Processes – Page 2 – Subject Matter Minute Blog

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #48 – Reasonable Accommodation

The below post is taken from the Video Blog, the Subject Matter Minute. If it’s a little hard to read, it’s because it’s taken from the spoken word. You can view the episode on YouTube if you would like. Find it here: Episode #48 -Reasonable Accommodation.

If YouTube is blocked for you or your agency, you can scroll to the bottom of this post to view it from Google Drive. (I would prefer you view on YouTube, so I know how many people have watched)

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello and welcome to the Subject Matter Minute, I’m Matt Nagy, thanks for joining me!

Today’s show is going to be a bit long, so I’m going to get right into it.

Today we are going to talk about Accommodation. (music)

Before we get started, I’d like to thank Russell Webb of HRD for taking the time to help me understand the definitions and processes of accommodation at the state. Thanks, Russ.

There are two areas protected under the law that accommodation can be requested for… disability and religion. Under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a reasonable accommodation is a modification or adjustment to a job, the work environment, or the way things are usually done during the hiring process. These modifications enable an individual with a disability to have an equal opportunity to get a job and successfully perform their job tasks to the same extent as people without disabilities.

The law also requires an employer to reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs or practices. This means an employer may be required to make reasonable adjustments to the work environment to allow an employee to practice his or her religion.

For both disability and religion, An employer does not have to provide a reasonable accommodation if it imposes an “undue hardship.” Undue hardship is defined as an action requiring significant difficulty or expense when considered in light of factors such as an employer’s size, financial resources, and the nature and structure of its operation. So that will vary by agency…

An employer generally does not have to provide a reasonable accommodation unless an individual has asked for one. The employer can start the conversation if there is a safety issue. Also, if a supervisor believes that a medical condition is causing a performance or conduct problem, he or she may ask the employee how to solve the problem and if the employee needs reasonable accommodation. However, if the employee says that they do not need or want an accommodation, the discussion should stop there.

So the process generally begins with an employee requesting an accommodation. The supervisor then has 30 days to follow up with the employee. If management fails to follow up within this time, they are said to have “refused accommodation,” and this opens the state up to liability. After management follows up, the employee then has 30 days to follow up. If the employee fails to do so, they forfeit their right to accommodation. However, they can start the process over by again requesting accommodation.

The key is that the employee must be able to perform the “essential functions of the job,” as they are written in the job description. This means that if a “non-essential” function is an issue, those functions could be reassigned to another employee. This is a type of accommodation. However, essential functions cannot be reassigned. This is where other types of accommodation come into play.

The State doesn’t necessarily have to provide the preferred accommodation if there is something else that allows for the performance of the job’s essential functions and meets the needs. There are generally 4 things that need to be taken into consideration when determining accommodation. Cost, function, safety, and scheduling. How much might this cost? Are the essential functions being met? Are there any safety concerns? Does the schedule change work for everyone?

Also, bona fide seniority systems and collective bargaining agreements can supersede requests for schedule changes. Also, employers are not required to displace another employee to provide accommodation. For example, if there is no room on the other shift that doesn’t work Saturdays the employer is not required to force someone on that shift to trade shifts, nor is the employer required to create a job, there must be an existing opening. Again, employers don’t have to provide the requested accommodation, just something that meets the needs and enables the employee to complete essential functions of the job.

The agreed-upon accommodation is for the length of employment unless stated otherwise. For instance, a temporary one might be a short-term medical condition.

I mentioned in the beginning that there are 2 areas that accommodation can be requested for. Disability and religion. Many religious accommodations are about scheduling. Requesting to not work on a day of the week that conflicts with certain religious activities. Naturally, we think, ya know… Sunday. But it could be any day for different religions. And it could be temporary as well. A good example is Ramadan. This is a situation where scheduling changes could make it easier for someone to get their work done while fasting. Other reasons for religious accommodation would be for clothing or displaying religious items in the office.

As an example, an employee at the State said he should not have to wear a hard hat while at work because his religious beliefs required him to wear a head covering. The covering he chose to wear prevented him from wearing a hard hat. After some research and engaging in the interactive process it was discovered this was a preferred head covering by the employee and others were available to him. He eventually agreed to wear a different style of head covering while at work that permitted him to also wear a hard hat.

Remember… safety trumps all else. You will not get an accommodation if there is a safety issue involved.

I think it’s fairly standard for us to think that providing an accommodation is going to be cost-prohibitive. Turns out this is usually not true.

The typical cost of accommodation is $500

A 2020 survey report by the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy showed that 56% of workplace accommodations for employees cost absolutely nothing to execute. The remaining ones typically cost just $500.

I’m going to finish this out with some examples.

Example 1

Situation: An office employee with limitations in using her hands found it difficult to operate the computer mouse.

Solution: The employer arranged for a foot-operated computer mouse, footpad, and speech-to-text software. The accommodation was successful.

Cost of Accommodation: $300

Example 2

Situation: An office worker with cold sensitivity was experiencing pain in the head and neck because of the office temperature.

Solution: The employer switched off an air conditioning vent in the employee’s work area (cubicle) and diffused another vent away from the cubicle. The employee was also provided with a heated scarf.

Cost of Accommodation: $115

Example 3

Situation: A professor with a mental health problem was finding it hard to concentrate at the workplace. The professor operated in a shared office space, and the cause of his problem was frequent interruptions.

Solution: A private office space was provided to the professor.

Cost of Accommodation: Zero

Example 4

Situation: A county government employee with a kidney disorder requested to work remotely because of the need to take frequent breaks and difficulty in commuting.

Solution: The employer permitted the employee to work from home and provided computer equipment to set up at home.

Cost of Accommodation: Zero (because the same equipment was provided to all employees)

Example 5

Situation: An employee working in a lab environment was finding it hard to communicate with colleagues because of a progressive hearing loss.

Solution: Co-workers were asked to first ensure he was looking at them before they began to speak. In addition, every verbal communication was followed by written email communication. Everyone benefited from this accommodation because they had a written record they could refer to at any time.

Cost of Accommodation: Zero

Alright… I’m outta here! I hope this is useful to those supervisors who need to deal with this situation and those employees who need accommodation. See ya next month on the Subject Matter Minute.

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #47 – Weather Closure Policy

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello and welcome to our little State of Wyoming variety show, the Subject Matter Minute. Where you come to get information and find yourself cringing at my humor. Speaking of, one of my favorite lines from a song is by the Gin Blossoms… “If you don’t expect too much from me, you might not be let down.” I tell my wife that all the time. She doesn’t think it’s very funny.

