Public Health Lunch and Learn April 5: Lead Poisoning in King County – Is this an issue?
As we celebrate National Public Health week let’s look back as what some describe as one of the biggest public health success stories – childhood lead poisoning. Come learn more about lead and current lead issues in King County with discussion of approaches to prevent and reduce lead exposure. This free event will feature trainers Dr. Kyle Yasuda and Nicole Thomsen and does not require attendees to register.
Wednesday, April 5 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Chinook Rooms 121-123
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Rev Up For Retirement seminar, May 1
With increased concern over the future of Social Security and the stability of retirement plans, you’re never too young (or too old!) to prepare.
Bring a sack lunch and hear what the Retired Public Employees Council of Washington, the Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors and the Social Security Administration have to say about planning, PERS, Medicare, and Social Security.
Monday, May 1 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eighth Floor Conference Hall, King Street Center, 201 S. Jackson St., Seattle
Registration is required. Due to space limitations, only county employees may attend. To register, please e-mail KC.Orientations@kingcounty.gov.
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Hands on Technology Day, April 4
Your King County Information Technology teams welcome you to our first 2017 Hands on Technology Day on Tuesday, April 4 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Chinook foyer, rooms 115, 120 and 124.
It’s a perfect way to spend your lunch! Among the highlights:
- Bring any device (used to conduct King County business) to our mobile Customer Support Services group. Team members will be on hand to resolve any/all HelpTickets, answer questions, work with your hardware, software and help make your computer run just a little bit better. (Room 115)
- Our Business Analysts will roam the halls looking for process problems to solve. (Foyer)
- Sign up for SharePoint 101 and 102. We’re trained nearly 1000 people in the last year and they are now SharePoint fans! We’re not kidding! (Foyer)
- We have something new – a pop-up IT Mobility Lab. Touch and try the new interactive smart conference room systems, shop the latest county laptops and headsets, and get 1:1 skype training. (Room 124 and 120)
- All that and cybersecurity awareness, GIS and data, data, data. (Foyer)
What a great way to spend lunch! Here’s the information link. (SharePoint) You can also download our poster here.
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Public Health Week April 3-7, Open House April 7
King County employees are invited to a Public Health Open House on Friday, April 7 from noon to 2 p.m. in Chinook Rooms 121-123 to celebrate Public Health Week.
Meet with Public Health experts and learn more about how they help keep us safe and healthy. Check out the new food safety rating system, tour the mobile medical van and a Medic One truck, speak with a disease detective or public health veterinarian and much more! No RSVP is required, just stop by.
For anyone unable to make it, the Open House will be featured on a Public Health Facebook Live video with Director Patty Hayes at facebook.com/KCPubHealth. Click here to download the Public Health Week Open House flyer.
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Boeing Field is a giant classroom for high school aviation students
Crossposted from The Centerline
A group of budding aviation students from the San Juan Islands recently turned King County International Airport/Boeing Field into a giant classroom.
On March 12, the seven grinning students from an introductory aviation class at Friday Harbor High visited the Airport in one of the coolest field trips ever.
The students were joined by their instructor Mari Peterson, an Assistant Chief Pilot for Westwind Aviation in Friday Harbor who regularly flies out of Boeing Field.
They toured the Airport, conducted an airfield inspection, ate lunch at the Museum of Flight and learned about our operations.
Read more at The Centerline
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PeopleSoft Fluid Navigation coming April 3
The new Fluid Navigation will be a welcome addition to PeopleSoft functionality beginning Monday, April 3. This new technology offers a modern, intuitive navigation structure boasting a new tiled homepage design that can be individually customized. The look and feel of the homepage and navigation will change, but the functional pages and process flow remain the same. Users will experience the best of both worlds; technology and functionality.
Watch this brief video below providing a demonstration of PeopleSoft Fluid Navigation. For additional educational resources refer to the Fluid section of the PeopleSoft Knowledge Center in the BRC Website.
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Listening to employees to build a learning organization
Access to learning and advancement opportunities was a major theme in the 2016 Employee Survey so King County Executive Dow Constantine invited some employees to his latest Listening Session to hear about the challenges and successes employees face in growing their knowledge and careers at King County.
“I want employees to be able to learn new skills so we can not only get better at what we do and serve our customers better, but you can also take advantage of opportunities to advance,” Executive Constantine told the group. “I want to hear from you about what’s working well and what we can do better.”
Executive Constantine began by asking participants, who are members of the County’s Equal Employment Opportunity & Affirmative Action (EEO/AA) Committee, about the barriers to advancement and development opportunities they see in their departments and what King County can do to make these opportunities accessible to all employees.
The experiences shared varied greatly across the County. Access to training opportunities was better in departments with more stable funding sources. Frontline customer service employees find it harder to attend classroom trainings because their work needs to be backfilled.
