Subject Matter Minute Blog – Page 4 – Covering Important Topics About State of Wyoming Employment

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #41 – Statewide EAP

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 #41 – Statewide EAP

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 show! Thanks for watching.

One thing you learn quickly when you start working at the state is that there are a whole bunch of acronyms that people throw around. I still regularly ask…. Um, what does that stand for?? Well, today we are going to talk about one of those acronyms… the EAP.

But first…. Remember back in the day when I asked for your input on what to do and how to do an Alaskan cruise? Well, those were the good old’ days before COVID, and that trip got canceled. Like so many others… But, my mom was determined to get us all together to do something. So, a couple of weeks ago we went on a horse pack trip in the Wind River Mountains. This wasn’t our first trip… in fact, it was really the 10 year anniversary of our previous trip with my parents and my two girls.

So, this is how we did it. You bring a big pile of gear, food, and drinks to the Diamond 4 Ranch, which is about an hour and a half drive straight up into the Winds from Lander. Gotta tell you, my Highlander didn’t really like that road. Anyway… they take that pile and pack it all onto the back of horses and then you ride about 8-10 miles into the backcountry. They drop you and all your gear off and they leave. Then 5 days later, they come back in to see who has survived.

Oh, did I mention that there are bears in the Winds? Well, we didn’t see any.

Even though I haven’t done it in a long time, I used to backpack, and I’ve got to say that I really preferred having my cot in the backcountry.

I’m not much of a horse guy. Sorry, I’m sure a lot of you are… But, I’m allergic to them and my legs don’t bend that way. So, I hiked in. The rest of the family rode and had a decent time, but I really enjoyed the hike.

The weather and scenery were amazing, and we were still able to have a campfire, so the trip was awesome. If any of you happen to have a big pile of money lying around, you should give it a go. My parents were very generous and used their pile for us… so that was nice.

Ok. Hopefully, if you don’t want to hear my gibberish, you know how to skip it by now. All you have to do is go to the show notes and click on the time that I provide. Or you can click within the playbar of the video. (show how while saying this)

The last episode was some good news and so is this one. Last month we talked about our new access to LinkedIn Learning training. This month we are going to talk about our new Employee Assistance Plan. (music)

An employee assistance program (EAP) is a work-based intervention program designed to assist employees in resolving personal problems that may be adversely affecting the employee’s performance. EAPs traditionally have helped workers with issues like alcohol or substance abuse. However, most now cover a broad range of issues such as child or elder care, relationship challenges, financial or legal problems, wellness matters, and traumatic events like workplace violence. And luckily for us, ours covers all those things. The company is called FEI Behavioral Health and they have 4 categories of direct help for us. They are Counseling services, Work-Life services, Legal Services, and Financial Services. There is a wide range of topics contained within each of these categories. The website also contains a ton of information that you can read, watch, and listen to. But, let’s just go to the site, so I can show you….

The website is https://www.feieap.com/. You will see this login page when you get there. The login for the State of Wyoming is “sowy1”. Now you are in the State of Wyoming area.

First of all, if you need help with any of those areas that I mentioned, in any way, you can simply call this phone number. (888-218-7360) Really, in the end, you’re either going to call this phone number or you’re going to use the contact request form right here. That’s the basics of what you need to know.

Let’s check out their website. Down here it has a list of our services. Benefits overview for Wyoming – it’s a pdf that tells you exactly how many visits you get, how many visits are covered, how many sessions are covered. Some monthly promotions. Corrections has their own area in here, so they can check that out. Here are the four areas of help: eap services, work life services, legal services, and financial services.

EAP is more about mental health. You can see what kind of things are covered here. Their counselors are experienced, and they can cover these sorts of issues. There are a few things that aren’t covered, but you can get three sessions with a counselor for free.

Work life services is about elder and child care issues. If you’re caring for people; family care issues. If you’re having those kind of issues come in here and check it out.

We all know what legal services are. They have a ton of resources over here on the right. You can talk to somebody about any legal issues. Tells you how it works right here.

Financial services… read through here, find out what you might need. Here’s a bunch of resources again over on the right.

You can scroll through here and see what other sorts of things they got going on. Here’s the same stuff… legal services, financial services…. you can subscribe to a newsletter, you can look at past newsletters, you can look at past webinars, sign up for webinars. That’s the kind of stuff that you have up here as well. They have manager resources; helpful documents and a blog for managers. They have a ton of training and webinars through here on all sorts of things. Same with this, it’s in demand stuff. So look through here there are topics galore and helpful articles. This is just the online intake form just like the contact request form. If you don’t want to call you can go ahead and fill this out… now, you will be getting a call once you do fill this out, but this will give them a good idea of what you’re talking about so maybe you can talk a little bit less to the folks setting it up.

