Matt – Subject Matter Minute Blog

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

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 #32 -Saba TalentSpace Mobile App

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

You can also listen to an audio version.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #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 #16 – Mindfulness Meditation

You can also listen to an audio version.

Welcome to another Subject Matter Minute, I’m Matt Nagy, thanks for tuning in! Before I get started, I want to thank last month’s subject matter expert which, of course, was EGI, or employees’ group insurance. They deal with a ton of stuff down there, so they are often my subject matter expert.

First of all I want to chat a little bit about something that I like to do. I’m a bit of a do-it-yourselfer. I find it hard to pay somebody for something that I’m pretty certain I could do myself. I’ve done a little bit of everything, you know, I’ve roofed houses, I’ve replaced window,s I’ve tiled floors, I’ve even gutted and remodeled kitchens and bathrooms. Now, I wouldn’t say anything I do is amazing, but I can tell you it’s way better than what I tore out! And we’ve always been happy with it… so there’s that. It’s kind of funny because my wife always asks me, “how do you even know how to do that?” I tell her, “Well I guess first of all, a lot of it’s common sense, but most the time I just read the instructions!” It’s amazing what you can get done by reading the instructions. Of course nowadays YouTube makes it a hell of a lot easier.

Lately I’ve kind of lost some of my enthusiasm for these types of projects, and you know, there’s probably a lot of reasons, but the main reason I think is that I got a lot going on. I got a couple teenage daughters, got a lot of work, a lot of side work, just plain busy… a lot of things going on in the brain. So what I can’t do, is what I used to be able to do, and that’s focus on the task at hand. You know? I would just be sanding the wood and not thinking about getting it done. Well nowadays… like, I just did a bathroom down here in the basement, and I was constantly thinking about when I could get it done so I could move on to the next thing. So I wasn’t enjoying the job at all. That leads me to the topic of this month. I think this is the first one that actually led into a topic. I think the rest was just information about myself that really didn’t matter, but this one leads into the topic at hand. It’s not a benefit or a process, but it’s about wellness, and wellness is a really good thing for anybody at work and in life. And actually a lot of agencies, or some agencies, actually have wellness programs that will promote wellness and reward employees for healthy behaviors.

So what I’m talking about today is mindfulness meditation.

I know, I know… some of you are thinking I’m getting a little hippie dippie here, but I’ll tell you what… the hippies back in the 60s that we’re meditating were onto something.

Now before I go on I want to thank Kimberly Fields who is my subject matter expert this episode. She’s actually been going to trainings and weekend retreats and knows a lot about it. Thanks Kimberly!

So what is mindfulness meditation? It’s simple in concept. Really it’s just being aware of the present… generally by focusing on your breath. It’s when we start thinking about the past, dredging up the past, and thinking about the future, that we get anxiety and worried. And this is really a way to bring those feelings down.

I was talking about the hippies a minute ago. The reason I say they were onto something is that the science is starting to bear this out. There’s been multiple studies that are starting to prove that this is very good for your brain, and not only just good for your well-being but physically good for your brain. There was just a study in 2015 by a UCLA that showed that mindfulness meditation preserves the amount of gray matter in your brain as well as shrinking the amygdala. So I’m getting all science-y on you here, but the amygdala is the fight-or-flight part of your brain that was created to keep you alive when predators were after you… which we don’t need so much anymore. In fact, that’s what really causes worry and stress. It’s shown that meditation actually shrinks that, which of course is going to shrink those sorts of feelings. So physical changes in your brain from meditating!

When we’re talking about mindfulness meditation, or mindfulness in general, it can be a wide range of things. All the way down here where you’re somewhat like Kimberly… you’re taking courses and you’re doing a daily practice of, like an hour of actual meditation, or it can be all the way down to kind of where I am, which is simply having an app reminding me to breathe. I’m sure a lot of you are like me and that you sit at a computer all day, and I’ve found… well you don’t notice until you actually stop and take the breaths… but I found that when I’m working at my computer I don’t breathe well. It’s shallow breathing. Sometimes I find myself grinding my teeth. Well, what this does is reminds me every once in a while to just breathe. So what I do is I take a few deep breaths and actually focus on the breath… stop thinking about everything else. So anyways, it can go from an hour of meditation a day clear down to just simply that.

