Tech Tip: Personal photo for Lync/Skype
When King County employees do business with each other, the public and other external customers/clients, we are transparent. Part of that transparency is letting people know who we are. KCIT provides all King County the ability to use a personal photo for their Lync/Skype connection. A photo is helpful because it allows people to put a face with a name. It’s very helpful when you are meeting someone for the first time at a remote location or even in a crowded meeting. (We recognize there are certainly safety situations where we don’t want photos up.)
KCIT has put together a single PowerPoint slide that walks you through the Skype photo process. We have streamlined it so it’s very easy. Good luck. We want to see that lovely smile!
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Closed captioning now available for budget, ESJ videos
Our recent videos on the 2017-18 Proposed Budget and the 2016-22 Equity and Social Justice now have closed captions.
You can watch the three videos below:
- 2017-18 Proposed Budget Preview with Executive Constantine
- King County Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan 2016-2022
- Dwight Dively 2017-2018 Budget Overview
To turn on or off closed captions, click on the CC button in the bottom right of the video player (see below).
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Worksite flu clinics have started
Flu shot clinics are coming to many county worksites this September and October, ending on October 21. Protect yourself and those you love by getting a flu vaccine. Check out the flu clinic schedule for a site that’s convenient for you, and mark your calendar today.
In the video below watch Dr. Jeff Duchin, our King County Health Officer, put out the call for employees to get their flu shots.
Visit www.kingcounty.gov/flu to learn more and find an upcoming flu clinic near you.
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A new video addresses voting rights of citizens with felony convictions
Crossposted from For The Defense
A powerful new video underscores what many persons with felony convictions in Washington state are never told: Once out of custody and no longer under the supervision of the state Department of Corrections, he or she can register to vote.
Two DPD employees – Dua Abudiab and Raymond Delos Reyes – are in this year’s WLI class and helped to produce the video.
The 4-minute video – with clips from persons with felony convictions who said they went years thinking they had permanently lost the right to vote – was released by the 2016 graduates of the Washington Leadership Institute (WLI), a program that recruits, trains, and develops minority and traditionally underrepresented attorneys for future leadership positions in the legal community.
Two DPD employees – Dua Abudiab and Raymond Delos Reyes – are in this year’s WLI class and helped to produce the video.
View the video below and read more at For The Defense
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Let your poetry travel by bus: Poetry on Buses
Many of us have chosen to live here because of – or despite – the streams, waterfalls, Puget Sound, snow and yes, even rain. Share your soggy celebrations of our watery region – the deadline is Sept 30!
Theme: Your body of water
Who: Only King County residents are eligible
Length: 50 words or less
Languages: Amharic, Somali, Tlingit, Vietnamese, Chinese, Punjabi, Spanish, English
Deadline: Sept 30, 2016 11:59 PM
For more information go to: www.poetryonbuses.org/submit-a-poem
Brought to you by the many groups that appreciate clean water: 4Culture, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Sound Transit, King County Metro, Wastewater Treatment Division, Water and Land Resources Division, Seattle Public Utilities, Amazon Literary Partnerships, King County Library System, Seattle Public Library and Seattle Escribe.
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Attorney to be honored for a major federal court win for immigrant detainees
Crossposted from For The Defense
The win last year was a game-changer. Thanks to a class-action lawsuit brought by several public interest attorneys, a federal judge ruled that immigrants with mental disabilities facing deportation proceedings are entitled to a lawyer, a first-ever affirmation of the right to appointed counsel for immigrant detainees.
One of the lead attorneys was Matthew Adams, legal director at the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) in Seattle and a member of the King County Public Defense Advisory Board. He’s now about to receive the Washington State Bar Association’s Award of Merit – its highest honor – at WSBA’s annual dinner in Seattle on Sept. 29.
Read more at For The Defense
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Email to participate in 2016 Employee Survey
On Monday, September. 26, you will receive an email from 2016KCEmployeeSurvey@orcsurvey.com with the subject line “King County Employee Survey – 2016” inviting you to participate in the King County 2016 Employee Survey. It will look similar to the example email pictured below:
This year’s survey is open from September 26 through October 21, 2016. The survey should take about 15 minutes and can be completed during working hours. Your responses are totally confidential and cannot be traced back to you. The survey link cannot be forwarded to coworkers because each survey link is unique. Each person must use the survey link they were emailed.
Please take the time to provide your feedback on how we are doing as an employer and where we can make improvements. How are we doing now? What should we work on next? Changes happen from your suggestions.
This survey is a great opportunity to let the County know what’s on your mind.
For FAQs and more information about the survey visit www.kingcounty.gov/employeesurvey.