But resourcing is not the only barrier. The group spoke about the critical role that supervisors play in employee development – and how supporting employees is rewarding for both the employee and the supervisor.
Employees with supervisors who work with them on professional development plans and who prioritize employee development are more likely to get approval to attend classroom or online trainings, especially when those courses are needed for their advancement goals rather than just their current jobs. And supportive supervisors tend to look for stretch opportunities that can help their employees learn “on the job” skills that they need to take the next career step.
One participant said that he’s seen employees whose passion for their work was rekindled when their supervisor showed an interest in their development and career goals, and worked with them on a plan and pathway to achieve those goals. These are outcomes that supervisors should take great pride in.
The group made several recommendations to improve the access to development opportunities, including a policy that allows for a certain number of training hours per employee, coverage for front desk staff to attend trainings, clear guidelines about how E-learning classes are to be accessed and utilized by employees, ensuring that all training is culturally responsive, incentives for supervisors to encourage the development of their employees, provision for more stretch assignments as opposed to Special Duty Opportunities, clear career pathways across job classifications, and professional development plans for all employees.
Thank you to the employees who attended the March 22 Listening Session: Cynthia Chiu, DPD, Public Defense Investigator; Velma Valdez, DOT, Mechanical Designer V; Lorrie Alfonsi, DOT, Transportation Planner III; Breen Lorenz, DES, Nurse Case Manager; Elena Edwards, DOT, HR Associate (Special Duty); Dean Olson, DOT, Functional Analyst; and Jose Luis Reyna, DOT, Acting Facilities Chief.
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King County employees support West Point crews and operators
This article is featured courtesy of Monica Van der Vieren, Communications Specialist, Department of Natural Resources and Parks
The first question King County employees asked when they heard about the unprecedented West Point Treatment Plant flooding was, “What can I do to help?”
King County Wastewater Treatment Division has been all hands on deck working around the clock to restore high quality service to the treatment plant since unprecedented flooding damaged the plant Feb. 9. Operations and maintenance crews from other treatment plants, offsite facilities and downtown pitch in at West Point. Employees throughout the system manage a larger work load with some flows transferred to other plants.
But there isn’t much that untrained employees can do to help out at West Point.
King County’s emphasis on service and teamwork shows at times like these, and people found a universally-appreciated way to show support: food.
It started with a suggestion by Paige Myers , assistant to the DNRP Director, to cook up a big pot of chili for the hard-working crews. Another employee volunteered to make homemade cornbread. And the idea grew from there.
Since late February, employees throughout the Department of Natural Resources and Parks, Human Resources Division, Office of Labor Relations, and the Executive Cabinet have signed up to serve West Point crews buffet style lunches once a week. They cook, bake, buy food and donate cash to set a welcome table in the Rainier conference room every Friday. Paige Myers coordinates the entire operation each week.
On April 14, as the expected date to restore secondary treatment approaches, crews and operators will be treated to a pizza lunch from cash donations.
On March 10, the kindergarten and first grade girls of Daisy Troop 40196 sent a special treat: boxes of Girl Scout cookies. The cookies were accompanied by hand-made cards from the troop saying “Thank you for the hard work and long hours you are putting in to get the West Point Treatment Plant fully restored. We appreciate the work you do to protect our water!”
WTD employees sent signed cards with praise: “You inspire me! Thank you for all the hard work you are doing to get our system back up and carry out our mission!”
West Point workers appreciate the support as much as the food. Operators who are used to working behind the scenes providing high quality wastewater service day after day are now on the front lines restoring the treatment plant. Everyone’s routines have changed. While most King County employees can’t step in to help, we can let our hard working, dedicated colleagues know that we’re standing by them throughout the restoration effort.
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Why King County is leading with racial justice
Yesterday King County Executive Dow Constantine announced that King County is prioritizing racial justice in our work and the implementation of our Equity and Social Justice (ESJ) Strategic Plan.
We all benefit from having an equitable and just society where everyone has a fair shot at success and is able to contribute, where no one is held back because of the color of their skin.
The Office of Equity and Social Justice has put together a short Q&A to answer some questions that you may have.
Why is King County focusing on racial justice?
When we look at data across our communities, whether its people’s health, access to housing and good paying jobs, graduation rates, incomes or incarcerations, disparities are greatest when we look by race. The most persistent and detrimental disparities are starkest when we look at race. By leading with racial justice we are committing to taking on the root causes of our most challenging problems and to focus where we can have the biggest impact and needs are greatest.
Our ESJ approach is comprehensive, working to address all forms of inequities, discrimination and bias. By leading with racial justice, we will learn the tools and strategies that apply to all inequities and will be able to apply them to eliminate all forms of discrimination and disparities and their intersection with race.
Employee News 