Alright… let’s get to the task at hand. Last month we covered the effects of Human Resources consolidation on all of us. And what was the one takeaway?

Today I’m going to cover Weather Closures.

We all love a good snow day, right? Everyone hopes that there is just enough snow to shut things down so you can stay cuddled up in bed, or have an extra cup of coffee, or cross country ski to lunch. And while it almost never happens, we always hope. I remember growing up in Lander and turning on the radio to find out if we had to go to school. Fingers crossed! This was before email, websites, etc… we had to find out via the radio. But it was the best day ever when we heard those words. “School cancelled!”

Well, every once in a while the State gets shut down due to snow. The recent “snowmageddon” event definitely shut things down. Especially in Cheyenne.

There was some confusion during that time. A ton of us were teleworking for the first time and people just weren’t sure what that meant for a snow day. Well, sadly, for those that telework full time or are scheduled to telework on a weather closure, the snow day is no longer. And worse yet… if you are unable to telework due to taking care of snowbound children or something similar, you MAY BE expected to use annual leave. This depends on the expectations provided by your management. Many of these situations are circumstantial so it would be best, if you can, to clarify as much as possible in the telework agreement beforehand.

One of the stated reasons that the state expanded the opportunity to telework is that the government can stay open on inclement weather days. Honestly, the reason for snow days was to keep employees safe and off the roads, and since you can safely work from home, this doesn’t come into play.

There’s more to say, but I’ve got to pause for a second and thank Jenny Wacker who helped me out with this information. She is the telework queen as she was tasked with running the show on creating the new policy. But please don’t blame Jenny for ruining the snow day. It was not her fault.

I think that for those that are teleworking full-time, it’s pretty straightforward. However, if you are teleworking part-time, intermittently, or temporarily, you need to be sure of your supervisors expectations. The setup should work for both the employee and the state. There are scenarios where this could become unfair, and this is not ok. This is one of the reasons why all teleworkers are required to have a signed telework agreement. Expectations can be set up in the agreement, so there are no surprises and no confusion. If you expect to get a snow day when it snows on a day that you would normally work in the office, then work that out with your supervisor and get it in the agreement.

The bottom line is that this should be common sense. If the state closes on a day that you are supposed to be in the office, then you should get a snow day. If you are scheduled to telework on that day, you should work. However, everyone’s supervisors are different, and, like usual, these things are at the discretion of the agency and/or director, so find out what his or her expectations are.

Since there are some shades of grey here, we have put together an FAQ to try to cover most questions. Go to the “Telework Wyoming” webpage and scroll to the bottom. I also included the link in the show notes.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u4h7izpftIAz0MCuvkU7JHwG15qM3Lhn/view

While it sucks to not get a snow day, I think the best way to think about it is as a bit of a trade-off. Right? Telework allows for flexibility. No commute, eating your own food, do a load of laundry, heck, wear pajama bottoms… and still get in a day of work. I think that because we “get” to do that, we also “get” to work on snow days. And whether you agree with me or not doesn’t matter, ’cause them’s the rules!

Ok… so what happens if there is a power outage? Good question! If a power outage or loss of internet occurs at your telework location and extends past two hours, then you/we MAY be required to return to our primary work location. If the primary work location or your onsite office is closed due to inclement weather, we MAY be expected to use annual leave. We have to coordinate with our supervisors for direction on how to proceed in these situations. … I say MAY because, as ALWAYS, these decisions are at the discretion of the agency and/or director.

For those of you who do not telework, and are NOT emergency personnel, you still get to sleep in on those rare snow days. Enjoy!

Alright, that’s it for today! Everyone have a fabulous week, and I’ll see you next month on the next Subject Matter Minute.

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #46 – HR Consolidation

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello and welcome to the Subject Matter Minute, I’m Matt Nagy, thanks a ton for tuning in.

I’m not sure how many of you are aware, but Human Resources was recently consolidated. Previous to this, agencies had their own HR folks that would coordinate with Human Resources Division. To me, that was a bit weird because the HR person was then working under the Director and maybe a supervisor of that agency… which means that if that director or supervisor were the issue that they were dealing with… well… that’s just complicated.

So, with the help of my subject matter experts, Jared Hanson and Jaye Wacker, today we are going to talk about HR Consolidation. (music)

On July 10th, the Governor signed an executive order that brought all human resources staff under one office and one set of rules, which should create greater efficiency and consistency for all of us. Human resource staff will remain in their individual buildings, making them available to us just as before.

Back in episode #23, I discussed the difference between Agency Human Resources and Human Resources Division. These differences have not changed. The only difference is that Agency Human Resources acts under the umbrella of the Human Resources Division, joining the Consultative Services Crew of HRD and Employees’ Group Insurance.

Agency HR remains the place to go for all day-to-day employee questions, including payroll, benefits, workplace issues, ESS password resets, retirement, PMI, discipline, FMLA, sick and annual leave, address changes, name changes, etc. OR even just a stick of gum. They will always have gum. Or not… that’s a “Friends” reference? Anyone? Bueller?

Ok, consultative services provides…. Well… consultations. … and answers to topics such as classification, compensation, recruitment, performance management, grievance and appeals (in case that HR person doesn’t have that gum) personnel rules, and more.

A few agencies are experiencing some change because they have not had a full-time employee dedicated to human resources or payroll. This mainly impacts smaller agencies and boards. If you work for one of these organizations, HRD has absorbed the HR duties so that you now have a full-time staff of HR pros dedicated to supporting your agency and you.

Most agencies experienced very little change. Agency HR is not changing locations. They are not changing contact information. And, each agency’s primary point of contact will not change.

Agency Human Resources now has roughly 70 people in 13 different locations, all tasked with providing the best direct human resource support to us. This number doesn’t include the professionals of Employee’s Group Insurance or Consultative Services. This means that Executive Order 2020-8 connected the entire HR community and created access for ALL state employees to more support and resources.

When you need HR assistance, you still have immediate access to your agency HR pro, AND you can access an HR professional via the “Find Help” button on HRD’s website. Some agencies will have multiple HR professionals available, and you may want to contact the one that specializes in the area of your question. And, even though agencies are assigned to particular HR professionals, you can contact any individual on this list. Please just note that sometimes, agencies have individual policies, processes, or procedures that may be relevant to your particular situation or question so you are always encouraged to contact your assigned HR person first.

