Disability doesn’t stop dancing employee
If you happen to see a man busting a move while cleaning up hedge trimmings or emptying a trash can at Marymoor Park, it’s probably Parks Specialist Dwight Lewis.
Dwight has been with parks for 17 years and his enthusiasm for the work is showing no signs of waning.
“He actually makes people on our crew want to be better at what they do,” Andy Boland, Parks Maintenance Coordinator, said. “He pushes us, he comes in with a lot of energy, positive attitude, and it’s really what we need; he’s a spark for our whole crew here.”
Dwight is a supported employee through King County’s Supported Employment Program, which matches job seekers with developmental disabilities to jobs by identifying efficiencies and unmet needs throughout King County government. Watch the short video below that highlights Dwight and contact Christina Davidson, the Supported Employment Program Manager, to learn more about ways you can take advantage of this program.
Read Dwight’s full story here at the King County Parks Plog.
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Featured Job: Business and Finance Officer I
Opening Date/Time: Fri. 01/22/16 12:00 AM Pacific Time
Closing Date/Time: Wed. 02/03/16 4:30 PM Pacific Time
Salary: $29.82 – $37.80 Hourly
Job Type: Career Service, Full Time, 40 hrs/week
Location: Chinook Building, 401 5th Avenue, Seattle, Washington
Department: Department of Community & Human Services
Description: The Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) provides equitable opportunities for people to be healthy, happy, self-reliant and connected to community.
This position is being created to support the new Best Starts for Kids fund. The position will be responsible for day to day accounting transactions, regular monitoring of expenditures and reporting for all fund transactions.
Who May Apply: This position is open to all qualified candidates that meet the minimum qualifications. The Department of Community and Human Services values diverse perspectives and life experiences. The Department encourages people of all backgrounds to apply, including people of color, immigrants, refugees, women, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, veterans, and those with lived experiences.
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Five Questions with Heather Barr, Public Health Nurse
1. When did you start as a Public Health Nurse with King County? 30-plus years ago. I started out in the Jail as a Registered Nurse in 1984. I met a nurse there (Kathryn Crawford) who asked me what I wanted to do with my career. I told her I liked to work with homeless people, and people with addictions. She said “I have the perfect job for you, I am leaving a position at the tuberculosis clinic running a drug trial for the Centers for Disease Control, most of my patients are alcoholic and homeless, so you would love it!” I called the TB manager, Anne Elarth; she invited me to meet, we chatted a while and she said, “Could you possibly start tomorrow? We can do the paper work later, I need a nurse now.” That was back in the day when things were a tad bit looser in HR, and also when people still smoked at their desk, if you can imagine that. I said yes, and stayed about six years. I loved that job. I worked in the old Detox Center for a while, too. Then I worked with Health Care for the Homeless Network (HCHN) as a Public Health Nurse for Parent Child Health, for MOM’s Project, and for the Child Care Health Team. I did a short stint as a nursing supervisor for the Downtown Clinic, and filled in as manager for the Interpreter Program for a while.
We have so appreciated all that you have done for our guests at the Mission. You’ve been instrumental in providing flu shots, TB tests, trainings – all with a gracious, caring, and friendly style. We feel like you have been part of our Mission team, and are so thankful for you. You have been available for questions that we’ve had, and given us advice when there is a lot of sickness at our shelters – all with the health and well-being of homeless men, women and children in mind. Gary Fast, Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission
2. What do you do in your role? My job for the last 20 years has been with Health Care for the Homeless Network. I do a lot of teaching about reducing the risk of communicable diseases at sites that serve people who are homeless, such as shelters and drop-in centers. I wrote Best Practice Guidelines for shelters and for Tent Cities. I get to go out in the community to visit shelters and provide training and support for the staff at many places in Seattle throughout the county. I give a lot of flu shots every winter, with a lot of help from Public Health Reserve Corps and the folks who process all that data. I field questions from the community about homelessness and health, which covers a lot of issues. I also provide technical support to our contracted providers in Health Care for the Homeless, primarily nurses. Recently, I have been called on to provide training about Trauma Informed Care.
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What the Trainings Told Us
Last week we wrapped up trainings preparing managers and supervisors to lead their groups in responding to survey results. 498 (let’s call it 500) managers and supervisors participated in this training and still more are taking it online. That’s an incredible grassroots force out there leading culture change by having conversations with their work groups about how to improve engagement in the county.