I’m going to scroll down here and just show you that there are monthly featured articles down here: CBD, articles on returning to school, COVID-19, tension stuff, and a ton of featured topics down here. this is all free to us and help from actual humans, up to a certain point, is free to us as well.

So, there you have it. A new benefit from the State. I actually have already used the financial aspect. I have been doing a side gig for about 20 years with UW Athletics… part of the production crew for the big screens and streaming of games. Well, as you know, fall sports have been canceled, so I decided to call FEI and see if there was any federal money I might be able to tap into. As of now, the PPP program is not giving out money, so I’m just going to have to deal with making less this year. Unless they actually do the games in the spring… But, the guy I spoke with was excellent and gave me all the information that was out there.

Alright folks… thanks for joining me on the Subject Matter Minute! I’ll see ya next time.

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 #38 – Covid-19 Episode – Video Conferencing Accessibility

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello and welcome to another (loosely) covid inspired episode of the subject matter minute. I say loosely because this is actually a crucial subject regardless of what’s going on. But it IS covid inspired because so many more people are using video conferencing due to the pandemic.

After my last episode on best practices for video conferencing, I got an email from the person that has become this month’s subject matter expert, Jo Otterholt. Jo is a deaf Resource Specialist, with Outreach Library Services in Casper and she gently and kindly pointed out something that I think is overlooked far too often. I am guilty of this. I think I do really well with my videos, but I also design websites, e-learning, and do lots of video conferencing where I, honestly, am sometimes lazy or uninformed. I shouldn’t be uninformed, and in the back of my mind, I know what I should be doing, but it’s easier to just plow ahead and get it done. Right? Well, I’m not going to talk about websites or e-learning today, but I am going to share with you best practices for video conferencing accessibility. (music)

Before I go on, I want to mention that I actually have two subject matter experts today. I also received input and resources about accessibility for the visually impaired from Laurel Henry, a vision outreach consultant with the Dept. of Education. Thank you Jo and Laurel… I appreciate it.

First I want to say that all of these things will actually make the experience better for everyone involved. Also, once you know what to do, it’s not difficult to implement. In talking with Jo, I also learned a bunch about accessibility in face to face meetings, training, and such. But today I’m only going to cover accessibility for video conferencing.

Ok, first thing… please find out from the people who need accommodation, what they want. There is a wide range of abilities out there and you won’t know what they need until you ask.

Next… if there are going to be presenters that have prepared presentations, and if documents such as PowerPoint, Excel, and MS Word are going to be used in the presentation, these should be sent out to participants in advance of the meeting. Send your participants Plaintext versions of presentation documents in advance. This is especially important for heavily graphic documents such as PowerPoint. This will allow a participant who has low vision or is blind the ability to follow along with the electronic format or prepare a Braille version of the Plaintext in advance of the meeting so that they may listen to the speaker at the same time as they “read” the Braille with their fingers. If the conference is a meeting that won’t have prepared presentations, then an agenda will help a deaf individual follow what’s happening.

While the country, and honestly my household, has been a bit Zoom crazy since the pandemic started, Zoom is actually not what we should be using at the state right now. Google Meet has incorporated live captioning into their system. Zoom has not. There are ways to make it work for Zoom, but they are somewhat complicated and not something that I’m going to go into here. And there may be other systems that do this, but we have enterprise access to Meets, so that should be our go-to at the state. Live captioning is not only essential for the deaf/hard of hearing employees of the state, but could be very useful for those for whom English is not their native language or someone who is in a noisy environment. To turn on live captioning, click the three dots in the lower right-hand corner and select “turn on captions.”

One oversight on Google’s part is that if you record the session, the captions don’t show in the recording. Maybe they will figure that out someday. If you need captions in the recording, I would suggest uploading the video to YouTube which will create captions automatically for you. You can also download the captions from YouTube for the full script of the meeting afterward.

Next… a deaf person needs to see the speaker well and that speaker needs to be creating good audio. This means that the speaker should be close to both the camera and the microphone. Some deaf people will read lips and the audio quality needs to be good so the captioning works. So, if you have prepared presentations, please either have a designated seat for them or pass around a laptop. If this is more of a meeting, especially where there is a group of people in a room, then it’s helpful to have a moderator that can announce who is speaking and summarize what they said or repeat their questions/comments.

When considering the visually impaired, remember to describe things that you are showing in your presentation. So, instead of just saying look at the graph, you should describe the graph. In 2010 the total was 400, while in 2020 the total was 900.