HR Consolidation does more than provide additional resources for employees:

HR Consolidation also improves processes. Since they all work together, Agency HR can now share best practices with each other more easily, and those processes will be standardized. HRD and Agency HR will work together on complex human resource matters, getting input from all agencies when making rule and policy changes. This gives every agency a voice at HRD.

HR Consolidation should also improve customer service, and since providing excellent customer service is part of HRD’s mission, that just makes sense. Hopefully, many of you have become accustomed to excellent customer service from your individual agency’s HR. That service remains. AND, HR Centralization provides access to an HR professional no matter your location or employment. All state employees will now have equal access and equal treatment.

HR Consolidation also means greater support for Agency HR, providing the traditional training services as well as learning from other HR people across the state. This can help grow their individual skills and create future HR leaders.

Changes will be continuing in HR. Transitions like this of course take time. Everyone is committed to a smooth transition for all Wyoming employees. Because…we are, in theory, the state’s greatest resource.

…and you should always have access to…gum.

I truly hope someone out there appreciates the Friends reference!! If not, I’m sorry… Alright, that’s it for today! Have a great weekend. OH, and Happy mothers day to my mom and all you wonderful mothers out there.

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #40 – Leave

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Subject Matter Minute, I’m Matt Nagy, thanks for joining me! If this is your first time here…. Shame on you. (chuckle) Nah, just kidding… but if it is, you can find a link in the show notes to all the episodes and get yourself all caught up.

A brief mention of something related to one of the last regular episodes we had. It was about air ambulances in Wyoming. It was a little while back… episode #34. I got several emails from folks who have been paying yearly fees to ambulance companies or hospitals that were meant to cover a trip in an air ambulance. Well… just so you all know… The legislature passed a law that no longer allows membership plans like this. So if you are paying, stop! Or at least check into it.

I was going to treat that one person who really dislikes when I share personal info to some new stuff today, but then the episode got a bit long, so…. Sorry…. Maybe next time. 🙂

Let’s get to it… Did you know that there are 16 different types of leave available to state of Wyoming employees? I briefly covered the 2 major ones in an earlier episode, episode #12 – Full Benefits Package, but I haven’t covered the other 14.

So today, let’s talk about Leave.

So, the 2 major types of leave are Vacation and Sick leave. Since there are so many to cover, I’m going to leave those to episode #12. Let’s cover the other 14 as quickly as possible. Speaking of that… if you need all the details of any of them, you can find everything in the Personnel Rules Chapter 6… which is linked below.

The first one is a bit timely for me as I recently used some when my grandfather passed away. His funeral was in Georgia, so it was nice that you can take 5 days of bereavement leave when a family member dies. That gave me the week to deal with a wide range of things down there.

The next type of leave is Holiday Leave. Full time employees are given 8 hours leave per holiday from regularly scheduled work hours. We get:

New Years
Martin Luther King Jr.
President’s day
Memorial day
Independence day (4th of July)
Labor day
Veteran’s day
Thanksgiving
Christmas

It’s a day for each holiday. Unfortunately, it’s not like the University that gets a sweet Christmas vacation. We get one day. … but we’ll take it.

There are several if’s and when’s under holiday leave, so feel free to read about it in Chapter 6. But, generally, it’s a straightforward holiday day-off.

Next is Exempt Paid Time Off. So, if any employee exempt from overtime is required to work on a holiday they are granted paid time off at one and one-half hours for each hour worked. A little “thank-you” for taking one for the team and working on a holiday.

Next is Parental Leave. I cover this in full in episode #31. Check it out. But, what it says in short is that employees may, with Agency head approval, take accrued sick leave, comp time, vacation leave, or leave without pay beyond the time allowed under Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for purposes associated with the birth or adoption of a child.

Voting Leave. We are given 1 hour of leave with pay to go vote. Simple.

Ok… Court Leave. This one was interesting to me because I am currently in the jury pool and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to serve. I wasn’t sure if I’d get paid. Well, turns out we do. If you are called for jury duty or as a witness of the court, you are granted leave with pay. It says you need to provide written documentation of the obligation, but we do get paid. So that’s cool. Now I kinda want to get on a jury. 🙂

Now here’s one for all those who have interest in serving the state in a different capacity. Legislative Leave. If you get elected to the legislature, you have to take time served in that position as leave without pay. Sounds a little odd, but you do get compensated for performing these duties by the Legislative Branch, and on the bright side, you can keep your job.

Ok, let’s talk about Educational Leave. This one is fascinating. I kinda doubt this ever happens, but you can actually get leave for up to 24 months to acquire job-related training or education. Of course, this is up to the Agency head. Believe it or not, the rules are open to it being either paid or unpaid. So… if you can find a very convincing reason to get some training and you have a super cool agency head, you could get paid to get that training.

Next is Administrative Leave. This is used for several things. First of all, an agency head may grant an employee administrative leave with pay to participate in meetings, seminars, hearings, examinations, and employee organization meetings. I don’t even know what some of those things are, but for any other purposes, you have to get approval from the Governor.

This is also the type of leave that the Governor gives for local celebrations, like Cheyenne Day, and if they need to shut things down because of weather, or anything else he/she deems necessary. One of the popular and regular administrative leave days is the day that is given for the Friday after Thanksgiving. That’s an example of administrative leave.

Ok…. Personal Leave. This one is at the agency head’s discretion. They can give us up to two regularly scheduled days of personal leave. So, 16 hours. There is a specific list of things that it can be given for.

Employee recognition programs;
Participating in department wellness initiatives;
Merit incentive programs
Team-based recognition – project completion
To volunteer
Family departing or returning from active duty military service; and
To attend military funerals.

Now some of these have to have prior approval from HRD, so look closer if you want to set something up. Also, volunteering has some rules associated with it, so check those.

There are a few prohibited activities. Personal Leave can not be granted for:

Birthdays
Early release for holidays, and
Undocumented performance

Next is Military Leave. I’m just going to send you to the Statute for that. All it says in our rules is that it shall be granted in accordance with Wyoming Statute 19-11-108.

Leave Without Pay. This type of leave is granted at the discretion of the agency head. This type of leave can basically be used for anything that the agency head decides warrants it. But there are some specific uses associated with it.

If you are injured on the job and receiving workers comp, you can use LWP.
An employee on military leave is entitled to LWP.
You can use LWP when all other leave has been exhausted, with permission, for medical reasons.

Please note that for everything except legislative leave, an employee has to use all accrued comp time, vacation or other available leave before leave without pay will be authorized.

The Governor may furlough employees due to lack of work or funding. An employee furloughed for lack of funding is on leave without pay.

Administrative Review Leave.