Evaluations from the trainings (scores are out of 5 where 1 is strongly disagree and 5 is strongly agree) show that:
- People will be able to apply what they’ve learned (4.14)
- They understand why engagement is important to King County (4.28)
- They know how to read their reports (4.23)
- They know how to lead their group in action planning (4.02)
One area we still need to do some work is helping people understand how the county will respond to the survey results (3.82). We’ll be making a big effort to tell the story about how the county is responding in this blog, Town Hall meetings, videos, emails and in communication from the Executive.
Most useful – People found the most useful things about the training interacting with others, discussing biggest fears about having conversations with their work groups and learning to read the reports.
Most applicable – People said the things they learned and will apply in the next 30-60 days are how to have meetings with staff to discuss results, how to share results with staff and Lean Grasp, Plan, Do, Check, Adjust methodology for action planning. This last was particularly rewarding to see because we made an effort to integrate Lean and ESJ into our engagement practice so people could see how they interrelate. In our environment we often feel like there’s a lot coming at us so seeing how it all relates and builds off each other is important.
Improvements – Some people mentioned that they would like to have attended with their departments or divisions which is something we will be looking at for next year.
Take-aways from the trainings were:
- Managers and supervisors are eager to support culture change in the county
- There is a high level of interest in learning from each other so we need to create a lot more opportunities for people to connect
Also interesting is looking at what people said would be most useful to them in their action planning. Resources that are easily accessible online and ways for people to connect and learn from one another are the most popular. This informs what we need to do to next. We’re working on getting these things up and running right now!
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Team keeps Metro buses moving
Janice Berlin at the Transit Control Center.
Whenever something out of the ordinary happens on a Metro Transit bus, King County’s Transit Control Center (TCC) gets a call.
Janice Berlin, one of three chiefs in the TCC, works to prepare for any situation that could happen on a bus. The TCC monitors everything from a bus breakdown to a medical emergency to a security threat so commuters are kept safe and issues are addressed quickly.
If a bus breaks down, TCC is notified and the responding coordinator dispatches assistance, generally a coach change, field supervisor and mechanic. Priorities are always safety and accommodating the passengers.
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Join Exec for 12th Man flag-raising Friday at noon
The Seahawks begin their playoff run on Sunday and we’re kicking off their drive to the Super Bowl by raising the 12th Man Flag over the King County Administration Building!
Join King County Executive Dow Constantine at noon on Blue Friday, Jan. 8, as he raises the 12th Man flag in the Administration Building Plaza (Fourth Avenue side, 500 Fourth Avenue).
If you are on break or at lunch, or not working at this time, you are welcome to put on your Seahawks gear, join in the flag-raising and help fire up the 12th Man for the Seahawks’ run to the Super Bowl.
Your attendance is of course strictly voluntary, and employees will not be compensated or receive overtime for joining the celebration.
Go ‘Hawks!
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Chrissy Russillo selected as Interim Director of Human Resources Division
Chrissy Russillo has been selected as the Interim Director of the Human Resources Division, effective December 30, 2016.
Chrissy is filling a temporary vacancy at the Human Resources Division resulting from the departure of Nancy Buonanno Grennan who will be returning to Kitsap County to take the helm as Human Resources Director. Susie Slonecker provided exceptional leadership and dedication as the interim HR Director for the past eight months, is returning to the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Chrissy has been with King County since 2010, having previously served as Chief of Staff for the Department of Public Health. In September 2014, Chrissy joined the Human Resources Division as Interim Deputy Director. Since 2015, Chrissy has served as the Project Director for Best Run Government: Employees, one of Executive Dow Constantine’s top priorities. She is known for her ability to work collaboratively across the County in service to our employees and the people of King County.
Chrissy brings the experience to provide seamless customer service as we conduct a formal, national recruitment to fill the permanent position.
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Featured Job: Housing Finance Program Manager/Project Program Manager III
Opening Date/Time: Wed. 12/23/15 12:00 AM Pacific Time
Closing Date/Time: Fri. 01/15/16 4:30 PM Pacific Time
Salary: $76,897.60 – $97,468.80 Annually
Job Type: Career Service, Full Time, 40 hrs/week
Location: Chinook Building – 401 5th Ave, Seattle, Washington
Department: Department of Community & Human Services
Description: The Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) provides equitable opportunities for people to be healthy, happy, self-reliant and connected to community.
