CommunityTimes September 4, 2020

Second Annual Employee Survey Sept. 8-18

How do you feel about working at Community Transit?

In an effort to understand this question, the agency has again contracted with DecisionWise, an external consulting firm, to administer our second annual voluntary employee engagement survey* Sept. 8-18.

Questions will gauge satisfaction with jobs, supervisors, and the agency as a whole.

The survey takes 10-15 minutes to complete and is administered via email for some employees and on paper for others (see below for information about paper surveys).

Electronic surveys are submitted directly to the DecisionWise server, and paper surveys are sealed in a secure dropbox before being sent to DecisionWise.

Each survey is unique to the employee so DecisionWise can group responses by department, but the responses are kept strictly confidential. All individual information is removed before releasing any results to Community Transit.

Results will be available to all employees later this fall. Please take a few moments in the coming weeks to voluntarily complete your survey with thorough and candid answers. Doing the survey annually will illuminate areas where the Community Transit employee experience is excelling, areas where there is room for improvement, and if anything changes over time. Your answers will help keep our agency healthy, growing, and a great place to work.

*Surveys were generated for employees hired on or before August 5, 2020. If you were hired after this date, feel free to speak confidentially with your Employee Engagement Representative about your employee experience so far -- and please be sure to participate in next year’s survey.

Face Covering Research and Policy Updates

Public health officials advise that wearing cloth face coverings are an effective part of the strategy to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and that the type of face covering does make a difference. Snohomish Health District recently cited new research that suggests some lightweight face covers, especially single-layer neck gaiters or buffs, appear less effective in slowing the spread of COVID-19. For the general population, a quality cotton or cotton blend face covering that covers that nose and mouth and has two or more layers appears to work best.

Dr. Chris Spitters, Health Officer for Snohomish Health District, explained the findings: “Though they’re convenient, lightweight gaiters, especially the fleece ones, may actually increase the risk of transmission because they appear to take larger respiratory droplets coming out of the nose and mouth and split them up into smaller pieces of droplets that are able to stay afloat in the air and travel further and remain afloat for longer periods of time.”

At this time Snohomish Health District does not recommend using face coverings such as buffs and gaiters. Community Transit's update to the previous version of the face covering policy outlined below, has been revised to comply with the new public health guidance.

• Effective immediately, all Community Transit employees and vendors are prohibited from wearing bandanas as face coverings.
• Neck gaiters that are made of merino wool or similar materials are not recommended and therefore should not be worn.
• Neck gaiters that are made of cotton or a cotton blend material blend must be folded and worn so that at least two layers of fabric are fully covering both your nose and mouth at all times.
• The neck gaiters issued by Community Transit to employees are made of cotton and are adequate when folded and worn so that at least two layers of fabric are fully covering both your nose and mouth at all times. See photo.
• Neck gaiters, other types of face covers and masks must be worn fully over your nose and mouth.
• If you need a break to breathe without the face covering, go outside, and maintain a distance of more than 6 feet from others and then put your face covering or mask back on correctly before re-entering the workplace.

Other COVID-related guidelines and policies specific to Community Transit employees can be found at www.communitytransit.org/employeeinfo, a web page that is accessible from any device at any location.

For general COVID-19 information and safety tips, view this video on our Learning Management System (must be connected to our internal network): https://commtranslearn.csod.com/ui/lms-learning-details/app/video/190d3584-0b61-4458-9169-bb9de44bf6b9

Deputy Director of Transportation

Transportation Manager Jim Williams has been promoted to Deputy Director of Transportation. In this new role, Jim will be responsible for the daily operation of our directly operated (non-contracted) services.

"Jim has done an outstanding job since his arrival in September of 2018," said Chief Operating Officer (COO) Steve Kim.

The Deputy Director of Transportation is a new role that reports to the COO, also a new position within the agency. The Transportation Manager position will be posted soon, and will hopefully be filled in early October.

Congratulations, Jim!

Reminders

CommunityTimes Returns to Biweekly Publication
The next issue of this newsletter will be produced in two weeks.

Each issue will arrive in your email box and will also be posted at www.communitytransit.org/employeeinfo every other week.

Pro tip: CommunityTimes comes out on timesheet weeks, not paycheck weeks. That way, you can look forward to something wonderful coming to you every week!

Employees With Kids Support Each Other on Slack
Got kids? You're not alone! Get through these trying times with support from your fellow employees. Join the #ctparents channel at communitytransit.slack.com.