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… Read More

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… Read More

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… Read More

Open Ended Questions

“Asking the right questions takes as much skill as giving the right answers” One of the best tools for having robust discussions about engagement and action planning with work groups is a handful of open ended questions. A good open ended question will engage people in discussion and help you better grasp the state of engagement, what success looks like and the steps needed to get there. We give participants in our trainings space to brainstorm open ended questions they can use in their discussions with work groups and they’ve come up with some… Read More

Breaking down barriers with Supported Employment: Jodeen Wieser

Jodeen Wieser is a 20-year employee with King County’s Environmental Lab, a Lab Assistant who performs a wide range of essential tasks that help the Lab do its work of collecting, analyzing and monitoring samples that protect our local environment. Jodeen is also a supported employee through a King County program that pairs her with a job coach to help with learning new skills, communication and any other issues that arise. “When you meet someone with a disability that maybe is a different picture of what you thought someone was or what… Read More

Cybercriminals will ring in the Holidays

The start of the holiday shopping season marked by Black Friday and Cyber Monday is here. Cybercriminals take advantage of busy online shopping days which provide an opportunity for dramatically increased illicit profits, but you can protect yourself. The FBI has identified a number of different scams and schemes which could be used by cybercriminals this holiday shopping season such as: Malicious phishing emails for big ticket items and “too good to be true deals” Selling counterfeit or stolen products Fraudulent shipping notices from DHL, UPS and FedEx Holiday refund buncos Online… Read More

Administrative Professional recognized by peers

Like all King County departments and agencies, the Human Resources Division is working on multiple wide-ranging programs and requests at any one time, and its employees rely heavily on the support of its administrative professionals to deliver services to County employees and customers. Ask any HRD employee and they’ll likely tell you that the reason the division is able to run smoothly is administrator Kimberly Robinson, who recently celebrated 10 years with King County and HRD. Robinson is a member of the HRD Administrative Team that provides high level administrative support to… Read More

Five Questions with Mei Barker, Human Resource Analyst, Human Resources Division

1. What was your first role with King County? My first role with King County was to provide administrative support to the Public Health Tuberculosis Control Program, mainly processing billing reconciliations and special projects. About a year later I began my career in Human Resources with Superior Court. 2. What do you do in your role with Human Resources Division (HRD)? I handle the civil service recruitments for the Sheriff’s Office, as a member of the Compensation and Employment Services Section of HRD. 3. How is the process for hiring Sheriff’s Office employees different… Read More

Employee working to end veteran homelessness featured in Lean blog

The Lean in King County blog recently featured Dawn Barrett – who we featured in our “Five Questions with… ” segment on November 10 – in an article called “Turning an (Almost) Impossible Goal into Concrete and Solvable Problems.” Barrett is working on King County’s ambitious goal of ending homelessness among an estimated 1,100 veterans by the end of 2015. “If we keep doing business as usual, we’ll keep housing as usual,” says Barrett. Barrett and her team are using Lean to identify small, solvable goals with the aim of achieving the really big, audacious… Read More

And… We’re Off!

We revealed the 2015 Employee Survey Results today and now we’re embarking on an unprecedented effort to respond to the results. This is going to be exciting. For the first time ever, we’re responding at every level of the organization. That means that departments, divisions and work groups will each have action plans to address issues that came up in the survey. And at the countywide level Best Run Government Employees will respond to the survey results. This blog will follow our journey to address the results. I anticipate we will share successes and… Read More