Transforming the hiring process with Metro
Interviewing for a new job can be nerve racking and take up a lot of personal time. King County Metro’s new creative way of transforming the hiring process provides a much more user-friendly and efficient approach to both the candidate and the employer. Despite many hiring efforts, there have been more than 40 open mechanic positions in the Vehicle Maintenance Division of King County Metro for multiple years. Now, those open positions are all filled in large part due to the new hiring fairs hosted by Metro.
On October 31 and November 1, 2023, Metro held the first-of-a-kind job fair for vehicle maintenance technicians. This first event brought in 22 candidates and 11 of them secured a same-day conditional offer of employment. In the past, the hiring process was often much slower and less friendly to applicants. Read more.
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New wastewater infrastructure projects connect communities to ‘green wave’ of jobs
Cross-posted from WTD
In 2022, as Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) was planning a storage tank facility to hold polluted water along the west side of the Duwamish River, the community was asked what they wanted out of this big, new King County infrastructure project.
“The answer was jobs – specifically clean water jobs,” said Kristine Cramer, a community relations planner at WTD. “We heard that loud and clear in our surveys, and jobs were second only to neighborhood greening efforts. So, we took that as meaningful direction and considered how we could connect our capital projects to support living wage employment in the community.” What came to be in the West Duwamish Wet Weather Storage Project was a community workforce development component within the project’s Equity and Social Justice Plan. As part of the plan, WTD and South Seattle College started a partnership that led to us cohosting a Sustainability Symposium and Green Jobs Fair at the college’s Georgetown campus in early March. Read more.
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Welcome Grace Preyapongpisan, Director of Data Strategy and Operations
KCIT welcomed Grace Preyapongpisan as the new Director of Data Strategy and Operations. Grace is a data and insights leader with over 15 years of experience guiding organizations in extracting value from data. Most recently, Grace served as Vice President/Chief of Business Intelligence at Dotdash Meredith where she headed a team of nearly 100 professionals providing data strategy and insights services across the company’s iconic lifestyle, food, and entertainment media brands (Better Homes & Gardens, Allrecipes, People). Grace and team were instrumental in building advanced capabilities in machine learning, predictive modeling, personalization, and experimentation. She contributed to the launch of industry-leading services that helped to drive record-breaking digital revenue.
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PeopleSoft outage Friday, March 22 at 3 p.m.
To allow for system maintenance, the PeopleSoft system will not be available the weekend of March 22 through March 25.
During this planned outage, the Business Resource Center will apply vendor updates and maintenance.
This work will begin on Friday, March 22 at 3 p.m. and is scheduled to be completed by 6:30 a.m. on Monday, March 25.
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.
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KCDEN to host next meeting March 22
The King County Disability Equity Network (KCDEN) will host its next business meeting on Friday, March 22.
On March 22, KCDEN will launch four workgroups focused on training, reasonable accommodations, improvements to physical facilities, and communications. Working in partnership with King County departments and others, the workgroups will advance equity by identifying key issues impacting persons with disabilities. KCDEN is actively seeking new members. If you are passionate about centering disability issues and intersectionality, please consider joining us! For more information, please reach out to KCDEN at disabilityequity@kingcounty.gov.
These meetings are open to all King County employees. The purpose is to center and support those employees who self-identify as a person with a disability. Employees will not be asked to disclose any information regarding one’s disability.
Live captioning is available. Future KCDEN business meetings will occur on the second Friday of each month at noon. For a reasonable accommodation to participate in the meeting, please email disabilityequity@kingcounty.gov.
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Join the next Anti-Racist White Action Group meeting, March 26
Employees are invited to the monthly Anti-Racist White Action Group (ARWAG) meeting on March 26. Come join ARWAG and help move racial equity forward. In this meeting, the group will learn more about recognizing white supremacy culture and how to interrupt harmful patterns in our communities and institutions. Participants also will spend time in small group discussions.
