Secure Your Load to prevent road debris and accidents, June 6
The old car transports a heap of rubbish
In recognition of “Secure Your Load Day” on Tuesday, June 6, a national effort championed by King County resident Robin Abel, the King County Solid Waste Division is encouraging all residents to take the time to properly secure their loads to improve road safety, avoid fees, and prevent litter. A recent study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that road debris contributes to more than 50,000 traffic crashes every year in the U.S. Of those crashes, 125 people lost their lives. It only takes a few minutes to properly secure your load to prevent auto crashes, injuries, deaths, and fines from law enforcement.
You can find more information about securing your load by visiting the Solid Waste Division website here.
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Opportunities at Work: Igniting Employee Development session for supervisors and managers, June 26
We’re building a culture where all King County employees are inspired to learn, grow and thrive. Supervisors and managers play a key role in that. This special, one-time pilot session will support supervisors and managers in their role championing development for the people they lead.
This session will be held Monday, June 26 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. in King Street Center, 8th Floor Conference Center. In this half-day forum, supervisors and managers will:
- Recognize the important role they play in developing the people they lead
- Discuss barriers and learn best practices in employment development
- Explore skills and behaviors that enable them to better support employees in their development efforts
- Identify development tools and resources that help meet engagement action plans and Equity & Social Justice: Workplace and Workforce goals.
To register and for more information, view the Eventbrite listing here.
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PlazaFest: Food Carts are back by popular demand, June 6
Food cart vendors will be available on the Administration Building plaza Tuesday, June 6 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
The Facilities Management Division is close to finalizing a plan for food carts and other food options on a more consistent basis, through the summer months. Look for more information soon. For questions about PlazaFest on June 6, email Judy Hairston.
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Lunching with Jeremy Rivera, Human Resources Division
Crossposted from Healthy Incentives
With layers of bright vegetable colors, Jeremy Rivera’s mason jar salads inspire lunch envy whenever they appear in the HRD Administration building fridge. He shares the secrets to his healthy, filling lunch.
Jeremy has been at King County for five years, and today works as special duty assignment administrative specialist III for the Human Resources Division. He began making the salads in 2013 when he committed to a healthy habit and weight loss routine. Still committed, Jeremy does mind-body exercises, yoga, and meditation at home, and gets people’s hearts pumping for three evenings a week as a Zumba instructor at 24 Hour Fitness.
Read more at Healthy Incentives
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Be safe and secure this summer
As the weather warms, there are a lot more people out and about, especially around our buildings in downtown Seattle. Your safety and security here at work are important to us, so we’d like to remind you of a few tips:
- Plan your route, and stick to well-lit paths.
- Be aware of your surroundings and know who is nearby.
- Avoid looking at your mobile phone while walking, and minimize what you carry in your hands.
- Walk with a group when possible.
- Don’t be afraid to cross the street, return to a business, or ask for help based on a “funny feeling.” You may be right!
We have more personal safety tips on our Employees webpage. If you’re involved in an incident, make a report online or call the FMD Security Unit at 206-296-5000. And as always, in an emergency call 9-1-1 first, then make a report to FMD Security when you’re able.
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Keeping people and goods moving at a “Critical Juncture”
Crossposted from Inside Transportation
Keeping communities connected is the mission for King County’s Department of Transportation, and that includes during those times when roads are blocked by natural disaster or overturned trucks. It’s impossible to predict when an emergency or disaster will occur, so its job is to be trained and prepared for when that day comes. A big part of that preparation is making sure the jurisdictions in our region are all on the same page.
That’s why DOT brought Marcus Deyerin into the Director’s Office as its Training and Exercise Program Manager for emergency management. Marcus has earned the initials CEM MEP after his name, which mean he’s a Certified Emergency Manager and a Master Exercise Practitioner.
Read more at Inside Transportation
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Restarting hearts: CPR/AED training fosters a community of lifesavers
Crossposted from Public Health Insider
Today, we’re taking a closer look at training the public to know cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and effectively use a automated external defibrillator (AED) to restore proper heart rhythm. These two life-saving tasks can be performed by bystanders, before an Emergency Medical Technician arrives, increasing the chances for survival. In fact, bystanders trained in these skills have been a critical factor in helping Seattle and King County achieve high survival rates for sudden cardiac arrest.
Laura Miccile manages the EMS Division’s CPR/PAD (public access to defibrillation) program. Her work includes partnering with schools throughout King County to train 6-12 graders, and their teachers, how to perform CPR and use an AED. She also oversees placement and registration of AEDs in the community. Laura is a new addition to Public Health – Seattle & King County’s Emergency Medical Division, and comes from the private sector, where she worked in hospitals managing childhood injury prevention programs.
Read more at Public Health Insider
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Sign up for CSA@Work by June 1
It’s not too late to sign up for weekly deliveries of farm fresh local produce! The CSA@Work program serves 13 King County worksites and employees have until June 1 to sign up for a guaranteed spot.
Read the details and sign-up for the CSA that serves your preferred building, and get some CSA-based meal ideas from farmers on the Healthy Incentives blog.
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Supervisors share their experiences in hiring Veteran Fellows
What began as King County’s Heroes Employment Reintegration Opportunity (HERO) Program four years ago has developed into the Vets 4 HIRE (Heroes in Reintegration Experiences) program, a paid fellowship/internship for qualified veterans funded in part by the Veterans and Human Services Levy.