This is not typically good leave… but it’s not always bad. This is leave that you get placed on… for a maximum of thirty (30) days.

This traditionally happens when you have been charged with or are under investigation for a crime, or Allegations of misconduct have been made; or

You fail a fitness for duty evaluation; or, finally…

You need to be removed from the workplace because you are a witness or the complainant in an investigation.

And, finally, FMLA. FMLA is an episode unto itself, but suffice it to say, this federal act entitles eligible employees to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave.

I will probably do an episode on that in the future, but I did put some information about it in the show notes. We did a very detailed video back in 2018 that you can watch if you really need to know.

Now I wasn’t going to mention Covid-19 in this episode, but there are a couple of new types of leave that have been created because of it. The Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act or EPSLA which provides up to 80 hours of paid sick leave for employees for six qualifying reasons related to COVID-19. And the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLEA), which expands the federal Family and Medical Leave Act to provide leave for employees who are unable to work, including work-from-home, as a result of having to care for a minor child due to a COVID-19 related closure of a school or childcare center.

If you need more info on those at this time, please contact your HR representative. Or if you just need general info, google it.

Holy smokes…. I’m so sorry this ended up so long. But, there are 16 types of leave… So much for Subject Matter MINUTE, eh? Well, thanks for hanging in there, and I’ll see you next time.

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #39 – LinkedIn Learning

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello and welcome to another gritty episode of the subject matter minute. All right, I know the show is not gritty by any means, but sadly I actually have had to edit out a couple of things that I thought was funny, but others didn’t… you know? Speaking of that… once again we are walking on eggshells as state employees. There’s grim budgetary news. Because of this, this couldn’t be a better time to expand our skillset or strengthen our skill set. The State Library just recently signed a contract with LinkedIn learning that gives us access to their huge library of excellent courses. Some of you may have used it in the past, it was called lynda.com, but LinkedIn bought them out. They have a huge library of professionally produced training on a wide range of topics. Check this out.

When you sign in with your library card this is the page you will see if you want to see all the subjects just come up to library and hover over it okay and then you can go down each of these main subject areas to see all of the courses available and they have divided it up into topics software and learning paths I’ll go over that stuff more here in a bit but you can see we have a huge amount of courses available to us.

Let’s back up a second and show you how to get access to the LinkedIn library courses. You need a Wyoming library card to do this. In order to get your State library card to access all these courses and all this other
fabulous stuff the library has, you need to go to library.wyo.gov. There’s probably several ways to get there, but what I did was went to ‘using the library’ ‘for state employees,’ and then down to ‘get a library card.’ That opens a new tab. You fill this out. Because of COVID, right now, you will be emailed a library card number and password,and eventually, we’ll all get physical library cards once COVID- 19 is over.

Once you have your library card number and a password you’ll come to this page gowyld.net. There are probably several ways to get there again but I’m gonna go to ‘job and career support,’ and then you’ll see LinkedIn learning down here with lynda.com content. If you click on that it brings you to this login page. I’m gonna go ahead and put mine in and login. Now we’re back to that page I showed you before.

I’m gonna go into this a little bit more so first of all that you see at the top we have popular learning paths. Learning paths are really handy because they basically group a bunch of courses in certain topics, and they do it for you so you don’t have to search for them. Here’s a learning path called ‘become a manager,’ it has eight courses in it. ‘Become a project coordinator’ ten courses… these could be good learning paths for state employees. You can also click on ‘see all’ to see all the learning paths that they have put together. As you can see, there are a lot. In each section there are learning paths with many classes in them. You can see ‘to become a project manager’ has 17 hours worth of courseware in there. This is good stuff.

I want to show you here when you first come in new is selected in this row. These are the new courses. You can scroll through here see what they got. ‘Customer service,’ ‘financial wellness,’ ‘talent management,’ … good stuff for PMI. You can also sort it by ‘popular.’ A lot of ‘time management’ up at the top, Microsoft stuff… now I’ve been asked many times where people can get Microsoft training… this is gonna be great stuff for those folks. Then they have some recommended courses. Also ‘popular your organization.’ I’m not sure… that must sort eventually once more people have come in.

If you’re looking for soft skills, perhaps you go to business, and you look at ‘leadership,’ ‘management,’ ‘communication,’ ‘productivity.’ Let’s just go to productivity. Looks like they have weekly videos they make, and then, of course, a lot of the stuff that folks are looking for these days… setting limits on your smartphone, learning zoom. A lot of us are using zoom these days so that could be a good one, and I’m sure they have more than just the basics… they go into advanced modes. Self-motivation, reducing tension… So you can see the kind of things they have.

Now let’s go into a course. Let’s go into ‘learning zoom.’ I just want to show you how they’re set up. It’s very straightforward. It’s video based. I did come in here earlier and checked it out. You can see the ones that I’ve already watched because they show the little eye. Since I’ve already watched them, then you go to the next one. You can see the transcript down here, which is great because it shows you where they are in the words, and you can actually click on the words to skip forward to that spot. If you are watching this from the beginning to the end it’ll automatically go from video to video, otherwise you can skip around find something that you have a question about. ‘How do I record and review meetings,’ and just skip right to it.

As you can see this is set up really nicely and you will find that the video quality is quite amazing. These guys know what they’re doing and they’re professionals. Apparently, LinkedIn produces all of their own stuff in-house.

You can also make your own playlist. You can go through all their courses, find ones that you want to watch in the future, and add them to your playlist. Let’s just go into business analysis foundations. Now, I didn’t actually have to go into it to add it… I’ll go back and show you, but you can add it to your playlist by clicking right here. Let’s go back. You can also add it to your playlist by clicking the plus alongside any of the courses.

This is fairly new to me too. I just wanted to get this information out there so people can hit this right away. I did use lynda.com a while ago… years ago, so I’m somewhat familiar with it, but I’m gonna be diving in checking it out. I didn’t show you all the features, but it’s really straightforward and well-made, so get in there and check out the courses.

I’ve only really gone over LinkedIn learning in this episode, but I would be remiss to not mention the hundreds of other resources that the State Library has for us. Check this out.

This is the home page of gowyld.net. Here you’ll find all the topics and resources available to state of Wyoming employees. So these are all the subjects. You can get ebooks, audiobooks, magazines… so much stuff available to state of Wyoming employees. Let’s go back into job and career support since that’s what we’re talking about today. You have access to Learning Express Library, and here’s LinkedIn learning as well. Look over here, there are auto repair manuals. There is a section for learning a language… enunciator. There’s tests and Skills prep. These are all available to you for free.

