Subject Matter Minute Blog – Page 5 – Covering Important Topics About State of Wyoming Employment

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #31 – Maternity Leave?

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 #31 -Maternity Leave?

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 and welcome to another episode of that work show that you keep hoping will get better, but, well…. Doesn’t. Hehehe…

I want to start off by thanking the folks at the Treasurer’s office. The last episode was about “unclaimed property” and we sent a bunch of folks onto their system, and everything went smoothly! I received several emails from happy people who discovered that they had unclaimed property of their own! I think the record was $566! Can you believe it? What a payday! We also heard from a person who had one penny. I don’t think they felt the need to go through the process.I was so happy to receive emails from folks about scoring some free money. And I’m sorry if you didn’t 🙁

Oh, and on that… I’ve been told that it makes sense to check back occasionally. The Treasurer’s office is actively searching for your money, so you may be surprised down the road.

Alright… So this episode is for all you new parents and parents to be! But before I dive in, I need to thank my subject matter expert, Debbie Russi of A&I Agency HR. I peppered her with a whole bunch of questions and she nailed them all. Thanks Deb.

Today we are going to cover Maternity Leave. (music)

Or, more precisely, the fact that we have NO maternity leave at the state. But, instead of dwelling on that, I’m going to cover what you can do to spend some quality time with your tiny little ball of rapidly dividing cells.

(We are also talking about Paternity Leave. The laws are the same for both mom and dad)

So, with the state of wyoming, it boils down to using FMLA for this situation. The Family Medical Leave Act is a federal law that allows you to take time off for certain things without the danger of losing your job.

I’m not going to cover all the details of FMLA in this video. I just want to cover it as it relates to time off for a baby.

So first of all, you need to be eligible for FMLA. This means you need to have been employed for at least 12 months. And…. you must have worked 1250 hours in the preceding 12 month period.

Next, you need to let your supervisor and/or your HR person know. The rule is 30 days advance notice is the leave is foreseeable, which would typically be the case with a new baby or, otherwise, as soon as practicable.

Then there are some details that will be worked out with you, HR, your doctor and your supervisor. Naturally there is a bunch of paperwork that needs to be filled out. The forms will be similar, but probably slightly different depending on what agency you work for.

So, what does FMLA do. FMLA allows you to take 12 weeks of unpaid leave for a new baby, adoption, or foster care of a child. Yes, unpaid. However, with the state you are able to use your annual and sick leave during that 12 weeks. Concurrently, as they like to say. This allows you to get paid… if you have enough banked.

Now if you’ve been looking into this, you may have heard about intermittent leave. This is a situation where you take chunks of leave spread out over time. Well…. This is not automatically allowed for the birth of a child or adoption. However, if you have a job that could allow it, and a supervisor that is willing to work with you, you may be able to do it. Just understand that it is not available except by agreement.

So, what if you want to take more than 12 weeks? It is possible to take time off without pay, but that would have to be worked out with your director. You would also need to understand that if you fall below a certain amount of work hours per month, you will lose the state’s contribution to insurance. So…. please talk to your HR person about that.

Here’s a little something that seems wrong, but is what it is…. If you and your spouse both work for the state, you have to split the FMLA 12 weeks. It would be awesome for the kid if you could each take 12, but the rules are what they are at this time.

(This is a Department of Labor rule. Not a State rule)

So, even though we don’t have maternity leave, per se, it could be worse. Apparently the state doesn’t have to allow us to use our vacation and sick concurrently with the FMLA leave. It could be pretty brutal to have to take leave without pay at a time when there are typically a bunch of bills that you don’t normally have to pay.

So, that should help you out in figuring out how to stay home with your new kid. Again, I left out some details, so please talk to your HR person so they can fill in the blanks and show you how to fill out all the paperwork.

That’s it for today, please join me again next month for another episode of the Subject Matter Minute.

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 #28 – Important Tidbits

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 tuning in! That’s a funny expression, right? Tuning in… Do you remember when you actually had to “tune in” tv stations? The little knob around the channel knob?? Wow… that was a long time ago. 🙂

But, I digress…

Today’s episode is about Nothing! (nothing in particular graphic)

Today is going to be a break from the usual topic driven show. I thought it was time to do a bit of a wrap up of what we have done on the show as well as cover some odds and ends related the mechanics of finding the appropriate episode when you need it and other details of youtube, the blog, and more.

