Employee Transportation Program makes it easy to get around 

King County employees are saving time and money while reducing traffic congestion and carbon emissions by making the most of their Employee Transportation Program benefits.  

In January 2019 alone, almost 7,300 employees used public transit at least once, saving money on gas, parking costs, and wear-and-tear on their personal vehicles. Last year King County employees took more than 2.2 million transit trips across 12 transit services, saving $3.5 million in fares.   

“Over time, the Employee Transportation Program has been adding more services so County employees have even more choices to commute to work, go to a game, or run an errand,” said Hossein Barahimi, Employee Transportation Program Manager. “Most recently, Link Light Rail, Sounder Trains, and Kitsap Fast Ferry have been providing reliable commute services for employees, decreasing commute times, increasing flexibility, and improving work/life balance. During the past five years, our employee transit ridership has grown three-percent each year.”  Read more.

Ukulele Club builds bonds, welcomes all  

When Stef Frenzl, an educator consultant with the Department of Human Resources, saw an opportunity to strengthen team unity, improve employee engagement, and have fun at his last county role, he took it. 

“The thing that’s cool about a ukulele is that you can’t help but smile when you play it, because it’s a silly little instrument – you can’t take it too seriously,” said Stef. 

What started as a light-hearted conversation soon became a small group of people playing ukuleles together before blossoming into a movement within the workplace to bring people together. Read more. 

Pictured from left: Terri Hansen, Diana Wurn, Stef Frenzl, Elaine Porterfield and Glenn Evans. 

Reminder: New mobile device management solution coming soon 

During the months of April and May, KCIT will be implementing a new mobile device management solution, Microsoft Intune. 

This new solution will provide an improved experience when accessing King County digital resources like email, calendar and contacts from a mobile device. Intune supports current iOS and Android mobile devices and will enforce security policies improvements such a change to 6 digit passcodes. In fact, you can prepare for Intune now by changing to a 6-digit pin code today; devices’ built in fingerprint reader and facial recognition are also acceptable passcodes on phones that support them. 

Professional development program encourages employee success and workplace development 

The Professional Development Scholarship Fund is a new opportunity for employees to learn new skills and further their careers. It comes as part of the Investing In YOU initiative, and in collaboration with the King County Coalition of Unions, sets aside available funds for employees who have applied to take training that occurs in 2019.  

A one-year pilot program, the scholarship fund comes as a direct result of the annual employee engagement survey. From the 2017 survey, it was noted that employees are passionate about their career growth, and actively seeking ways to develop their abilities. These results helped prompt the County and the Coalition of Unions to come together during Master Labor Agreement negotiations and offer this opportunity for employees to enhance their work related skills. 

“We want employees to have the opportunity to develop and learn new skills so they can get better at the job they’re already doing or take their careers in a new direction if that’s their goal,” Whitney Abrams, Chief People Officer said. “The Professional Development Scholarship Fund provides funding so employees can learn, grow, and advance with us.”

Application deadline dates are throughout the year, with the current opportunity to apply closing Friday, April 12. Awards will then be made by May 10 for training that begins on or after May 17. Read more.

PeopleSoft outage beginning 3 p.m. Friday, April 12 

To allow for system maintenance, the PeopleSoft system will not be available this weekend beginning 3 p.m. Friday, April 12. During this planned outage, the Business Resource Center (BRC) will apply vendor updates and maintenance. 

This work will begin on Friday, April 12, at 3 p.m. and is scheduled to be completed by 6:30 a.m. on Monday, April 15. The system will not be available for access by any County staff during this outage window. There will be a communication sent out to all County staff when the system becomes available. 

We realize that this outage impacts PeopleSoft users. We appreciate your understanding and support. 

Reminder: 4th Annual Administrative Professionals Recognition event, Wednesday, April 24 

Discount available for Seattle Symphony performance, June 16 

King County employees are welcome to take advantage of an available discount for upcoming Seattle Symphony performance on Saturday, June 16 at 2 p.m. 

This performance, featuring conductor Steve Hackman and titled Harder, Better, Faster, Stravinsky, weaves together pop-classical matches like Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture  with Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way,” and Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony with Muse’s “Uprising” and Chance the Rapper’s “Paranoia,” creating a compelling musical landscape that is both strikingly modern and enchantingly classical. Three vocalists join the full orchestra for this special presentation. 

Buy tickets using promo code CONDUCTOR19. Purchase tickets here.