Again, on the homepage you can see all the subject areas… so as you can see there are a ton of resources out there to help us expand our skillset, strengthen our skillset, or perhaps just to help us get through these trying times. I truly encourage you to get in there and check it out. I guarantee you will be impressed with the quality of the productions. Ok, that’s it for today… good luck to all of us during this (most recent) stressful time at the state. See you next time.

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #32 – Saba TalentSpace Mobile App

If YouTube is blocked for you or your agency, you can scroll to the bottom of this post to view it from Google Drive. (I would prefer you view in YouTube, so I know how many people have watched)

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello Fellow State of Wyoming employees… Matt here. Thanks for joining me here on the wild ride that is the Subject Matter Minute.

Before I get started on the subject matter meat, so to speak, I’m guessing that there may be a few of you out there that have gone on an Alaskan cruise? I’m asking because my parents just surprised us with a trip of our own this coming summer. My grandfather, who was about 2 months shy of his 101st birthday, passed this last summer, and apparently still had a little cash left. Well, my mom wanted to use it for a family vacation. So, my parents are going to take me, my wife, my kids and my sister on an alaskan cruise. This is definitely something that was on my bucket list, and I’ve never been on any sort of cruise, so I’m very excited. If you have been on one and have some pointers for us, please feel free to post them in the comments below the video. Or throw me an email… whatever.

Alright… today is a little show and tell episode. Today I’m going to show you how to use the Saba TalentSpace mobile app. (music)

Before I get started, I want to thank Debbie Russi again for helping me sort out the info for the last episode. That was on Maternity leave if you missed it. Remember fellas, that episode isn’t just for the ladies. Go back and check it out.

This episode’s subject matter expert is Brenda Kelly-Mitchell, who administers the PMI system and recently activated the mobile app. Thanks for doing that, and thanks for helping me out Brenda.

I think more and more people out there are starting to use the features of Saba that make it worthwhile. If not, maybe it’s because you don’t want to take the time to sit at the computer, or maybe you simply forget by the time you get to your computer? Well, the app is perfect for those problems. This is “on-demand” documentation. Memories are so much better at the point of incident, right? Being able to take a journal note, or throw out some feedback while in the field, or at the meeting, is much more reliable than doing it a month later.

The app is slick and easy to use. And I’m going to show you what is available on it. Let’s get going.

In order to start the process and get the app functioning, you need an activation code. To do that go to the Saba talent space website, go over to your name on the far right click on it, go to app activation, and then halogen app. I’m fairly certain in the future that will say talentspace app, but for now it still says halogen.

Sometimes it just brings up this feedback page, other times it will bring up the activation code. But if you only get this page and do not see a code, go ahead and do it again. And there you have your activation code.

So once you’ve gone to the website and got the code, you go to your mobile device, download saba talentspace mobile app, and then open it. This is where you add your activation code. Go ahead and put in the site name, which was wyoming, and then the activation code, and then activate.

Now you’re in the saba talentspace mobile app. This is the front page. They like to give you little tips and tricks here on the front… you can dismiss that. You can see down at the bottom there’s a menu where you have home, feedback, talent view, one-to-one meeting, and learning. First of all, from the very front page you can add feedback to somebody. Up by your picture… you see “hi Matthew L, do you have feedback to share” click on that and you can immediately send feedback to somebody. So you choose great job or whichever one. You find someone… you just search for them… you start typing their name, and it’ll give you the options. I’m gonna go ahead and cancel out of that and discard it.

Hold up! Let’s go back a second. I recorded this and then realized there’s a very cool feature within the mobile app that you cannot do on your desktop. You can attach photos! So when you’re in feedback, you see the little photo or a camera icon… click on that and you can insert a photo or take a photo. So if you are giving feedback on something at the time that is right in front of your face, you can take a photo. Or if you previously had a photo you can go insert photo. Go into your photos on your camera… yeah better not, my wife had some pictures of her being very sick… Or take a photo. Allow it to use your camera, and look that’s me recording my phone.

So that is a very very useful feature for feedback on the mobile app. That’s the quickest way to send feedback to somebody.

Another way is you can see on the home page the “my team” at the bottom. You can scroll through your people, and then either click on their face or click on the little three bars below their face and that’ll bring up icons. You can see the feedback icon is the second from the left if you want to send feedback to that person, or if you click on their face it brings up their face in a larger format and gives you some icons as well. You can send email to them, you can send feedback, and unfortunately you can’t call through the system right now. The telephone icon is grayed out. But that’s another way you can send feedback to your people right away.

You can also click in the upper right hand corner where you see the plus feedback icon. Same deal… you click on that, click send feedback, and you go through the process. So this is really really handy for sending feedback to folks.

You can also look at your feedback that you have received or sent by clicking on the feedback icon in the lower menu. These are the received, and then sent, and then you can also look at ones that you have requested, if you ever requested any.

Okay let’s go back to the home screen. We’ve looked at the feedback on the lower screen, let’s look at Talent view next. Talent view basically shows your crew, shows who you work with. Same deal… you can see the hierarchy… if there was a larger hierarchy there would be several layer layers. You can do what I showed you before… you could either click on the little icon and choose email or feedback, or look at their profile, or you can click on their face… same deal… send some feedback, send an email.

So that’s talent view. Next let’s look at one-to-one meeting. So in one-to-one meeting basically it shows the agenda that you’re setting up. These are the agenda items that are automatically put into your one-to-one meeting… any feedback goes in there automatically. You can add an agenda item by clicking on the plus icon to the right of agenda. You can type in the title, describe the agenda item, and add it to your agenda. I’m going to discard that because I’m not making one right now. So that’s a nice way to keep things up to date for your next one-to-one meeting.

If you were to be enrolled in a learning activities on the main site you could see them here under learning.

So that’s a rundown of all the features of the Saba talent space mobile app. If you have any questions you can always click on the menu in the upper left hand corner, click on help, and that will take you to the talent space mobile app help page online. You can look through any of these things. If you need to go back, in the upper left hand corner you click back on the Saba talent space arrow and you’re back in the app.

The mobile app is a fabulous way to send feedback, real-time feedback in the field, or in the meeting or wherever you’re at at the time so you don’t forget what you need to send.

Ok… so that’s the Saba TalentSpace mobile app. I know that 99 percent of you have your phone with you at all times, so this is probably the easiest, and best, way to interact with our performance management system. As an employee or a supervisor, it makes sense to use the system to its fullest and to have an influence over your performance reviews.