Hope that’s ok. If you couldn’t care less, then git! I won’t be offended.

First of all, before we get started with that… I wanted to see if I could find a couple fans of the show that I briefly met at the Norah Jones concert in mid July. A couple really friendly ladies that said they really like the show and that they were excited to meet me. Made me blush a little. The concert was about to start, so I immediately forgot your names. Very sorry about that. But, you had a friend take a photo, and I would really like a copy if that is at all possible, so please send me one! My email address is right here: matthew.nagy@wyo.gov. Please send me a copy… if you haven’t deleted it already, that is. 🙂

Ok… as far as recapping what we have done with the show… I think the show has been a success. I think we have covered topics that are important to us all, generally without too many mistakes? I don’t really get any haters, and for that I thank you all. While I fancy myself as someone who can handle criticism, I’m not sure about the kind you often see on youtube. So, thanks for being such wonderfully nice folks.

This is a good time to show you how you can go back to see what we have covered. Perhaps the easiest way, short of having a bookmark directly to the playlist, is to simply search for “subject matter minute” within youtube. That will allow you to find the playlist easily.

This is what a playlist looks like. If you click on it, it will open the very first video. The one that started it all. This was on longevity pay, a benefit that I didn’t even know existed. One that I was benefitting from at that time already. Well, once you are here, you can scroll through all of the episodes over here.

It seems that the most popular episode to date is the Full Benefit Package episode. Episode 12. I’ve actually had folks from out of state that were considering state employment thank me for having that video.

One final thing on YouTube…. If you haven’t already, you can subscribe to my channel by clicking the big red “subscribe” button. This will allow you to see new videos within your own channel, in the subscription area. If you have notifications turned on, it will also alert you that way. You do that by going into Manage from the Subscriptions area. Then click the little bell.

Ok, I’ve shown you the playlist, did you even know that there is both a written blog and an audio version? I know that I put those links in the emails that go out, but I’m sure a ton of people just click on the video without reading my lame attempts at humor. Right?

So, the blog is here: http://wyomingtraining.com/subject-matter-minute-blog/

You will find both all of the episodes in written form, and all of them in audio form. You can see the audio files along the right hand side.

Ok? So, if you have problems with YouTube, or your internet connection or you simply prefer to read, you can go here. I will put this link is in the show notes below the video. One final thing on the blog, if you or someone you know is blocked from YouTube, you can scroll to the bottom of each written blog and watch the video from Google drive.

We’ve had 28 episodes at this point… really 27, because one was a bloopers show, but that’s a lot of topics! Last month I covered a topic that one of you guys suggested, and I will be doing that next month too. I would love to hear from you about topics you think I should cover. All that I ask is that the topics are relevant to the entire state. Not just your agency.

Ok, I think that is enough odds and ends for today. Hopefully I didn’t put you to sleep? Well, that’s the beauty of content delivered this way… you can shut me up by shutting me off!

Oh! Before I go… you may have noticed the new digs? I dug myself out of the basement and I now have a much better view, as well as better lighting, a more stable temperature. I was always a bit cold in the basement. I hope this works for ya. I’m not a very creative decorator, so …. This will have to do.

Thanks for joining me on the Subject Matter Minute!

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.

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #25 – Cigna Wellness Initiatives

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! Before we get started with today’s topic that includes how you can possibly make some cashola, I want to thank last month’s subject matter expert, Casey Baxter of Surplus Property. Thanks for your help, Casey.

It’s a coincidence, but this episode happens to be on preventative care the day after I had a bit of preventative care done on myself. I had a mole removed yesterday. Good times…Ya know… everyone blames the sun for this sort of thing…. Personally, I blame the moles. It’s not the sun’s fault that I’m covered in moles. So anyways, it seemed like a good preventative measure to get this removed, and we will find out next week, if everything is cool. I’m not worried and the doctor didn’t seem too worried. So…. speaking of health care, and preventative health care….

We all hear it every day… our healthcare system is in shambles… it’s broken… right? Well, while the government fails to figure this out, some people, organizations, and even insurance companies, are trying to figure out ways to, at least, slow the rise in costs.