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Saying goodbye to a public health hero, “Uncle Bob” Santos
Crossposted from Public Health Insider
By Kalayaan Domingo, Healthy Eating and Active Living Project Manager at Public Health
A celebration and remembrance in honor of Robert “Uncle Bob” Santos will be held on Friday, September 23 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at WAMU Theater at CenturyLink Field (800 Occidental Avenue S., Seattle, WA 98134), located on the corner of S. Royal Brougham Way & Occidental Avenue S. The public is invited to attend.
On August 27th, 2016, Seattle lost one of our hometown heroes, Bob Santos, or Uncle Bob, as he was affectionately called.
If you’ve visited Seattle’s International District, there is a good chance that you met Uncle Bob. I am fortunate enough to have known Uncle Bob since I was a child. My father was one of the many Asian-American activists he inspired and mentored during the 1970s and throughout his lifetime.
A lifelong resident of the neighborhood, Bob Santos was born in 1934 to a Filipino immigrant father and a Native American/Filipino mother and raised in what was then called Chinatown.. The International District was Uncle Bob’s home, and he fought tirelessly to preserve and improve the area for its residents and the larger Asian-American community. He focused on many issues, but was particularly committed to racial equity, including health equity.
Read more at Public Health Insider
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Following the line to inspiration
Crossposted from King County WTD
Senior Gardener Jim Davis can be considered the artist-in-residence at South Plant. If you stop into the lunchroom in the Annex Building you’ll see his unique and interesting contour drawings hanging on the wall. While Jim finds inspiration in dramatic subjects like Seattle Seahawks players, most of his drawings installed at South Plant are of his coworkers.
“There’s something about an ordinary person doing an ordinary thing that is inspiring to me,” he says.
Jim has been an artist ever since his third grade teacher complimented one of his pictures. He’s been drawing ever since, but it wasn’t until he spent some time studying architecture that he chose his preferred style of contour drawing.
Cover photo: Each of Jim Davis’ drawings can take anywhere between 20 and 30 hours to complete, and some have even taken 50 hours.
Read more at King County WTD
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Employees change work environment, open up to new opportunities
Photo by Paul Israel
Working with strong personalities can be challenging, especially when they’re all on the same team. To help create understanding and better work flow, it’s important to recognize what is impacting the group dynamics and address these concerns directly.
One construction crew in the Parks and Recreation Division of King County DNRP is taking on this challenge, working to improve the culture for themselves and build a better, more efficient work environment.
Aaron Hall, the supervisor for this group, worked with staff after the 2015 King County Employee Survey to identify communications as a key area for their work group to improve on.
“We went through our survey results and using the action plan sheet looked at the questions one-by-one,” Aaron said. “We wanted to identify something to work on and realized communications and team building were important to us.”
Using the action planning survey tool, Aaron and his team began to pinpoint areas where there were communications breakdowns. Noticing that these issues happened when interacting with other workgroups, the group decided to start having short all-staff meetings. While it didn’t seem like much, these brief check-ins have dramatically changed the outcome and impact of work being done.
“We’re having more preconstruction meetings and holding smaller safety meetings with our four different work groups,” explains Aaron. “These tailgate meetings go over the safety, workflow, goals for the day and expectations.”
If needed, the group meets at the end of the day as well, to recap the day’s events and issues, as well as go over what will happen the following day.
“It’s our goal to provide a structured opportunity for everyone to be engaged and provide input on project decisions. We’re hoping that this will increase personal influence and team cohesiveness.”
To build on this work, Aaron and his work crew are planning to take the “King County Four Generations in the Workplace” training, use Myers-Briggs tests to identify personal work styles and organize regular team building activities.
“I thought it would be great for our workgroup to attend the Four Generations trainings because it’s beneficial in the long run,” Aaron said. “It would be pretty insightful too since we have people from every age group in our crew.”
“The Myers-Briggs tests will also help us improve our communications between such different personality types.”
While Aaron admits that people seemed initially hesitant to participate, over the last year his crew has come around, and are interested in the meetings and upcoming trainings. He looks forward to the crew growing closer as a team and excelling at their work even more through open, clear and honest communication.
“We had a little bit of pushback, but it’s been nice to get something going,” he said. “This is a great place to work, with good people who want to do their best.”
“It’ll be nice to do some team building events too, like go kart racing or baseball games.”
This DNRP crew is benefiting from improving communications and team building. Pictured left to right: Top row: George Anselmo, Scott Baker, Clayton Peck, Doug Munroe, Rodger Clow, Alex Sirotinskiy, Jason Waters, Charles Kobs, Bottom Row: Aaron Hall, Tim Eldridge, Scott Hill, Heather Simon, Paul Israel, John Jeppesen, Tyler Thompson, Not pictured: Scott Ayers
Employee News 