That’s it for today! Remember, if you’ve been on an Alaskan cruise and have any tips or tricks or anything we absolutely must do, please let me know! See ya next time.

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #30 – Unclaimed Property

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello everybody! Welcome to another episode of the Subject Matter Minute, I’m Matt Nagy, thanks for joining me!

If you have been watching the last couple episodes, you’ve seen me, rather pathetically, pleading for a couple fans of the show to contact me. Well, I can now claim success. Unfortunately, these two fabulous people both left state employment, so they didn’t know I was searching for them. Well, here they are… Angela and Brittany. Thanks to both of you for being fans, and I’m sorry you won’t be watching anymore!

This episode is not really about any state benefits or processes. Although it kind of is…. Well, the state Treasurer’s office is in charge of it, so the state is a part of it. But, this can benefit anyone, anywhere. Today I’m going to show you how you can possibly get yourself some cash from Unclaimed Property. (music)

You may have heard about this in the past. And if you are like me, you started to try to get your money, but the system was confusing and just not worth it. I remember giving up. Well, not anymore. It’s simple and quick now. I got a check for $380! A close friend of mine got $200. I’m not saying you all have this kind of “unclaimed property,” but it’s time to check! I’m guessing that some of you will be “finding” your money as you are watching this video.

So what’s this all about? Well, it seems that sometimes companies can’t find us. Or don’t try very hard to find us. It seems I had some rebates from purchased printers, refunds from magazines, and some small investments in a company from way back. It can be any number of things. So, if the company can’t find you, they send the money to unclaimed property. And it sits there until you do the search.

You can go to the Wyoming Treasurer’s webpage, and go to Unclaimed Property, or you can go directly to the search page with this address: https://wyoming.findyourunclaimedproperty.com

If you go to the unclaimed property page on the Treasurer’s site, there is a “how-to” video that shows you exactly what I’m going to show you, but they can take it to the end of the process. I can’t quite finish it because I already claimed my money!

Ok… this is how you find your cash. (Demo)

Here we are on the treasures website. There’s our Treasurer… You can see right here big giant button that says unclaimed property. We’ll go ahead and click on that… it takes you to this page that has that video that I mentioned. Feel free to watch that as well. It takes you all the way to the end.

So you simply click on “search unclaimed property,” and here’s the search page. Go ahead and put your last name in here. I think it’s best to just put your last name in here because it gives you the broadest search.

So go ahead and click “search,” and you’ll see all these Nagy’s. I’m not sure why it says “no exact matches” because actually there’s a lot of Nagy’s… David Nagy, Thyrion Nagy, and interestingly enough, I believe this is my father, Robert Eugene Nagy down there.

I’ll claim his, just for demonstration purposes. You just click “claim,” and if you have multiple ones, just click claim next to each of the ones that are for you. I had several. Then you can go either down here or right here and hover, and then click “review claimed properties.”

So here’s the property. Here’s some instructions you need to read because you have to select an option here. Generally you’ll be the owner so I’m going to go ahead and put that down. Then click file claim. Then you’ll need to fill out this information.

Choose individual or business, and fill out this stuff. Once you get that all filled in click Next. It’ll suggest an address perhaps. Click Next there, and then you’re at the electronic signature page. You’ll check this, you’ll put your first and last name here, just like it says. Once it’s all good to go, all this information is correct, you’ll click Submit and your unclaimed property claim will be submitted. You’ll get an email rather quickly.

Sometimes they may need some more information other times they don’t. It just depends on the amount of the money, where it’s coming from, the information you’ve given them, that sort of thing. You can see here the email that I received when I went through this, and it’s asking for some additional documentation. You can find that in this PDF. You can see that they’re asking for photocopies of current driver’s licenses for all listed owners and a signed form. Since my wife and I were both on one of them, we needed both of our driver’s licenses… but really not a big deal… it was a pretty easy process to get $381.

Alright! If you didn’t actually go through the process while you were watching the video, please do it now. I truly hope we can drain a bit of that “unclaimed property” value out of the Treasurer’s coffers!

That’s it for today! Thanks for joining me for another episode of the Subject Matter Minute… see ya next month!

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #29 – PMI Midyear Coaching Phase

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the subject matter minute! Thanks for joining me.

So, last episode I sent out a plea to a couple state employees whom I thought were pretty big fans of the show, but I’ve heard nothing! You ladies are breaking my heart. If I ran into you at the Norah Jones concert, please contact me via email, as I would really (still) like a copy of the photo we took.

I want to tell you guys a little about a trip my wife, a group of friends and I took just a couple weeks ago. First of all, it was the hardest thing Tanna, my wife, and I have ever done. Secondly, it was the most beautiful mountain range we have ever experienced. Eleven of us did a supported mountain bike ride from Telluride to Durango, in the San Juan mountains. It ends up being about 80 miles of riding, and at one point we peaked out at 12,600 foot elevation. Leading up to it, we were like… well, 20-25 miles a day doesn’t seem too bad. We have all day to do it. And we aren’t racing, so it should be cool. Well, those miles took a while. Every day was at least 6 hours of intense, technical riding. I’m not complaining… we felt so accomplished and satisfied each day as we sipped on our ice cold beer. That was the other thing… like I said, the trip was supported. So a guy we paid set up a kitchen and a groover and hauled all our coolers and camping gear to the next spot. We camped 3 nights and rode 4 days. We had perfect weather, the wildflowers were like nothing we have ever seen and for the next week at least, I was in the best shape of my life. That was one for the books.

Ok… now let’s get to something I know you are all pumped about… PMI. For you newbies, this means Performance Management Instrument. A few episodes ago I went over some of the technical stuff. The tools you can use to maximize the effectiveness of the system and possibly help your ratings. This time I want to be timely with the show and hit the current phase…

This episode is about the Midyear Coaching Phase. (music)

Before I get started on the midyear coaching phase, I want to thank this episode’s subject matter expert, Brenda Kelly-Mitchell. She is the master of all things PMI and works her butt off making the system work. Thanks Brenda for getting me the information.

As you should know, there are 3 phases to our PMI. This is the middle phase when managers and employees get together and talk about progress, problems, goals, expectations, and all that. This is a formal and documented get together. Now by formal, I don’t mean it can’t be relaxed, and honestly “informal.” It just means that this meeting is required.

While coaching itself is often perceived as the manager’s responsibility, it is a two-way street – and definitely a time to make sure that we, the employees, are informing our managers of successes, any obstacles that are keeping us from getting stuff done, or maybe resources needed that could overcome those obstacles. Let’s be honest, if your manager doesn’t know what is holding you back, they make assumptions. So this is a great time to let them know.