If you play a video during a conference, play it for yourself beforehand with your eyes closed and make sure the information is descriptive enough with the audio. If not, You may need to add some commentary during the presentation.

If you are offering the video and materials after the fact, take some time to make sure everything is accessible. Transcribe the video… again, YouTube does a pretty good job of that. And get out any materials that you promised.

These suggestions will help you provide accessible video conferences. There are many more suggestions that I don’t have the time to go through. Please check out the show notes below the video, where you can find some more helpful pointers. Remember, the most important thing is to communicate with the person or people that need accommodations for specific things that would help them. However, even if no one needs it, we need to all be incorporating accessibility features into all of our video conferences.

Thanks for watching the subject matter minute. Stay safe out there!!

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #37 – Covid-19 Episode – Video Conferencing Best Practices

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello Everyone! Welcome to another Covid-19 inspired episode of the Subject Matter Minute. And… welcome to a new era in video conferencing. Am I right? Even my parents are all hopped up on Zoom! We are doing a weekly family zoom get together, they are doing church through it. And they seem to actually have figured out the technology. This definitely means it’s a new era!

So, when I started thinking about what to talk about in this episode, I started heading in a predictable direction. All of us are probably getting all the same free stuff from companies out there. Videos, articles, podcasts an more that are about covid related topics such as teleworking, stress management, things to do at home, etc. Or maybe just I get that stuff since I’m in training, but it seems like there is a flood of info. So, while I was leaning toward doing an episode on staying sane while stuck at home, I’ve decided to do one on something that I know much more about.

Today I want to talk about video conferencing best practices. (music)

Everybody’s doing it! You might as well quit fighting it and join in. The Nagy’s have been doing virtual happy hours, virtual happy hours with trivia, virtual happy hours with “would you rather,” and virtual get togethers with the family without the happy hour.

I’ve also done a few more hangouts with co-workers now that they are finally getting on board.

So, while attitudes are changing, the technology and the best practices have not. For those of us that have been doing this for a while, the tech is pretty straightforward, and they have definitely made it easier and more functional over the years.

Having said that, I’m not going to go through the platforms that exist, like the aforementioned, Zoom, or Hangouts, Facetime, Adobe Connect. One reason is that these things change quickly and I don’t want this video to be useless in a year. The other reason is that there are so many and it would take forever. I want to talk about the things that don’t change… or don’t change as quickly. Video and thus, video conferencing best practices have been the same for a while. I’m going to mostly talk about work related conferences. These are a bit more formal.

First of all. The video camera. Most laptops that state employees get have a camera. They are usually pretty crappy, but they exist. If not, the little ones that clip to the top of the screen are inexpensive and much better. In fact, if you can pull it off, get one. Not just because of the camera, either… the microphone is usually much better as well. (show mine)

First of all, create good lighting. Lighting best practice tip one. NEVER sit in front of a window or light. This is the most annoying thing you can do in a conference. I’m sure I don’t need to say why? Tip 2, add some light in front of you. These cameras will work in low light, but they work well with good light. I showed you my lights last episode. I don’t expect people to have my setup, but it’s pretty easy to put a desk lamp in front of you, or find a well lit spot on the dining room table. Decent light is crucial!

Next, audio. This is where so many laptops really fail. At the very least, try to figure out where your microphone is. Then make sure you aren’t talking to the other side of the computer. Better yet… grab your white Apple headphones and use those. They have a great microphone and having them in your ears will prevent feedback in the conference. Of course there are headsets make for this sort of thing, and if you have those, definitely use them. Next best thing… or really better than your built in mic, is a microphone in an external webcam.

It’s very important that you figure out how to select the mic you want within the conferencing software that you are using. It’s very simple in Zoom as there is a Mic selector in the bottom left corner.

Ok, technical stuff out of the way. Well, actually, one more thing. If you are presenting or the moderator for this, you should probably try to maximize your internet speed. Turn off other devices that are accessing it. Tell your family to hold off on the Netflix show, etc.

Next. Frame yourself up. While we aren’t all trained in video, we all know what looks right. This does not look right, while this does. 🙂

Use a good angle. Have the camera at eye level or slightly above. Looking down at the camera tends to bunch up our neck flesh. Ya know… kinda like the infamous “lean back.”

When you’re talking, look into the camera instead of looking at yourself talking on the computer screen. It will help others on the call feel like you’re 100 percent engaged and present. It feels a little weird at first, but you’ll get used to it.

And speaking of being present… don’t be a distraction. OK? This includes, not typing during the conference. Trying not to fidget. Not eating during the conference. Staying engaged. If you wouldn’t do it at a live meeting, then don’t do it in the virtual meeting. Also, remember, mute is your friend. The more people that are muted, the smoother the conference will be.

