthy Incentives
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Honoring our military veterans
Dear fellow King County employee,
King County Executive Dow Constantine
Every year, our nation comes together to salute the men and women who answered the call of duty to serve in our nation’s armed forces. To protect and preserve our freedoms, they placed their lives in harm’s way, often thousands of miles from home and family.
Among the more than 112,550 veterans who call King County home are 1,054 men and women with whom we work every day – fellow employees in every branch and every department in King County. Over the past year, 92 of those employees have been called to Active or Reserve duty.
Veterans Day is our opportunity to thank all of these patriots and colleagues for their service, and this Veterans Day King County is recognizing our employee military veterans and reservists with a specially designed bronzed lapel pin as a symbol of our ongoing appreciation.
I am proud to say that here, in King County, we do more than just voice appreciation to our local heroes: we demonstrate our respect through action. Tuesday’s election returns show overwhelming support from our community for the renewal and expansion of our Veterans, Seniors and Human Services Levy. Thanks to that funding, our King County Veterans Program is able to connect veterans and their families to housing, emergency assistance and job training. The levy also supports our King County Vets 4 HIRE Program, providing veterans with a broad range of internship opportunities.
With the support of the voters, we are committed to helping every veteran in King County successfully transition from their military service to a productive and fulfilling civilian life.
That’s our duty.
Veterans Day is November 11. Please join me in a moment of thanks to all of our veterans, active duty personnel and their families. We are forever grateful for their contributions, service and sacrifice.
Sincerely,
Dow Constantine
King County Executive
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Twenty-two employees celebrated at Bridge Fellowship ceremony
The 22 graduates from the 2017-2018 Bridge Fellowship Program were recognized at a ceremony attended by more than 100 colleagues, family, friends, and senior leaders last week at the King Street Center in Seattle.
The Bridge Fellowship is an intensive leadership development program designed to enhance participants’ leadership skills and knowledge of County systems and operations, and advance their professional development and King County careers.
“The Bridge Fellowship Program is a big part of my Investing in You strategy for King County,” King County Executive Dow Constantine said at the event. “It’s about offering opportunities for growth and advancement, no matter where you work, what you do or where you are in your career. It brings together employees from diverse backgrounds to learn, advance and improve the lives of our residents.”
Watch this video about the graduation with short interviews with some of this year’s participants.
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All Are Welcome Here
Crossposted from Metro Matters
As King County Metro grows and changes in our role as the regional mobility provider, there’s something we’ll never leave behind: our commitment to keeping Metro safe and welcoming for everyone who uses our services or works here. The recent terrible events in Texas, New York City and elsewhere are grim reminders of how important that commitment is.
New signs you’ll see on our buses for the long term reflect our promise to always look out for one another. They assure customers that “all are welcome here,” regardless of race, color, religion, gender, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, disability or national origin. They make it clear that harassment won’t be tolerated.
Metro’s policy is unchanged, but we’ve renewed our energy and commitment to help address problems when they are identified by riders, either through our drivers or directly through law enforcement via 911.
Read more at Metro Matters
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Honoring King County employees who continue to serve our community
This weekend, we will pay tribute to those who served our country in uniform. Veterans Day allows each of us a chance to reflect on the sacrifices these men and women made to keep our nation safe and free. No matter where or when they served, we all owe a debt to our military veterans.
As a small token of appreciation, throughout this month King County managers and supervisors will present a special “Veterans” pin to employees who served or are serving in the U.S. armed forces, active duty or reserve. We appreciate the leadership and perspectives that veterans bring to our workforce, and we appreciate their continued willingness to serve the public. The pin is circular, in bronzed nickel, includes the King County logo and has “Veteran” written on it. We hope every King County veteran wears the pin proudly.
If you served or are currently serving in the US armed forces and did not receive a pin during the month of November, please inquire with your supervisor about obtaining one.
We also encourage all employees who are veterans and reservists to update their PeopleSoft information to include their military status. To do so, login into PeopleSoft, click “Personal Details,” and then “Military Status” to verify that your military status is accurately listed in the system.
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Technology helps employees succeed on Day One
King County wants new employees to have everything they need to get to work on day one. To make that happen, King County Information Technology, Human Resources Division and Business Resource Center partnered to integrate the County’s PeopleSoft system with our new process called Digital ID.
This new process ensures new employees have their IT equipment, access (workstation login, email account, Skype etc), feel welcome and productive, on day one.
Here’s how it works: once an offer is accepted, the new employee is entered into PeopleSoft. This information triggers teams at KCIT to deliver a work station with a network account, email, Skype credentials ready for the first day of work. Similarly, when an employee leaves County service and employment status is updated in PeopleSoft, access to all accounts is immediately terminated.
“First impressions are important and research shows 86 percent of employees decide whether they’ll stay at their current place of employment based on how they’re treated in the first 90 days,” said Tanya Hannah, Interim Chief Information Officer. “KCIT is part of that welcome team. We want technology to be seamless, working and ready to go.”
This process also saves money and time by freeing up three FTEs who can now focus on more complex IT issues instead of the steady stream of Help Tickets associated with onboarding new employees.
“This phase of Digital ID is just the first step,” added Hannah. “We look forward to delivering more of this type of automation at a faster pace in 2018 to improve the customer experience and deliver systems that are more reliable and more secure.”
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