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Happy Friday, HRD! Today is the very last day to sign up for the Frontline Worker Pay program. If you or someone you know worked in close proximity to people outside your household for at least 120 hours between March 2020 and June 2021, you may be eligible for a payment of up to $1500. We encourage everyone to apply and be recognized for their work during the pandemic; make sure you submit your application by 5 p.m. today!
Complete Required Training by July 29, 2022: MMB has created three new policy acknowledgements to make sure staff are aware of recent updates to the Code of Ethical Conduct, the Appropriate Use of Electronic Communication and Information Technology, and the policy around Mobile Device Use. All MDH staff need to complete these policy acknowledgements in ELM by July 29. For more information, see the Employee Training Requirements page on the Intranet.
Strategic Planning Next Steps: Next Friday (July 29) we’ll be discussing the next step in our Strategic Planning process. We’ve collected lots of great ideas from everyone at our inspiration sessions, and now it’s time to talk about how we implement them. If you have ideas you haven’t shared yet, you can do so using the forms at the links below:
Congratulations to our newest SharePoint Site Manager, Amanda Hirsch! Theresa completed the HRD SharePoint Learning Path on LinkedIn Learning and is now able to help her teammates on the Intake and Triage team organize their libraries and documents. If you’d like to learn more about SharePoint and get some shiny new powers for yourself, check in with Siobhain Rivera for more details.
Have you ever read an email and had no idea what it was saying? Or tried to do a task using a document that was unclear, and been unsure whether you were doing things correctly? One of the easiest ways we can make our communications more effective is to use plain language – making things clear and easy to understand.
We often talk about making sure our writing for the public and external partners is easy to understand, but it’s equally as important to make sure emails, process instructions, and forms are clear, specific, and easy to use. This month’s Internal Controls Bulletin from MMB was all about how plain language can help us write more effectively, so we wanted to share some of their advice!
The Case for Plain Language
Plain language helps readers quickly and easily understand and use information.
Did you know Minnesota has an Executive Order requiring clear writing people can understand and use? Many agencies have plain language guides. Still, describing complex processes for multiple users can be challenging. We need to show we are up to the challenge.
Policies and procedures often involve multiple writers and can have many drafted versions. Think of it as a confusing game of Telephone – the audience may not receive the intended message! Everyone involved in the writing process must be committed to using clear, plain language that easily makes sense to the reader. Let’s face it: our colleagues are busy and shouldn’t have to spend time trying to translate confusing writing.
Why Use Plain Language?
As information flows through your agency, the quality has an impact on internal controls. Plain language is key to accessibility. If agency users do not understand a document because it is not plainly written, the risks can be:
- lost resources, including time and money
- process or compliance errors
- opportunities for fraud, waste, or abuse
- lower productivity and morale
- public mistrust
You can reduce communication risks through simple, active, clear writing.
Suggested Action Steps
Use the PLAINER technique:
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Pronoun “you”. Address one person to clarify roles and responsiblities.
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Layout. Direct readers with design features (headers, points, steps, and tables. Templates help you achieve a solid, accessible design).
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Active voice. The subject performs the action. “You must do it,” not “It must be done.”
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Impact. Use clear, short sentences. Long sentences are hard to understand.
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No “shall.” Replace this confusing word with “must” or “should.”
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Everyday English. Put away your thesaurus and write like you talk.
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Review. Have a peer revise your work. This is key for quality communication.
You can also view federal guidelines for in-depth information on clear writing.
Our agencies gain a lot when we use plain language in every document. Quality writing affects the state’s bottom line. That’s something we all care about.
This week’s spotlight is on Nikki Sassen, one of our Federal Evaluators!
Name / Pronouns / Position: Nicole (Nikki) Sassen (she/her) / Nursing Evaluator II
Location: St Cloud District Office
Tell us about your background. How long have you been in HRD? How did you get here?: My work history has been in long term care- nursing homes, assisted living and home care. I’ve been with HRD for 2.5 years. I’ve always enjoyed working with the elderly. I felt like I was running into a wall when I would try to make necessary changes within the facility or agency I was working, in regard to following regulations. I decided to change my role and become a part of the team who ensures those regulations are followed, to ensure one of our most vulnerable populations is being cared for.
What's your role within HRD? What do you work on?: I complete compliance surveys in nursing homes and home health agencies.
Describe a current project you're excited about, or an accomplishment you are proud of: I’m excited for the new team members we are meeting. We have a great team, I’m excited to help the new members learn and grow in their new roles with HRD.
What do you like to do when you aren't working?: When I’m not working, I spend a lot of time with my family, especially my grandkids. I also like to fish, ride bikes, and enjoying Minnesota summer.
HRD is a big place, and we don’t all get to meet each other through the course of our work. If you’re interested in being in the spotlight and sharing with your coworkers, send us an email at Health.HRDCommunications@state.mn.us and we’ll tell you how you can participate!
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This week, we have the following positions available, and more are coming soon. Please share them with anyone that you think would help make HRD a better place to work!
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Reconsideration Analyst (Reconsiderations), Job ID: 57516: The Reconsideration Analyst will conduct reviews of State and Federal appealed enforcement actions and analyze pertinent documents to make decisions on whether appropriate conclusions were made, and consistent application of the law was applied. Closes August 1, 2022.