On this same note… don’t multitask. First of all, we can’t do it. Secondly, it’s rude. If you have to multitask, maybe you should have said no to the calendar invite. Just saying.

Don’t just take off. You may feel isolated when there are several people in the conference, but people will notice that you are gone. If you must take care of something, let the groupe know. Either say something or type into the chat.

Keep your background professional. This means pick up your mess. Or… at least make sure it isn’t showing in the shot. A simpler background is better. This also means, finding a quiet place away from the family and pets. You may think your pets are adorable, but they can be distracting to others.

If you are the moderator or main speaker, try to include everyone in the conversation. Some people shut down when using this sort of technology, so it’s important to check in with them.

Naturally, all this formal stuff goes out the window if you are having a virtual happy hour with your friends. Well…. Not all of it. I still want to see and hear you. So take care of the technical stuff. 🙂

Ok… that’s it for the video conferencing tips. I have a feeling that this situation could really be a breakthrough moment for both the technology and for people’s comfort level with it. Get on board and just relax, it’s going to be fine.

See you next time on the Subject Matter Minute.

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #36 – Covid-19 Episode – Tips for Teleworking

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello everybody and welcome to another Covid-19 inspired episode of the Subject Matter Minute.

As I mentioned before, I’m a seasoned teleworker. If you are a long-time viewer, you have experienced this with me, to a certain extent. My home office used to be in the basement. It was a good room… the temperature stayed right for the most part, there was plenty of room, it was quiet and private. I decorated and set up the space for the show and it worked. There were a few things I didn’t like, however. The room had two small windows, the ceiling was very low… which caused problems with lighting, and if I had to do some work in the evening while the family was around, I had to disappear to the basement. Felt out of the loop.

Well, when my oldest daughter started college, it freed up a room on the main floor. I jumped on it immediately. This room. First of all, it has nice wood floors and two big windows. It’s also just to the side of where all the action is… so evening work feels better. The ceilings are high and my lighting is much better. Hopefully, you long time watchers have noticed these things. 🙂 Now… while you have seen the inside of my office, I’m fairly certain that I have never shown you my actual setup. What you have seen is my carefully and meticulously decorated area in front of the camera. Well, for the first time, here is where I actually work. (video of the workstation)

Anyway… I’ve gone on about my home office because that’s part of what this episode is about. Today I want to talk about Tips for Teleworking. (music)

I was lucky enough to already have a home office when I started doing more remote work, and I’m guessing that these days with the proliferation of computers, a lot of you do too. If you don’t, now is the time to claim some space. If you don’t have much space, you may need to get more creative. I found a video that does a nice job of giving ideas along that line. Check it out in the show notes.

The state is doing what it can to get people set up for teleworking. Make sure you have what you need. Everyone’s job is different, so your needs will be different, but make sure you ask. Don’t be a martyr and sit at your coffee table all day. While a bit of time working on the couch can be nice, it starts to hurt after a while.

Ok, I’m going to stop there… I’m starting to get into the “lists” that everyone has been passing around about teleworking. If you haven’t seen the lists, they are in the show notes too. It’s good stuff, so take a look, but I want to talk about what I do.

Here’s what I do. First of all, the beautiful thing about working from home is that you can make it your own. What works will be different for everyone. Personally, I will often start my day with some laptop time on the couch. A much more comfortable place to finish off my days coffee. I’m an early riser… I often get up at 5 and drink coffee while taking care of busy work on the laptop. Then I tend to hit the home gym for an hour. Not always, but again, that’s the beauty of working from home…. Flexibility. After my post-workout shower and a bit of breakfast, I hit the home office.

Honestly, for me, the biggest problem with working at home is constantly snacking. I am a hungry guy. Always. And it’s just so easy to hit the kitchen. Well, that isn’t a good way to eat and it’s too easy to make bad choices. So, I’ve started drinking a variety of beverages. Start with coffee, maybe have a bubbly drink created by the SodaStream, move on to tea in the afternoon, all the while peppering in some water from my water bottle. The other strategy that I use to stop snacking is to head out for a short walk. It really helps.

That’s a nice segue to another thing that I do. I go outside. A couple of short walks during the day gets me out and clears my head. I also try to get 15 minutes of sun a day. You might be able to tell… actually, I’m Hungarian, so I’m brown no matter what, but it’s important to get some actual sun for vitamin D and sanity. I will often bring my laptop with me for the sun time. Obviously, this is something that all office workers should be doing whether working from home or not.