Naturally, you would be putting those things into the Talentspace software, right? Like I showed you 3 episodes ago? But…. that doesn’t guarantee that your supervisor is even paying attention. So… again… bring it up in the Mid-Year meeting.

Also, we all know that priorities shift from season to season, month to month, and often day to day – so, this is a great time to talk them over and recalibrate if needed.

Midyear is also a time that we reconnect on topics such as Career and Development – like learning new skills and gauging interest in new experiences. So, if you have been eyeing an online course, a conference, or even considering expanding your role in your agency, this is a good time to bring it up.

As a manager, take advantage of this phase to give praise where it is warranted. If goals are being met and everything is progressing as expected, be sure to bring that up!

And finally, this is also a time to try to redirect performance and/or behavior that isn’t inline with the goals and target ranges set up in the planning phase, or with the state in general. This is a nice way of saying that poor behavior should be addressed.

Let’s get into some formalities. Each phase has the “same” 6 steps that need to happen.

Evaluator Writes midyear comments on goals and core competencies
Second-level manager reviews and approves
HR Reviews and approves
Manager meets with employee (conducts the interview)
Employee reviews, comments, acknowledges receipt
Evaluator signs off

Ok! I’ve included links to some materials that can help with this process in the show notes below this video. Please check them out.

Trust me, I know it’s sometimes hard to make time for the PMI process. But…. it’s something we all have to do and we might as well do it well and do it right. Who knows, maybe 10 years down the road there will be some raises tied to it. 🙂

That’s it for this month’s SMM. Check in next month when I do an episode that could make you some money!

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #27 – Assigning Beneficiaries

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello, and welcome to yet again, another episode of your favorite video blog…… the subject matter minute. If you got here by accident, I’m sorry. 🙂

So, this video is coming out a little late. I just got back from Japan. Yeah, really! My sister is a Navy Nurse and has been stationed there for the usual 2 years. We decided we’d better take our one chance to see Japan while we still have a place to stay and an awesome tour guide. We had a great time! We ate a lot of fabulous food, did some touristy crafty things, stayed at a military “resort” for a couple days, and put in some good beach/ocean time. I even got to experience something new on the way home. We actually flew out of LA because it cost so much to go out of Denver, and on the way back stayed in Las Vegas. Well, we got to experience our first earthquake! It was weird, exciting and kinda fun. Luckily is was small there. Although it did make the lights sway and then afterwards gave us some vertigo.

Before I get started on this months subject, I want to thank last episode’s subject matter experts… Jared Hanson and Brenda Kelly of HRD. The subject was using the PMI software between phases, if you missed it. So go back and catch that episode. And, thanks Brenda and Jared!

The Subject matter experts for this episode are Polly Scott of the Wyoming Retirement System and Pam Unruh of Employees Group Insurance. I also want to thank Mitzi, one of our fabulous HR coordinators out in the state for the topic suggestion!

Today I want to talk about the importance of assigning a beneficiary.

There are potentially 4 things that state of wyoming employees must choose a beneficiary for… They are Life Insurance through Employees Group Insurance… and your pension, the 457 plan, and Prudential life insurance through the Wyoming Retirement System. These each need different beneficiary designations. They don’t have to be different people…. They just each need to be assigned separately.

You are automatically enrolled in your pension, and the 457 plan. The state pays for the life insurance that you can get through EGI, but you have to elect it. (so definitely do that… it’s free) And finally, the Prudential Life insurance through the WRS is also a voluntary program. So, you pay for it and don’t have to sign up for it.

So…. what happens if you don’t select a beneficiary for these things??

When electing life insurance or changing your beneficiary through EGI, you can use paper or the online portal. When using the portal, if you elect life insurance, the system will require that you add a beneficiary. If you use paper, it doesn’t…

So…If an employee that has elected life insurance through EGI does not elect a beneficiary or the designated beneficiary is also deceased, benefits will be paid first, to your spouse, then your children, then your parents, then your brothers and sisters, and finally your estate. If it’s going to more than one person… like you have 3 siblings, then the money will be distributed equally among them.

One thing you need to be aware of… if you name a minor as your beneficiary, benefits can’t be paid to them. A guardian would have to be court ordered and the benefit would be payable to the guardian.

Ok, so that seems pretty standard, right? Well, when you name your beneficiary, you put in their name…. Not relationship. So, if you put down your wife or husband and then you get divorced, the money will still go to them. I’m guessing that not a lot of divorced people want their $50,000 life insurance policy going to their ex. Just a guess. Might make a few people roll over in their graves! So keep that in mind!

The issue of people not selecting beneficiaries has grown since we went to online systems and also automatic enrollment. People’s pension accounts and 457 accounts are set up automatically, but they still need to log into their online account for each and add the beneficiary information.

Something to note on the pension, if you elect more than one primary beneficiary on your pension then the beneficiaries won’t have the choice of a lifetime monthly benefit and will have to take a lump sum refund. Consider this carefully, and you can always add contingent beneficiaries who take the place if the primary beneficiary is deceased. If you should die in-service without a beneficiary, benefits would be paid to the estate. There isn’t an order precedence for pension benefits. That is why it is so important to establish beneficiary(ies), because going to the estate could complicate matters, or make things work out differently than you had planned.

The 457 Plan does have an order of precedence, but it is still important to designate a beneficiary because there would be an additional waiting period if the order of precedence is used. So if you don’t have a beneficiary selected, the money would first go to your estate, then your spouse, then a child or children and finally to a parent.

Finally, the Prudential life insurance through WRS has an order of precedence that goes

surviving spouse
all surviving children
all surviving parents
all surviving siblings
estate

Ok, I’m going to quickly show you where and how to change your beneficiaries. 3 of them can be done online. It’s simple. Prudential Life Insurance can be changed by calling 800-525-8056 and requesting a form.

First, I’m going to show you how to add or change your beneficiary in the life insurance that we get through EGI. First of all, go to A&I’s website and come up here to divisions. Click on Human Resources or the arrow next to it, then click on group insurance.

Now you’ll be on EGI’s site. Here’s the benefit portal go ahead and click on that. If you’d like there’s a couple videos you can watch: “how to register” and “using the portal for open enrollment changes,” but here is the portal access down at the bottom.

That’ll open up a new window and you’ll have to log in. It gives you more choices typically, but because I logged in with with Google that’s what it’s giving me and that’s kind of a familiar login. It will give you an opportunity to pick your gmail account and then you’d be in. So, as you can see, I’m in. This is the page that shows up. Here is your life insurance beneficiary.