There is one proven way to lower costs, and it just happens to have the side effect of helping people as well. And in this case, you might even win some money. Today I’m going to talk about Cigna and their Wellness Initiatives.

So… if you’ve been watching the show for a while, you know that I did one on the free blood chem screening through Wyoming Health Fairs. If you need to check it out, that was episode #15, and I’ve linked to it in the show notes. The chem screening is a great deal and something everyone should be doing. Well there’s more that you can do for your health that is free.

Did you know that you can go to the doctor once a year for a free well visit? You can also get free coaching from Cigna professionals on all sorts of health related topics, such as losing weight, quitting tobacco, managing stress and even dealing with chronic diseases. I’m going to go deeper into that in another episode. Today I want to talk about their current wellness initiative. Having said that, keep in mind that they do have ongoing wellness initiatives. I’m going to talk about the current one, but if you are watching this video far in the future, keep your eyes open for the emails that go out about every other month.

I chatted with my friend Alice Burron of Cigna, and she gave me the lowdown on the current wellness initiative. There are 3 steps (and possibly several rewards!)

Get your free blood chem screening through Wyoming Health Fairs
Take the Cigna Health Assessment online
Go to your in-network Dr. and get a free well visit.

You should probably do these things just because, but Alice has been given the power to incentivize it.

If you go to an in-network Dr. to get your free 100% covered annual wellness visit by Nov. 30, you will get entered into a drawing for one of 100 $200 gift cards. And if you take the health assessment before July 31, you are eligible to win one of 100 $50 gift cards. And, they just wrapped up a Walkingspree challenge and 50 of those who participated and earned badges won $50. There will be one more of those challenges this year. There is no doubt that this is real. I won $50 last year. 🙂 Now that I think about it… telling you guys about this has probably reduced my chances of winning. Dang… oh well… it’s good for everyone, right? I mean exercise is good and so is cash. 🙂

A couple items I need to mention about the wellness Doctor visit. When you make the appointment you need to specify that it is for the 100% well visit / annual checkup. Also, if you had your well visit anytime in 2019 before Nov. 30, you are eligible for the drawing. That means starting 1/1 of this year, any well visit from that point on is counted. Some of you already had your visit without knowing about this incentive, but don’t worry, you will be automatically included. And speaking of that, there is no paperwork related to the incentive. It’s all captured electronically, so you don’t have to turn in a claim form for the Dr. visit, or anything for the health assessment, either.

This is easy stuff that you can do for free, that can possibly win you some money; that is the right thing to do for your health, and could even slow down the rise in health insurance costs.

So, get involved in the cigna wellness initiative. And when you do, be on the lookout for an email saying you are a winner from Cigna, Walkingspree, or Tango gift cards!

If you have any questions, you can call the Cigna Customer Service number at 800.685.1060. Or email Alice at Alice.Burron@cigna.com. You can also find that number and email address down below in the show notes. There is also some brochures and information in the show notes, so be sure to take a look.

Alright, that’s it for this month. I’ll see you next time on the Subject Matter Minute.

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #24 – Surplus Property

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. First of all, I want to say that I forgot to thank my subject matter experts for last month’s episode, and that’s silly because this is the Subject Matter Minute. I want to thank Tricia Flores and Tricia Bach, both of HRD, for getting me the information. It was on the difference between HRD and agency HR. I’m hoping that I helped out with that confusion… I’m hoping I was clear enough. This month I want to thank Casey Baxter of surplus property. I asked him quite a few questions, kept peppering him with emails and he got me all the information.

Before I get started on that information that Casey got me I’m curious how many of you out there have heard of minimalism? I think there’s a Netflix documentary on it, and you hear it occasionally in articles, but basically it’s an anti-consumerism movement where you have less stuff, you purchase less… it’s just about decluttering. Well, I think it’s a good idea. I think it helps the environment, the earth, I think it helps your mental health, because you have less stuff to deal with, and of course it helps your pocketbook. You save money if you don’t buy stuff.

All right, I feel like I need to say here that if you guys saw my garage you would not think that I’m a minimalist, okay? But I’m trying. I’ve gotten rid of quite a few things, and I think I’m more aware of purchases.