On that same note of going outside, it’s also nice to work outside the home some. Right now…. During Covid, this isn’t something you should do, but if you should find yourself doing more of this in the future, find yourself a teleworking buddy or two. They are everywhere! Every Wednesday, me and a couple of other teleworkers (they are actually not with the state) get together at a rotating coffee shop for … coffee… and some work together time. It may not be the most productive time, but we chat, we take care of emails, and most importantly, we see and talk to other adults. If you are unable to find another teleworker, then just go to the coffee shop by yourself and enjoy the chatter.

Next, I have a Varidesk. It’s one of those wonderful, lifechanging apparatuses that allows you to raise your desk to standing height whenever you want. They are not cheap, but they are absolutely necessary in my mind. Before I was able to get one, I was coming up with all sorts of plans on how to build something that would do the same thing.

Alright, also, don’t be afraid to have flexible hours. One of the joys of working from home is the ability to run errands when you need to, help your kids when they need it, and adjust your schedule to times that work for your brain and body. Naturally, you will have to overlap hours with co-workers so you can occasionally communicate live, but that’s easy. Some people feel like it has to be 8-5… it doesn’t. Well, unless your boss absolutely mandates it. Of course, this depends on what you do too. My work is absolutely project-based, so while I don’t, I could… work in the middle of the night, or whenever.

Having just said that something else that I think is very important, and is in all the lists, and that I don’t do very well, is to completely unplug for a bit of time every day, and for extended times occasionally. For some reason, working from home makes many of us feel like we need to be available all the time. Whether you know it or not, living this way is a drain on our energy. We need to turn it off each day and do something else, and hopefully take vacations where we are unplugged as well.

Of course, right now, I think we are all hyper plugged in. It’s a crazy time and it feels like things are changing constantly, so we keep checking in. Take care of yourself and get off the devices.

Next, keep in touch with your co-workers. Outside of email. Do it however feels and works the best for you. I tend to use Google chat with mine. I sometimes will have 3 or 4 chats going at the same time. I put the link to a great LinkedIn article in the show notes. One of the things they suggest is to schedule a virtual coffee with a colleague, or a virtual happy hour for your whole team. We have had several happy hours with friends via the app Zoom and it has really been fun. I think that could be a great idea to have some informal time with your co-workers.

Finally, exercise! Personally, I try to exercise most days anyway. We have a workout room in the house and tend to get up nice and early to get in a workout. But, if that’s not your cup of tea, you may find it easier to get it in when you aren’t getting ready and driving to and from work. There is some freed-up time. Whether it’s going for a walk as I mentioned earlier, or hitting the home gym, get your exercise in. There is no doubt that it helps you in so many ways.

Ok… there are other ideas for making the most of teleworking, but these are mine. Please check out the links in the show notes for more. I think all lists say something about dressing for work, but I personally think that’s a silly one. I don’t stay in pajamas, but dressing for work usually means that you are less comfortable than you should be. 🙂 But that’s up to you, if it helps you, then do it.

That’s it for today. Stay sane out there and if you are now teleworking, try to enjoy your new work digs. See ya next time.

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #35 – Covid-19 Episode – Teleworking & The CDC

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello everyone! And welcome to my world. Most of you are probably teleworking today. Welcome to the other side. I’m in full Covid apparel today. Not pretending by wearing a collared shirt. I mean, c’mon, I don’t wear a collared shirt when working at home. I get comfortable! Granted, many of you guys have it different from the “normal” teleworker in that your family may be around you. Normally, it’s very quiet for the teleworker, and honestly, I think we get more done. But, I’m going to have another episode, maybe next week, about the ins and outs of teleworking. Today, I want to talk about the Governor’s policy on teleworking that he put out this morning, as well as guide you to the CDC website and cover some important info on there.

First of all, as we’ve all been talking about, this is a new experience for everyone. And it’s going to be really hard for a ton of people. Us included. My wife has been laid off, as I’m sure a lot of spouses/family members have been for you all. It could be brutal.

And, actually, I should be vacationing right now. It’s “spring break” in Laramie, and we had a vacation planned in Phoenix. Well, since things were pretty unclear at the end of the week last week, we decided to go. So we drove Saturday and Sunday… stayed at a hotel in Albuquerque, where the front desk person made her conspiracy theory opinion very clear to me. Monday was a beautiful 75-degree day, so we hit the pool. Yes, we were starting to feel like we were part of the problem. Halfway through the day, they started removing chairs and barstools, and we thought, yeah, good idea. We spent the day at the pool and it was fabulous. The next morning, Tuesday, we got the email that the pool was closed. Then later, another that everything was closed. So no pickleball, cornhole, ping-pong, or anything. Then we heard that there was a storm coming into southeast Wyoming Wednesday evening. So, we had to either drive the whole way back on Wednesday or stay through the weekend with very little to do, and with the possibility of being told to leave.