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Nursing Evaluator (Federal Operations), Job ID: 53255: These positions will provide onsite surveillance and guidance to health care providers in an effort to assure a level of quality care based upon compliance with Federal and State laws and rules which directly relate to the provision of nursing and health services. Closes August 1, 2022.
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Nursing Evaluator (State Operations), Job ID: 57470: These positions provide regulatory surveillance to licensed assisted living and home care providers using nursing and health related knowledge in an effort to assure quality care and services through compliance with State regulations laws and rules which directly relate to the provision of assisted living and home care services. Closes September 30, 2022.
These positions are open to both internal and external candidates. If you would like to apply, please follow the steps below:
- Sign into Employee Self Service
- On My Homepage, click on Careers and enter the Job Opening ID in the Search Jobs box and click >> (Search).
- Click on the Job Title to view the job posting.
- Click Apply for This Job in the top right-hand corner.
This week’s Teams Tip is inspired by all of you who have reached out to Siobhain lately to ask how to find a meeting recording in Teams – thank you for bringing those questions to light!
The way that Teams stores and shares recordings has changed a bit over the last year or so; here are some of the basics about Teams recordings and how you can find them.
How do I record a meeting?
There are two ways to record a meeting in Teams; manually, and automatically.
- Manual: Anyone can begin recording a meeting at any time by clicking the More (…) button, and then Start Recording. This will also start a transcription of the meeting, which is very helpful if you want to skim back through what happened without watching the full video.
- Automatic: Once the meeting has been created on the calendar, the organizer can edit the Meeting Options to start the recording automatically. This means that the recording starts as soon as the first person enters the meeting. This is handy if you forget to start recording, but the downside is that it doesn’t also start the transcription, which you might need for notes or captions at a later time.
Keep in mind that the meeting recording will always be stored in the OneDrive of the person who “started” the recording – whether that is the person who clicked the “Start Recording” button, or the person who entered the meeting first.
Where does Teams store meeting recordings?
Where a meeting recording is stored depends on the kind of meeting you are in. If a meeting is held in a Teams channel (like our all-HRD meetings) the recording will be available in the Files tab of that channel, in a folder called Recordings, and (importantly) will be viewable by everyone who has access to that Teams channel.
Most of the time, however, we aren’t holding meetings in channels. For those meetings, the recording is stored in the OneDrive of the person who started recording the meeting. Each meeting recording will be labeled with the name of the meeting and the date and time, so it’s easy to see what they are.
In the image below, you can see a screenshot of the Files section within Teams, showing recordings in the Teams Files > Recordings Folder.
 How do I find a meeting recording?
Meeting recordings should be available to any state employee who was listed on the meeting invite before the meeting took place, even if they do not actually join the meeting call.
There are several ways to find the meeting recording:
- From the meeting chat: If you still have the meeting chat available in your Chats tab within Teams, it should be at the bottom of the meeting chat. (If people used the meeting chat to communicate after the meeting was over, scroll up to find it.)
- From the Teams Calendar: If you open the meeting invite from the Calendar tab within Teams, the recording should be visible in the Details tab, or in the Recordings and Transcripts If you don’t see a recording, but there’s a transcript, check the transcript to see who started the transcription. That person is usually the person who started the recording, and should be able to give you a link to it.
Right now, there are some issues with recordings that Siobhain has been working with MNIT to make sure get escalated to Microsoft, so if you have any issues, please let her know or cut a ticket about the issue and direct it to Sarah Holmberg. Things we’re aware of but need more examples of are:
- Meeting recordings not showing in the Teams Calendar view
- People not being about to access meeting recordings even though they were on the invite – usually this is people who did not join the call.
How can I share a recording with someone who wasn’t at the meeting?
If you need to share a meeting recording with someone who wasn’t on the meeting invite, the person who owns the meeting invite can do so by sharing the video with them. To do so,
- Open OneDrive in your browser, and navigate to the Teams Files > Recordings folder.
- Hover over the file you want to share, and then click the Share button that appears (it will look like a little arrow).
- Type the name of the people you’d like to share the video with, write a message (optional) and click the blue Send
Some things to note about sharing recordings:
- Adding someone to a meeting invite after the meeting has occurred will not give them access to the meeting recording.
- Meeting recordings are never available to external partners, whether they were on the meeting invite or joined the meeting through some other means. If you need to share something externally, email the HRD Communications Team and we can help you determine the best way to do that.
- Sharing a meeting recording only lets people view the recording. They will not be able to download it. To allow people to download a recording, you’ll need to click More > Manage access instead of “Share” in step 2 above.
Do meeting recordings expire?
If you look at the information panel while viewing a meeting (click the little circle icon with an ‘I’ in it), you might see an expiration date, which is usually about 6 months from the date the meeting was recorded.
If you need to keep the recording for longer (say, if it was a training video or something that you need to reference later), you may want to download the recording to make sure it doesn’t get deleted.
Next time we’ll cover some best practices for meetings in Teams to make things go smoothly. In the meantime, you can learn more through this LinkedIn Learning course: Microsoft Teams: Successful Meetings and Events course.
This week, HRD welcomed the following people to the division. Send them a message to say hello!
- RaeChel Thompson, Federal Operations (Evaluation)
- Brenda Kuechle, Federal Operations (Nurse Aide Registry)
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