King County faces unprecedented affordable housing issues. Amidst tremendous growth, in places both obvious and hidden, many in our community are struggling to meet their basic housing needs. And while King County has supported affordable housing, in all its forms for many years, clearly the dramatic need demands new solutions and broader thinking. The Housing Finance Program Manager is a key leader in this effort, directing the development of the hundreds of affordable housing units needed throughout King County.
A central focus of the position will be the implementation of King County’s Affordable Housing Strategy. While still under development, the strategy identifies additional capital resources that will become available over the next several years. These resources need to be strategically targeted to the greatest need. In addition, the Affordable Housing Strategy calls for new partnerships and programs that can create new units more quickly and at lower costs. The Housing Finance Program Manager will work closely with DCHS leadership and stakeholders to effectively implement these strategies.
Who May Apply: This position is open to all qualified candidates that meet the minimum qualifications. The Department of Community and Human Services values diverse perspectives and life experiences. The Department encourages people of all backgrounds to apply, including people of color, immigrants, refugees, women, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, veterans, and those with lived experiences.
Work Schedule This position is exempt from the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and is not overtime eligible. Typical hours are Monday – Friday 8am-5pm.
Find out more here.
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Employees can now receive up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave
King County Executive Dow Constantine’s proposal for up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave was approved by the County Council on December 7, putting King County at the forefront of the national movement to expand paid parental leave.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2016, County employees will be allowed to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave when welcoming a new family member through birth, adoption, or foster-to-adopt placement.
“I’m proud that King County is among the leading employers in the nation to offer a program that has a positive, lifelong impact on a child’s development,” said Executive Constantine. “It also demonstrates our commitment to recruiting and retaining the talented workforce we need to deliver the best outcomes for our community.”
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Hopes and Fears
November 30 we started trainings for managers and supervisors on action planning with their workgroups. In the course of the trainings we talk about people’s hopes for how these conversations will go and what will come out of them.
There is a lot of hope from our people leaders that this will be the beginning of a new dynamic between managers and supervisors. I have been inspired by the hopes we have heard:
- This will be an opportunity to build trust with employees
- The action plan will have an impact
- Everyone will take ownership of the change that needs to happen
- This will be the start of an ongoing conversation that will help us continuously improve
- Conversations will be honest
- Conversations will be respectful
We also talk about people’s fears and how to navigate through those. There has been real honesty in these discussions and some great ideas for how to address these concerns. Here are a few that have come up in most sessions:
- Discussion will focus on something beyond our control to change.
- Acknowledge concern about this thing, refer it to your leaders
- Pick something you can influence
- The discussion and follow up action will impact our workload
- Something you are already doing might align with an issue to need to address to improve engagement
- Choose something doable
- Integrate discussions about engagement into existing meetings instead of calling additional meetings to discuss engagement
- The action will cost resources
- Look at it as an investment
- Be deliberate in choosing an action that will have the maximum positive impact with lowest amount of cost
- Nothing will really change and this will reinforce the narrative people have that things don’t change
- Choose an action that is doable and within your control
- Communicate incremental steps and milestones reached
- Make change visible by using tier boards and other visual management systems to track progress
- How to align action planning at multiple levels to maximize impact
- Create a heat map of “key questions to focus on” by color coding each key question for the department, division and work unit. Put them on a spreasheet or a wall so you can see which key questions run common throughout. This will give you an idea of common actions that can be taken at all levels of the organization. Here’s what that wold look like: key driver chart
- People will not engage due to their cynicism that things will change.
- Have everyone play a role in creating and implementing the action plan
- Communicate back progress
- People will dwell on the negative scores instead of talking about how to make things better
- Acknowledge the score and people’s feelings about it
- Ask what might be contributing to the low score
- Ask what it would be like if the score was incrementally higher
- Ask what steps you would take to get there (this would be your action plan)
- Ask if the group thinks is possible to get there
- Ask people to indicate their level of commitment to getting there
- Assign roles and responsibilities for implementing the action plan
- Groups with positive scores will not be motivated to change
- We all have room for improvement
- Delve into some of the lower scoring questions and ask why those are lower than some of the higher scoring questions
- Ask if moving those scores higher would have a positive impact on engagement and how
- Create an action plan
- Remember: it’s important to not sacrifice what you are doing well to focus on where you might be weak
Employee News 