So, we drove home Wednesday and got between Cheyenne and Laramie just as the storm hit. We thought we were going to die. Literally. It was the most terrifying drive I’ve ever experienced, and as a Wyoming native, that’s saying something. We finally got behind a semi and everyone stopped crying and we made it home.

Now here we are…… There is no more leaving.

Alright, let’s get to it… If you have been ignoring the emails from the Governor, you probably should go back and read them. As I mentioned, there was one this morning that “loosened” the rules on teleworking so that most of us can now do it. Obviously, there are people who can’t do what they do from a computer, and those folks have to decide as an agency who will work when.

Since we are keeping all State offices open, your office needs to work out some sort of in-office rotation. There are 3 folks that work in the HRD main office and they are rotating by the week. There should also be disinfecting protocols going on between rotations.

The governor’s directive is this: agency directors should use their best efforts to permit telework for as many employees as possible taking into account the ability of the employees to work remotely and the requirement that State offices remain open. Some employees may be asked to work some shifts in the office and some shifts through telework, in order to minimize contacts between employees while also ensuring that essential onsite functions continue to be performed. Ok? So work it out in your division.

Now I want to take you to some good information. Now, in theory, we are all informed, but to be honest, this was the first time that I had made it to the CDC website. I was relying on the second by second updates from my wife who apparently was getting it all from Facebook. Now, really, we all need to stop getting our information from Facebook. Now.

Let’s go to the site. There is a ton of info here, so please read through it. I’m going to show you 3 pages that I find interesting.

If you head on over to the cdc.gov page you will be able to find the coronavirus section very easily, on the front page. Let’s click on it. This is the coronavirus page. There’s a ton of good information.

First of all, let’s look at how to protect yourself since that’s exactly what we are all doing right now. This is good. Read through it. Obviously, stay away from sick folks… in fact, we have to stay away from everyone right. Steps to protect yourself… clean your hands often, avoid close contact with folks. Steps to protect others… this is good stuff. Stay home if you’re sick, cover coughs and sneezes. Here’s an important one… wear a face mask if you are sick… if you’re not sick, do not wear a face mask unless you’re caring for someone who is sick. Face masks are in short supply. Then, of course, cleaning and disinfecting. Ways to make your own stuff, because I know there’s a shortage of a lot of this stuff. What you need to know about hand-washing video down at the bottom.

I’m gonna go back… next, I want to show you this button. These two up here at the top I think are the best. If you think you are sick stay home, okay, except to get medical care if you get to that point. Separate yourself from other people in your home if they aren’t sick and you are. Try not to get everyone sick. Call ahead before visiting your doctor. Again, wear a face mask if you are sick. Cover your coughs and sneezes. Clean your hands often. Avoid sharing personal household items, and clean all high touch surfaces every day. And monitor your symptoms.

So those are two very good pages now I want to take you to one more because there are some helpful things here if you go to the symptoms page. First of all, know the symptoms… fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Okay? If you have the sniffles, you do not have Covid-19.

If you go down here there are a couple of nice things, especially if you’re gonna be in the office and feel like these should be hung up. There’s a couple of flyers… one is the symptoms of coronavirus disease, and it tells you to go in when you have these. And the other one is how to stop the spread of germs. A nice flyer printable flyer.

Okay, that’s it for today. There’s probably gonna be a few extra subject matter minutes dealing with issues related to the Covid-19 problem. Again, I want to welcome all you new teleworkers! Do us good… get your work done. I know you will… state employees take their jobs seriously, and like I say, you’ll get more done. Well, you would if your whole family wasn’t around, but you will still get work done. Welcome to comfort and the ability to see your family at breaks… it’s a good deal. I’ll see you next time.

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #34 – Air Ambulance Coverage

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello All! So, last month’s SMM was on COBRA. I think the general consensus from the feedback I got, was that all of us will have to work until we are Medicare eligible. Sad, but true.

Thanks for watching that episode and thanks for joining me today! If you didn’t watch that episode, or you’ve missed some others, I went ahead and posted a link to the SMM playlist in the show notes below the video. If you haven’t checked out the show notes before, I want to mention that you almost always have to click the “show more” button to actually see what’s in there. For some reason, YouTube gives very little space for it.

Alright. Today we are going to talk about the cost and/or our coverage of Air Ambulance service.

So, I started thinking about this, unfortunately, because a friend of ours was involved in a car accident that sent someone in a helicopter to Denver. We spoke with them and naturally began talking about car insurance and health insurance. Totally unrelated to this episode, but your car insurance is unlikely to cover much in a multiple injury and/or death type scenario. You might check out what your car insurance covers.

