Emergency Closings
Power outages, snow, freezing rain, and sleet have been in the forecast many times over the last few weeks. Apparently, Punxsutawney Phil was right this year in seeing a shadow and forecasting six more weeks of winter.
Have you ever wondered how emergency closing decisions are made for the Richmond Metro area, which covers the city of Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover, and Henrico? Here is a behind the scenes look at who is involved and the timing of activities.
When a significant weather event is predicted, the Department of Emergency Management schedules an emergency office closing coordination call with representatives from the Virginia State Police, the Department of General Services, the Department of Transportation, Capitol Police and the Department of Human Resource Management. Staff receive a weather briefing from NOAA. After the weather briefing, a discussion is held on current agency operations, predicted impact to travel, state facilities, and grounds, along with the potential for issues with utilities such as power/water.
From that discussion, a recommendation is made to the Governor’s Chief of Staff to continue with normal operations, delay opening, early departure, or closing. When there is a change in operations, DHRM staff notify local media channels and send out communications to the Cabinet, Agency Heads, and other key points of contact, as well as post information on the DHRM website and Twitter account.
Most office closing conference calls are scheduled for 9:00 p.m. the day prior to the forecasted event, but if there is uncertainty in the weather forecast (and you know that happens quite a bit!) the conference calls are held at 4:00 a.m. When there is a weather event, be on the lookout for communications shortly after these times.
In the spring, DHRM would like to form a small workgroup to revisit the Emergency Closing Policy and related practices. With a significant number of the employees now teleworking and many agency operations completely virtual, it is a good time to rethink when future office closings may be needed, and what, if any, changes are needed to the existing policy. If this is a team for which you would like to volunteer, please let us know by sending an email to Natalie Brannon.
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Workforce Management
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View General Assembly bills that DHRM is tracking during the 2021 session and special session.
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Plan Well for Health Benefits Open Enrollment
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New Virginia529 Tuition Track Portfolio
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Technology
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Comings and Goings...
Office of Information Technology: DHRM welcomes Mary Coleman, our new Help Desk Administrator. Mary is an experienced public servant, recently retired from the Virginia Department of Taxation serving as an Instructional Designer/Trainer/Learning Management System (LMS) Administrator. Her primary duties will include assisting domain administrators, troubleshooting issues, assisting the site administrator, and performing other duties as necessary to support our customer base.
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