While the success of any program of this type depends on the quality of the candidates, the success of Vets 4 HIRE also relies on those County’s supervisors who engage with this unique pool of talent. With the approval of funding through this year, and voting on a Levy renewal this fall, there are opportunities for King County supervisors to bring veteran talent onto their teams – adding value to not only their teams, but to the County and the residents we serve.
“Our veteran was great!” said Joseph Hughes, Parks District Maintenance Coordinator. “He did not know exactly what he wanted to do when he retired from the Navy, but – working here at Bear Creek – he decided to return to school and is taking courses to be a Park Manager.”
“We created the Vets 4 HIRE Program to support veterans in making a successful transition from military to civilian employment, and to provide a pipeline of skilled veteran talent for positions within King County,” said Susan Navetski, Vets 4 HIRE Program Manager. “We believe their talent, experiences and perspectives can support us in achieving our best-run government goal.”
So far, 37 veterans have participated in the program, and 28 King County supervisors have enjoyed the benefits.
Pictured from left: Veteran fellows Casimier Schwandt and Darron Lewis and IT Oversight, Compliance, and Governance Manager Zlata Kauzlaric.
Zlata Kauzlaric is one such supervisor. Zlata manages IT Governance for King County CIO Bill Kehoe, and she’s hired three veteran fellows.
“Here at KCIT, we are excited to participate in the program. This is one of the ways to support our veterans, who made a decision to serve this country and protect our way of living. Their service is remarkable,” said Zlata. “Now they’re out here in a ‘different world,’ and this is a great opportunity for us to help them transition, to help them build a network so they can identify opportunities. I am really proud of our County for this program, and I want to support it.”
Two of Zlata’s three fellows are still with the County. Navy veteran Darron Lewis is now engaging our community as a career service Administrative Specialist with Department of Public Health, and Air Force veteran Casimier Schwandt joined KCIT’s Business Analysis Services team in a project role.
“Cas joined my team with a desire to make a difference and to build his professional acumen in challenging and difficult position – Journey Business Analyst,” said Charlie Bozonier, Analysis and Training Services Owner with the KCIT Enterprise Business Solutions Division. “He has served on about 20 different projects in his first year. All the work was challenging, but Cas was consistently dedicated and demonstrated the highest degree of commitment to the role. His colleagues and customers love working with him, and we are lucky to have him on the team.”
Susan Navetski, Vets 4 HIRE Program Manager
“They bring a different perspective,” said Zlata. “They bring discipline, reliability, organizational skills, and a sense of service. They are happy for the opportunity, they are committed to learn, and they bring an attitude that ‘nothing is impossible.’”
Supervisors can work with their department HR staff to identify opportunities for veterans to contribute to their teams, review and select from existing veteran candidate pools, or post those opportunities on the County’s career site.
The program currently allows veterans to continue to serve for an initial six month paid learning experience, with an extension of up to 2,080 hours. For those veterans who are residents of King County, half of the first six month’s salary – up to $6,250 – is covered by the Levy.
Stay tuned for more Vets 4 HIRE supervisor perspectives and announcements!
For more information about the program visit www.kingcounty.gov/Vets4HIRE.
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Employees share learnings, successes on engagement work
About 40 employees attended the second Office of Performance, Strategy and Budget-sponsored Community of Practice event of 2017 to get an overview of the key findings in the 2016 Employee Survey and learn how workgroups, divisions and departments are acting on what respondents said.
“For those of you who are working on engagement teams I want you to know that it is making a difference,” Chrissy Russillo, Interim Director of Human Resources Division, said at the May 22 event. “I’m out and about and hear people talking about it all the time. The Executive Office has taken this work on as a priority. Executive Cabinet talks about it on a regular basis, it’s an agenda item for every meeting. So know that you are making a difference.”
Whitney Abrams, Director of Employee Engagement in the Executive’s Office, provided an overview of the work being done to bring together the employee-focused efforts in Best-Run Government: Employees, Equity and Social Justice, and continuous improvement to create a fairer, more supportive workplace.
“We’ve put together a strategic plan incorporating the employee-focused elements of the Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan, what we’re doing in our employee survey action plans, what we’re doing around accountability, learning and growth, compensation, continuous improvement, into a plan called ‘Investing in You.’”
She said that more details on how Investing in You is integrating the County’s employee-focused strategies would be released in June.
The event then broke into four groups to hear firsthand from four employees about their engagement efforts, successes and learnings – Shawn Abernethy from the Department of Executive Services Director’s Office; Van Badzik from the Office of Performance, Strategy, and Budget; Jackie Smith from the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention; and Charlie Bozonier from King County Information Technology.
Sixty-seven percent of employees in participating agencies had their say in the 2016 survey, up from 60 percent in 2015. In 2015, 235 engagement action plans were created to respond to the issues that employees raised in the survey. More than 320 action plans have so far been created to respond to the 2016 survey, and are making positive changes across the County.
The King County Performance Management Community of Practice exists to increase cross-collaboration of data-driven professionals from inside King County and professionals in the region. The Community of Practice typically hosts four events each year and has existed for two years. To find out about future Community of Practice events please contact Abby Beatty to be added to the contact list.
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