Anyway, we also spoke about the helicopter ride. Now interestingly, this is a bit timely, because both the legislature and the governor have also been talking about it. They are trying to create a new system to avoid the occasional huge charge that some have received after a medical flight.

Oh, by the way, when we talk about Air Ambulance, we are talking about both helicopters and airplanes. You can get a helicopter ride from the scene of an accident and either a plane or helicopter from the hospital to another hospital.

The price for this sort of service is all over the place. However, after speaking with Franz Fuchs of the Wyoming Department of Health, I have some numbers that are more pertinent for the State of Wyoming employee.

First of all, the claims for this sort of thing that EGI has dealt with average around 100 trips a year. They tend to be half plane and half helicopter with only about 10% of the flights being on the side of the road 9-1-1 calls. 90% are interfacility which can be by plane or helicopter. While either situation means you have been badly hurt, the flight from the scene type probably means you are worse off. Luckily, with only 10% being that type, there are only approximately 10 roadside flights a year. And this includes all the people that EGI covers.

The average that EGI paid for this sort of transfer (and this includes all the transfers… the 100 on average per year) was $33K in 2015 and went up to $36K by 2018. So EGI is getting a big bill.

Now, the average amount that a covered person paid… I keep saying “covered person” because EGI covers more than just State employees, there are some school districts and such…. Anyway, the average amount was just $250-$300. Franz pointed out that this number doesn’t really mean anything, however, as 70%-90% of folks paid close to $0. These were likely folks that had reached their maximum or covered their deductibles, ya know, different situations.
The actual maximum a person paid (that is covered by our insurance) in 2015 – 2017 was $3K, but there was one person in 2018 that was charged $10K. Honestly, we don’t actually know how much they ended up paying because the claims data doesn’t tell us. You can often negotiate that kind of stuff down.

So… after hearing this, it seems that state employees aren’t really the ones that the governor and the Legislature are talking about when they say that people are getting hit with huge bills. The bottom line is our insurance covers this sort of thing at least to 75%.

I’ve been asked to mention that Insurance companies have some coverage requirements for them to pay an air ambulance service, perhaps the most important of these is the one that says, “the service is medically reasonable and necessary.” So, in a situation, does the patient’s medical condition demand rapid and immediate air ambulance services? A broken leg probably does not warrant an air ambulance while bleeding inside the skull that warrants the medical intervention of a neurosurgeon might. Unfortunately, the patient rarely, if ever, has a choice or enough knowledge to make the call in this matter, so hopefully, the medical professionals are making the right decisions at the time. In this situation, it’s Cigna that makes this call after the fact… not EGI.

Now if you are in an accident that requires this sort of thing, you are obviously going to be dealing with a whole lot more than just a helicopter flight, but it is good to know that at least this piece is covered and won’t break the bank.

Also, if you do end up with a balance bill, I’ve been told that you should definitely do some haggling with the air ambulance company. They are often willing to accept a lot less than the bill if they can get it quickly or easily. I know that this seems weird, but it’s true.

I want to thank this month’s subject matter expert, Franz, of the Wyoming Department of Health for getting me the stats that have helped put our minds at ease. Thanks, Franz.

That’s it for today, check-in next month for another exciting episode of the Subject Matter Minute! See ya then!

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #33 – COBRA

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello ya’ll! Thanks for joining me for another fabulous episode of the subject matter minute. I really do appreciate how many of you guys actually watch the show. It amazes me every month. So, thanks a ton! I also appreciate getting feedback and answers to my questions! I asked for input on my future Alaska cruise and I got a bunch. Really useful stuff. From small things that you wouldn’t think of… like putting some sort of decoration on your cabin door (so you can find it), to bigger decisions… like not booking excursions through the cruise line… possibly fetching you a much better deal onshore and a less crowded adventure. Thanks for all the advice, and now I’m really looking forward to the trip!

Alright, so today let’s talk about something we’ve all heard about, (we’ve seen the word) but most of us really don’t know what it means. Today let’s talk about COBRA. (music)

COBRA stands for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985. A mouthful, eh?

Before I get started, I would like to thank this month’s subject matter expert, Kathy Simpson of EGI. This topic is considerably more confusing than I thought it would be, and Kathy patiently took my barrage of questions and guided me to COBRA enlightenment. Thanks Kathy.

Ok, so the basic idea behind COBRA is to allow workers and their dependents to maintain their health coverage after an event such as job loss, divorce, or death.