But on that note minimalism, today I want to show you guys how to get more stuff! [Music]

Wyoming’s surplus property… today I want to show you how to register for an account on the auction site, and how to use it. The process that I’m showing you today is for how to make a personal account, because anybody can buy off of this. If you need to become an authorized user for your agency, you need to contact surplus property. You can contact them at 777-7901 or ai-surplus@wyo.gov.

First I’m going to show you how to register. There are a couple verification steps, but it’s pretty simple overall. First of all you go to publicsurplus.com, and click on login. Next you want to click on register.

You need to fill out all the required information. You can tell that it’s required because it does not say ‘optional’ next to it. You also have the option of choosing ‘call me’ or ‘send me a text message’ for one of the verification things. Personally, I’m gonna do a text message. It’s quicker and easier I think. You’ll see what I mean down the road. Then you need to make a username and password.

Once you got all that you come down here and you read the buyer agreement. If you have questions about the buyer agreement, you can come up here, click on chat, and you can do a live chat. Ask them your questions and get back to work. Or you can email public surplus at support@publicsurplus.com. Once you got your questions out of the way, and you’ve read the buyer agreement go ahead and click ‘I have read and accepted the buyer agreement,’ and click register.

Once you’ve done that, you come to this screen where it says account created, verification is next. This is where you’ll need to check your email and get the eight digit code that they send you. Check your email and here’s the information code. Click on this link, like they asked you to. It brings you back to public surplus and it actually auto-filled the code and my username. At this point go ahead and click confirm email.

Now what it’s going to do is send you your text message or call you, depending on which one of those things you chose, with another code. What they’re doing here is just making sure that they can contact you… they’re not going to give out your information to anybody. Go to your phone – either answer it, or check your text, add the phone confirmation code, and click confirm phone.

Once you do that you get this screen that says thank you for confirming your information your account is now active, so you can click on the login, and type in your username and password.

When you first get in, the very first time, this is a handy little feature. What it says is you can select categories, regions, and miles from a given zip code, and let public surplus notify you when something new comes up. So if they match something to your preferences they’ll send you an email. I’m gonna add a couple things. I’m gonna say building stuff. I like tools. I’m gonna add that. I like hardware. I’m gonna add that. I like flooring. Then I’m gonna come down here and choose Wyoming.

Now choose your email notification frequency. You may want to change from daily… depends on how much stuff you need I guess. You can say ‘do not send them’ or change it to weekly, which is what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna save that. Now I’m gonna go to browse. I am now registered and ready to go!

The first thing to know is that you are actually looking at everything, everywhere. Public surplus doesn’t do this for just the state of Wyoming, they do it for all sorts of organizations and state entities. You can buy from any of these places and odds are pretty good they’ll ship it to you, so feel free to shop here, but if you want to do something more close to home, you can start right here. We’ll select a region, and we’ll go ahead and hit Wyoming. Then we’ll select an agency… I’m gonna select state of Wyoming.

This brings up the side navigation. You can also click ‘view all auctions for the state of Wyoming,’ and that will show everything. Currently, there’s about two pages worth of stuff. Let’s look at industrial equipment. You can see how much is in each section. It shows you over here that you’re in industrial equipment and here’s all the subcategories and we’re in woodshop… there’s three items in there.

Let’s go ahead and look at motor pool, I think a lot of people buy cars off this. Here’s the current pile of cars they have available. You can navigate through this through the categories or you can search. I’m gonna look for that denali. If I knew exactly what kind of car I wanted, or what kind of piece of equipment I wanted, I can search here and it’ll bring it up. This baby’s about to sell, there’s only 53 minutes left in this auction. Let’s take a look. Just click on the title and it’ll bring you into the auction. Currently it’s $19,299, looks like forty four bids have been made. That’s the auction info and then down here is the description of the vehicle. It says it’s in great condition. Then, if you go lower, you can click on the images and take a look at it. This denali does look like it’s in good shape… a gas hog, but it’s in good shape. You can look through all the pictures, click the X to shut it, then if you decide you want to bid on it you come on over here to the side.