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Tuesday, March 26, 11:40 a.m. to 1:30 pm, Join here via Zoom.
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11:40 a.m. New member “meet and greet", Noon to 1:30 p.m. General meeting.
ARWAG is one of King County’s Affinity Groups (also called Employee Resource Groups) that addresses racism and other forms of oppression to advance the county’s equity and social justice goals. Email mailto:arwag@kingcounty.gov to join this group, get the meeting notices or for any questions.
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Professional Development Scholarship applications accepted through March 31
The second application period for the 2024 Coalition Labor Agreement Professional Development Scholarship is open and ends on March 31, 2024.
These scholarship opportunities are offered to assist eligible employees with their career development.
This application period is for scholarships to pay for training courses or degree programs that begin in 2024 or have tuition and fees to pay during 2024. Watch this video and learn more.
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Training Spotlight: Mindful Movement with Balanced You
An hour of gentle, guided movement appropriate for all bodies. This workshop is an experiential deep dive into the practice of moving mindfully and learning to relate to our bodies with awareness, intentionality, and gentleness–through practices such as walking meditation and mindful movement with gentle yoga postures. Comfortable clothing may be helpful as participants are typically offered standing, sitting, and on-the-floor practices. All bodies and abilities are welcome and modifications will be offered.
You can view the new Balanced You Mindfulness spring 2024 schedule here.
Tech Tip: Steer Clear of Fake Login Pages
For cybercriminals, stealing your login information can be just as valuable as stealing your bank account information. If they gain access to your email and password, they may find clues in your account that they can use to create highly targeted phishing attacks against you, King County, or your family. Once the hackers have your login information, the hackers can even sell it for payment.
How Does It Work? A popular method used to steal your credentials is to use fake login pages to capture your login details. These types of attacks usually start with a phishing email that directs you to use a link in the email to "log in to your account". The emails are usually authentic-looking and present a seemingly-normal request. If you click this link, you’re brought to a login page that looks almost identical to the one you’re used to but is actually a fake page. Once you’ve entered your email and password on the fake page, you may be redirected to the real website–leaving you unaware that your login credentials were stolen.
How Do I Spot a Fake Page? As the first line of defense, always navigate to your account’s login page by typing the web address in your browser, or using a bookmark that you’ve saved–rather than clicking through links in an email. Also, be aware of the following tips to help you identify fake web pages:
- Pay attention to the address bar. To be on the safe side, make sure the website starts with https:// before entering any personal information.
- Check the domain name. Make sure that the website that you are on is correctly spelled and not mimicking a well known brand or company.
- Watch for poor grammar and spelling. An excess of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar mistakes can indicate that the website was put together fairly quickly with no regard for professionalism.
- Look for reliable contact information. If you can find another way to contact the brand or company, reach out to them to confirm the email is real.
- Walk away from deals that are too good to be true. Some retailers will discount older merchandise but if the latest item is also heavily discounted, walk away. It’s probably too good to be true!
Pet of the Week: Isla
Hi, my name is Isla and I'm available for adoption. I'm a one-year-and-one-month-old female Pit Bull/Great Dane dog, black and white (ID #A702290). At 66 pounds I am considered a large breed dog. I'm a huge fan of treats and toys! I will happily sit, give you my paw, lay down and roll over for them. I am a sweet girl with a lot of energy. I do best when I get lots of exercise and something to keep my mind busy. I have a RED personality. I am a spirited dog with a fun-loving personality. I am still working on my manners, so I would do best with a family who is willing to work with me and help me become the best dog I can be. I am spayed, current on vaccinations, and microchipped! My adoption comes with many benefits, including 30 days of opt-in pet insurance.
You can find out more about me and my other friends on our website at www.kingcounty.gov/adoptapet. If you have more questions, you can contact RASKC via phone at 206-296-7387 (PETS) or email pets@kingcounty.gov.
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Featured Job: Nutrition Assistant | Federal Way & Des Moines
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