Before I get into the details of eligibility and such, let’s talk about the elephant in the room with COBRA. First of all, Health insurance is crazy. And by crazy, I mean crazy expensive. We have it so good at the state. The bottom line with COBRA is that the state no longer kicks in anything. You have to cover the total cost. Not sure if you guys have ever paid attention to that number, but it’s big. So, let’s look at how much COBRA costs. Here’s a fancy little graph. I currently have family coverage with a $500 deductible. That means that the total cost is $2422… but the state kicks in $2121, which means I pay basically $300/month. If I were to go on COBRA, I would be paying the whole thing at $2470/month. That total is what I would have paid without a match, plus a 2% administration fee. Now that would be a shock to the system. Same with a $900 deductible. Not much difference there. So… my point here is that it’s expensive.

COBRA fees

However, since I’ve been warm and cozy in my little state employment cocoon, I don’t have any idea what private health insurance costs these days. It may cost the same for all I know. But you obviously would have to compare.

There is an exception here, and that is if you get Riffed. You can see that the state still kicks in a large portion in that scenario.

Ok, let’s get back to the details of COBRA.

First of all, as a COBRA Participant, you can only select a plan with the same or lower cost than the plan you had as an active employee or under active coverage. You may not select coverage (e.g. vision) that you did not have as an active participant. You only need to enroll in the benefits you need. For instance, if you only need dental, and you had it before, you can elect only dental. However, you do not have to elect dental if enrolling in a health plan with COBRA.

COBRA applies to most employers with 20 or more employees, with a few notable exceptions such as health plans sponsored by the federal government, and church-based employers. But COBRA does apply to the state.

In order to be eligible for COBRA, you must meet 3 requirements:

The plan must be covered by COBRA.
A qualifying event must take place — this includes a job loss (other than for gross misconduct), reduction of working hours, divorce or legal separation, death of the worker, or a worker’s child losing their dependent status under the plan.
The individual must be a qualifying beneficiary, which basically means that they were covered by the employer’s plan the day before the qualifying event took place.

So, you can’t have COBRA forever. It’s time limited. The maximum coverage period depends on the type of qualifying event and certain special circumstances. If the qualifying event is the termination of the employee (other than for gross misconduct) or a reduction in hours, the maximum coverage period is 18 months. There are a few exceptions to this, dealing with medicare, disability and such… However, after going back and forth with Kathy, I’ve come to the realization that it can be a bit confusing… so I’ve decided to take the easy way out. Please take your confusing scenario to EGI and let them explain the details. I mean, you need to talk to them anyways…

Ok, so the bottom line, as I said before, is that for termination or reduction of hours… aside from the few exceptions, you are allowed 18 months of COBRA. For all other qualifying events, the maximum coverage period is up to 36 months. These qualifying events include:

Employee enrollment in Medicare (spouse and dependents get 36 months COBRA)
Divorce or legal separation (spouse and dependents get 36 months COBRA)
Death of the employee (spouse and dependents get 36 months COBRA)
And Loss of “dependent child” status under the plan. (when a kid turns 26 they can get 36 months of COBRA

There are some reasons that a plan administrator could terminate COBRA coverage before the time period is up. The main reasons are:

Failure to pay premiums due
The employer ceases to offer a group health plan
The COBRA beneficiary becomes entitled to Medicare

Ok… some timelines here… Within 14 days of EGI becoming aware of your qualifying event, you’ll be sent an election notice. Since the State must notify EGI within 30 days of most qualifying events, within a month and a half of losing your job or some other qualifying event taking place, you should receive a detailed COBRA Packet to help you decide if you are going to continue your health coverage through COBRA. This packet has the enrollment form and all information related to COBRA.

Under federal law, you have 60 days after the date of the notice or the last day of coverage, whichever is later, to decide whether you want to elect COBRA. You do not have to send any payment with the Election Form; however coverage will not be activated until full payment is received. Payment in full is due within 45 days of your election. There cannot be a lapse in coverage.

And, it’s important to mention that every person covered under your group health benefits can make their own election to sign up.

Finally, cancellation of COBRA must be received in writing to EGI, and once COBRA is canceled there is no opportunity for reinstatement.

Continuing your health coverage through COBRA can be rather expensive, so it may be worth looking into these other options first:

Buying coverage through the marketplace at www.healthcare.gov
Checking your eligibility for Medicaid
Obtaining coverage through your spouse’s employer (a qualifying event for COBRA also entitles you to a special enrollment period for other group health plans)

Ok!! I hope I didn’t just make this more confusing for everyone! I mean, you are going to have to talk to EGI anyways, because this is an important decision, right? The bottom line is that COBRA is a short term coverage option for employees and dependents when the employee has one of the previously mentioned “qualifying events” occur to them.

That’s it for today, thanks for joining me on the Subject Matter Minute. I’ll see ya 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.