Something you need to read and understand is how this works. It says “public surplus will place incremental bids for you up to the maximum amount you are willing to bid using proxy bidding. Your maximum amount is only visible to you. No other bidders will know what your maximum bid is. If there’s a reserve price, your bid will go to the reserve maximum, and then any amount of your bid over the reserve amount will be in a proxy bid.” It’s like eBay, if you’ve done eBay. Basically, you can put a maximum in there, and then it’ll keep bouncing up to your bid as long as you haven’t hit your maximum. Another important thing to read is right here. Remember, if you bid on these, and win, it’s yours… you have to buy it. So basically, you put your number in there, you hit submit, and you’re off and running.

Some auctions might extend. There’s a slight difference between this and eBay. You know how it is on eBay… everybody rushes in at the last second and tries to win. This extension tries to avoid that. Basically, it gives everyone an opportunity. if you bid in the final five minutes of an auction, it’s end time will automatically be extended for five additional minutes. This will continue until no bids are placed within the last five minutes. That may mace make some of you upset… those that are used to eBay, but it makes it more fair and it’s not just a person who’s really good at getting that last-second bid in that wins. So that’s something to keep in mind for sure.

On a lot of these items there’ll be questions that are asked, and you can ask a question as well. You just click here… you can see what the questions are, and the answers. You can also ask a question by clicking here. Go ahead and type in your question and hit save and they’ll answer it for you. Okay, now you want to return to auction, and you want to put your $25,000 in there, and click Submit. That’s how you get it done.

Honestly, I hope that more people would subscribe to the idea of minimalism, and maybe not buy a bunch of stuff, but sometimes you just need stuff. So check out the state of Wyoming surplus property auction site to see if you can get a good deal! I’ll see you next time on the Subject Matter Minute.

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #23 – HRD vs Agency HR

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello and welcome to another SMM, I’m Matt Nagy, thanks for joining me. Today, I’m going to get right to the topic at hand. I have to admit, I got my first, somewhat negative, comment last month about my ramblings about my personal life, and I’m going to spare that person this month and jump right in. 🙂

Ok… lemme ask you. Where do you go for answers about state employment, about our state jobs? This is a huge organization, and there are tons of things to know about. In fact, I asked today and the total number of folks currently working for the state is 8,387! Big organization… so, benefits, procedures, rules, etc. where do you go? Well, besides straight to the Subject Matter Minute archives!

Well, we happen to have a bunch of people who are here to help us. Today I’m going to talk about them. They are…. (musical graphics with Agency HR and HRD)

Alright, so we have both Agency Human Resources and the Human Resources Division. What’s the difference? What do they do?

First of all, they both work together to support the state employee. They are two different entities, in a way, but they work together for us.

First of all, let’s talk about the Agency Human Resources folks. These are the HR pros that work for individual agencies. Now there are some smaller agencies that share an HR person, and there are some even smaller agencies and boards that do not have their own HR person, so they can contact HRD for questions. But most state employees have access to an Agency HR person.

Agency HR is the go to for questions regarding payroll, benefits, workplace issues, ESS password resets, retirement, PMIs, disciplines, FMLA, sick and annual leave, address changes, name changes, etc. Agency HRs will often times will be familiar with an agency’s employees and therefore the best first point of contact.

The Human Resources Division is part of the Dept. of Administration & Information and is Enterprise wide. They work for everybody. HRD works closely with agency HRs to work through issues regarding compensation, classification, PMIs, Personnel Rule interpretations, grievances and appeals and more. Most times agency HR will be able to answer questions related to these topics. If clarification is needed, they can request assistance from HRD. HRD is always happy to talk to state employees, however depending on the situation, HRD may request that the employee to speak with their Agency HR to try to resolve the issue.

HRD is governed by Wyoming Statute § 9-2-1022, which says that they are in charge of classification, compensation, employer-employee benefits, maintaining employee information, recruitment for all state agencies, training, etc. They also have to approve any agency changes related to personnel. So things like compensation, position class, transfers, job titles, positions and leave, personnel rules, grievance, appeals, performance appraisals, etc.

Ok? So everything that comes out of agencies in those areas, have to be approved by HRD.

HRD also works closely with the Governor’s office and the State Auditor’s office to implement any employee related directives. So, for instance, if there is a pay increase passed by the legislature, HRD, with SAO, will work through the legislation and determine the percentage increases. Then, as part of that process, Agency HR implements the pay increase via payroll transactions, and then, again, HRD will review the implementation.

