Social Media Spotlight: King County Council Twitter
Updates and news from the Metropolitan King County Council.
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Tech Tip: Skype Bites: How to forward your phone using Skype for Business
No one can be at their desk 24/7/365. Skype for Business allows you to forward your calls to many places including your personal cell, an individual or an entire call group. Learn how in 94 seconds.
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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.
Employee News 