Very simple. You can see I have my wife as the primary and then I have my two kids as contingent; they would be 50% and 50% should it go to them. All you do is click on update beneficiaries, you can see everyone that’s listed.

Here you can edit or you can add. If you edit someone you go in you change the name, blah blah blah, save. I’m gonna cancel out. If you want to add go ahead and add one. You would put primary or contingent, relationship percentage, save it. I’m gonna cancel out of that. After you change something you need to click here, and then save. But I’m not gonna do any of that because I’m already good here.

That’s the employees group insurance life insurance beneficiary add or change.

Now I’m gonna show you how to add or change beneficiaries for your pension through the Wyoming Retirement System. First, go to members, and then online pension account, come down to change your beneficiary.

This opens up a new window. You’ll need to login, and it takes you right there. You can see right now I have a primary beneficiary as my wife. I have not added my kids… I think it’s mainly because I could not remember their social security numbers, but all you would do is update the information.

If I wanted to add them as contingent beneficiaries I would create new, add one daughter, and then I would create new and do another one.

But since I’m not adding them today, since I still don’t remember their social security numbers, I will just cancel out of that. Then you click continue when you’re done.

This time we’re going to change our beneficiaries in the 457 deferred comp account. In order to do this, come on over here to login click on that. Click on the 457 plan login. Login to it.

Click on account, and then right over here under account overview is beneficiaries, or down here beneficiaries.

You can go to add/edit down here, and as you can see my wife is my primary beneficiary and one of my daughter’s is a contingent beneficiary. If you wanted to add, you would just add. If you wanted to edit, you could edit.

I’m gonna cancel. If you add, you would choose the type, contingent or primary, and save it. I’m gonna cancel out of that.

That’s all there is to changing or adding your 457 beneficiary.

There might be a few of you out there that just really don’t give a rip where your money goes after you die. After all, your dead. But I’m guessing that most do care. Please get in the systems and add your beneficiaries if you haven’t, and then check them somewhat regularly to make sure they are still good. Especially if you have changes in your family.

Well, it’s not a lot of fun to talk about things that involve our deaths, but we are all gonna go. So get your ducks in a row. 🙂

That’s it for this month’s subject matter minute. Please join me next month for what “might” be a more uplifting topic. Actually, I’m not sure what it’s going to be yet… but we’ll see you then.

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #26 – Utilizing the PMI Software Between Phases

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello and welcome to the Subject Matter Minute. I’m Matt Nagy, thanks for joining me!

So a couple weeks ago my oldest daughter graduated from high school. We had a big party, a lot of family, and some tears. I, of course, was tasked with putting together the video of her growing up. Which means that I literally cried every time I watched it. Yes, I’m a sap. When you are editing, you need to watch it over and over to make sure it times out. So… ouch. There are some really good songs out there for this sort of video and you can’t help but cry. If you want to imagine my pain, listen to “Have it All” by Jason Mraz and “ready, set, don’t go” by Billy Ray Cyrus, and think about your daughter moving on.

Anyway… before I get started with this month’s subject, I want to thank last month’s subject matter expert, Alice Burron. Thanks a ton for getting me the information on your wellness initiatives!

This month’s subject matter expert is….. Well, really, me. As all of you supervisors know, I was heavily involved in the creation of the PMI training that you all had to work through. And, as you know, I pretty much had to know everything about the process. (do silly hand motions) I was also on camera a bit too much. I did some reading from a teleprompter. Sorry… that’s a bit of an inside joke. Apparently, I had a tendency to do some repetitive hand motions, and a friend, who is also a supervisor with the state, couldn’t help but give me a hard time about my hand motions. Thanks Seth!

Today we are going to talk about Utilizing the PMI software between phases.

Because the Planning Phase ended on May 31st, we all now have our goals and Target Ranges for competencies set. This means that you now have all this time before the next phase.. The midyear phase, where you talk about your progress and supervisors give some coaching and all that.

Well, while a lot of folks probably do just wait until that phase opens, it’s really not the most effective way to use the PMI system. This applies to both employees and supervisors and although, there is no right or wrong way to use the system, there are tools available that are designed to be used throughout the year. In between the phases.

As an employee, you can actually affect your evaluation if you stay up on what’s going on. Recording “milestones or jobs well done,” or documenting the difficulties you are having with a goal… If it’s something that’s out of your control, or something like that. Putting these sorts of things in the system, allows your supervisor to easily pull them into the evaluation form.

Ok, I’m going to talk about 3 tools specifically. They are 1 to 1 Meetings, Feedback Central and Goal Notes. I’m just going to introduce these items. They are pretty intuitive and mostly easy to use.

So, are you having regular meetings with your supervisor? Well, you probably should be. Keeping track of progress, bringing up issues… you know the drill. Well, 1 to 1 Meetings allows you to both keep track of what you talk about but it also allows both supervisors and employees to add “agenda items” to a future meeting. So, you think of something that you’ve been meaning to talk about and you quickly make an agenda item for it for the next meeting.

Feedback Central is a central repository for all sorts of documentation. If you go into “all feedback” you will see all the feedback both from you and to you. You can see that I put some journal notes in there. Which is basically a good place to put ideas and thoughts. I have some Great Jobs that were sent to me and I also have some thank yous both going out to others and coming in to me. Your choices are different depending on whether you are a supervisor or not, but both employees and supervisors have several choices within feedback central. As you can see, you can even request feedback.

As I mentioned before, we all now have our goals set in the system. Best practice is to regularly update how you are doing with these goals. You can do this within the goal itself. If you click on one of your goals, it takes you to an area with several things you can adjust and a comment area. So you can select if you are on track or not… you can select a status from the dropdown. You can show the percentage of completion. You can put when you actually started working on the goal and when you finished. And finally, you can put comments in the comments area. This is where you might mention any roadblocks you are experiencing or things you might need to finish up the goal. Anything related to the goal that might help your supervisor understand how it is going.

So, 1 to 1 Meetings, Feedback Central and Goal notes/comments. These are tools you can use to help have some control over your evaluation . You need to use them regularly and when something is actually happening. Don’t wait, as our memories fade quickly. I know mine do!!

Whether or not you like having your performance evaluated, it is necessary. You might as well try to use the PMI system to it’s full potential and use it in a way that will help you and your supervisor do an honest and fair evaluation.

Alright, I gotta go… that was a lot for today! Please come back next month for another exciting and fun filled subject matter minute. See ya then.