So, through these sorts of processes… HRD is attempting to promote consistency state wide, which is the main goal for HRD.

Ok… so there is HRD, and there are Agency HR folks. You now know the difference. If you don’t know who your agency HR person is, please find out now. They are there to help you with almost anything.

Of course you can always check out episodes of the SMM to find answers, but I promise you that the HR folks know WAY more than I do. They are HR folks for a living and I just play one on tv!

Ok… thanks for joining me on the subject matter minute. Come back next time where I promise I will talk about my personal life!!

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #22 – Health Savings Accounts

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Subject Matter Minute, I’m Matt Nagy, thank you for joining me. Before I get started on today’s episode, I want to first thank the subject matter expert from last episode, which was Wyoming retirement system… specifically Polly Scott. She always makes sure that I’m not making stuff up and that I’m getting things right. Thanks!

Also, a couple episodes ago I briefly mentioned something about my daughter that I wanted to talk about get off my chest. I don’t know if you guys remember but back in the day, I mentioned that my parents had given us a Subaru Outback for our daughters to use. An older model, but a fabulous car that they had bought new. So my older daughter got to drive it. Well, within three weeks she totaled it. Don’t worry she, was fine… it was a low-speed thing. Then after that I had a 93 Camry that I bought from my parents a while back. I put enough money into it to make it tip-top. So I let her drive that and about five months ago she totaled that car. Again, she’s fine. This one was in Ridley’s parking lot, right into a pole… dead center in the front. I mean crushed it. I’m glad she was fine, but heartbreaking two wonderful cars down the tubes. She had to buy her next car herself, obviously, and now my younger daughter turns 16 so she is driving as well. We set her up with a really cheap 97 Sentra, and and we also tried to change her behavior with some promises of helping her with a car after high school if she doesn’t total this one. I don’t know if it’ll help, but so far so good with that one. Thanks for letting me tell my story and get that off my chest. I know that speaking to people when I tell this story that others deal with this, so a lot of you out there feel my pain.

Today I’m gonna talk about something related to our healthcare plan. It’s a change you can make if you can afford it, and if it works for you. Today I’m going to talk about health savings accounts.

Health savings accounts, also known as HSAs.. Before I go into that I want to thank this month’s subject matter expert on this topic which is Ralph Hayes of employees group insurance. Of course it’s employees group insurance, right? Ralph helped me out, and he actually has been doing this personally for a while and he’s a believer in it, so he was the perfect person to help me out with this information. Thanks Ralph.

An HSA is like a personal savings account but it is used for health expenses, medical expenses. Set up in 2003 by the government to allow those folks who had high deductible health plans a way to pay for current expenses and future expenses, in a pretty tax favored way.

So in order to take advantage of an HSA you have to, again, have a high deductible health plan, and like the name says, a high deductible health plan has a high deductible. Currently the state has one plan or two plans, that you can use. For an individual, it’s the $1500 high deductible health plan, and for an employee with a dependent or basically families, it’s a $3000 deductible. Now keep in mind that while we the deductible is high with these, it means that your monthly premium is lower. Take me, for instance. Right now, I have a family plan at the $500 deductible point. This means that my premium is about $260 a month. If I go to the $3000 HDHP plan, my monthly premium goes down to about $63, so about a two hundred dollar difference there.

So if you go with this qualified plan that the state offers, you can open an HSA.

Something to know is that the state does not contribute to this plan and the reason I say this, the reason I tell you this, is because after all my reading I found that actually a lot of employers do contribute to HSA. Kind of as a benefit. But not at the state, you have to fund this yourself.

In 2019 you can contribute up to $3500 as an individual into your HSA, or $7000 as a family. At age 55, they give you a little extra room, if you can afford it, you can put another $1000 per year into your account.

First I want to talk about the advantages to an HSA. The big one that caught my eye and got me excited is you get a triple tax advantage. 1. Contributions are tax deductible, which means that you can either pull the money pre-tax out of your check, or any money that goes into the account after tax is deducted from your gross income on your tax return. 2. Earnings are tax-free. A lot of these counts you can earn money, like an IRA basically, and these earnings are tax-free. 3. Withdrawals are tax-free if they are used for
qualified medical expenses. So you’re talking a bunch of tax-free money right there.

Another advantage is funds rollover forever. Once you put them in, they’re yours. This is not like a flexible spending account, where you use it or lose it… this is your money to keep.

As I mentioned briefly the money in this account is invested in the good programs and can grow. There’s a lot of HSA providers out there, but you want to get one that, if you have excess in there, it can be invested like an IRA, and it can grow.

Another advantage is that it’s portable. The money is yours, again, even if you change plans, change jobs, or you retire.

Another advantage is the HSA can be used for retirement after age 65. You can still use it for health expenses, but you can also use it for anything else without penalty. I’m going to go into this penalty thing in just a minute, because now I want to talk about the disadvantages of an HSA.

The number one disadvantage, obviously, is the high deductible. It can be really difficult to come up with that kind of money for the deductible, especially in the first year or two of doing an HSA. That’s understandable.

Number two… unexpected health care costs. Kind of the same deal… if you aren’t putting enough money into your HSA, or it’s early on in your process, the first couple years, you might find it hard to pay for unexpected health care costs.

Now taxes and penalties… I mentioned this earlier. While you’re allowed to withdraw the funds from these accounts for anything that you would like to, if you pay for non qualified items you will have to pay income tax and a 20 percent penalty. I mentioned after 65 you don’t have to pay the penalty. You’ll still have to pay income tax on it, like an IRA, but no 20% penalty.

One last disadvantage is the pressure to leave the money alone. You may be reluctant to seek out medical care because you don’t want to spend that money that’s over there making money, and of course we want everyone to get medical care when they need to.

So really both healthy young people on a budget who want to reduce their monthly payment and families who can afford the high deductible and possibly max out the account, these are the kind of folks who might find these accounts especially beneficial.

Let’s let’s consider my situation for a second. This is me considering this whole thing. If I were to put the two hundred dollars a month that I saved by going to the $3000 deductible plan, I’ll be putting aside $2,400 a year. Not quite the deductible, but honestly we haven’t spent that much as a family for several years several years. Mostly because we’re done with braces and that sort of thing, but we’ve also been pretty healthy. So even at that contribution level of $2,400 a year I could probably expect some money to roll over, and then the account would grow.

Something to keep in mind if you’re thinking about expenses at this point… preventive care is still covered with a high deductible health plan at the same rate as it is now with your lower deductible.

If we were to put a little bit more into the HSA we could get it up to the $3000 deductible pretty easily… with $50 more a month… so a total of $250. That would get us to the deductible. Now, if we wanted to take it even further, I’m sure a lot of you, like me, use the flexible spending account, and typically we put in over a hundred dollars a month. If instead, we put that to the HSA, let’s just say a hundred, that would put us at $4,200 a year in our HSA. So even if you hit your deductible and paid your $3000, you’d have a little bit to roll over. Now, there is coinsurance and all that to take into account too, but $4,200 a year, if you don’t spend it all, you might be able to roll some over.

If you’re spending all the money in your HSA every year, then you are losing out on the growth benefit. However, at least you aren’t worried about the use-it-or-lose-it aspect of the flexible spending account, right? You’re getting the same tax benefit, but you don’t have the stress of trying to spend the money or having to do it by a certain date or buying things you don’t need (like these classes I got, and I got another pair of sunglasses this year because we didn’t have medical expenses… so I bought some computer glasses and then some sunglasses for in the car). You get that tax benefits but you don’t have to worry about that if you go with an HSA.

After after having said all that, trust me, I don’t know the best route for anybody, including myself. I’m just trying to wrap my head around this concept and see if maybe it would work for us. I do know that health expenses in retirement are one of the top expenses, and it’s serious expense. In fact, the last number on the average that we’ll spend on health care in retirement is $280,000! I’m not saying that the HSA will get us there, but it could certainly help and pay a chunk of that, and certainly in a incredibly tax advantaged way.

Again I want to thank Ralph for getting me this information. I find it very interesting. I hope you do too. I’m not telling anyone what to do financially. If it works for your family great, if not stay with that sweet low deductible plan that you have and be happy about it.

Thanks for joining me on the Subject Matter Minute, and I’ll see you next time!