There are a ton of things in between… small things you can do to help your peace of mind and your brain, for that matter. If you’re not interested in creating a formal practice, where you’re meditating for a certain amount of time every day, I’ve put a link to an article down below that gives you ten ways that you can incorporate mindfulness into your life and into your job. This is specifically about your job. So give that a read. Some of the things are single tasking, which is kind of like I was talking about with my remodels … basically you’re focusing on the task at hand when you’re single tasking. And that’s good for you. Another one was setting reminders like I do. You can set reminders or you can have something that reminds you. Like each time your phone rings you pause before you answer it, take some deep breaths. Another one is simply accepting things that that you can’t change.

There’s 10 in that article and then if you’re interested in more information there’s another article down below that is “14 ways to practice mindfulness” that are compiled from other articles, because there’s a lot of people talking about this right now. That includes Business Insider, Harvard Business Review, Fitness Magazine, etc. So if you want more information go ahead and check that out.

If you are practicing mindfulness or meditating, and you know about this, I would love it if you would comment down below and tell me where you’re at in your practice, or if it’s helped you, and what you think about it. I can tell you right now that I am an occasional meditator. When I first got this app, I probably did like 8 days in a row, and then I just started fading and doing it occasionally. We’re only talking like 10-minute meditations. I really need to get back into it. And then, of course, the other thing I do is have the app remind me to breathe. So that’s where I’m at.

Some of you may really think this is very hippie, but I tell you, the science bears it out, and you should read up on it. I really do think that this sort of thing can help you on your job and in life and I plan on doing better.

Well thanks for joining me on the Subject Matter Minute, thanks Kimberly for the information, and I’ll see you all next time!

Subject Matter Minute, Episode #15 – Wyoming Health Fair Screenings

You can also listen to an audio version.

Hello and welcome to another subject matter minute, I’m Matt Nagy, thanks for joining me. Typically at the beginning, as you know, I usually tell you something about myself, so we can get to know each other better. But I really don’t have anything today. Later in the show you’re gonna see some very personal information, but if I’m not worried about it, don’t you worry about it. You’ll find out in a bit.

There is one of thing I wanted to talk about briefly… there’s a ton of really cool state employees out there, you guys all rock. However, I’ve run into a lot of people who act like they know me, and I think that it’s from the show. They say, “hey Matt,” and I’m like, “hey… you.” Hopefully it’s from the show, because I didn’t remember their name!

Now, if you do know me from the show, and you want to say hi, please do! I love to chat, and it’s kind of fun to be recognized, I guess… but remember I might not know you. It’s a little less awkward for me if you just say, “hey, I know you from your show,” or something like that.

Alright let’s get right to the topic today. Today we’re gonna talk about the Wyoming health fair.

[Music]

Let’s talk about the Wyoming health fair. Before we do, I want to thank EGI, who naturally is my subject matter expert for this topic. I want to thank the folks there for helping me out. The primary focus of the Wyoming health fair is to get folks in to get blood screenings and flu shots, and they do this for free. Really the state of Wyoming, or specifically EGI, pays for these two things. You can get two CBC blood panel screenings a year and a flu shot.

Voice over:

Well… looks like I forgot something here. These screenings are only available to state employees and their dependents who are currently covered by the state health insurance.

The Wyoming health fair does have some permanent locations in a few

towns. I think Laramie, Cheyenne and a couple others have office hours so you can go do this at any time, or at least when they’re open. I think it’s Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday here in town, but even if you don’t have a permanent location you can look at the schedule see when they’re gonna be close by or in your town and go get it done.

So they have these free things that they do for you, but they also have a list of other tests that can be done on your blood. Down below there’s a link to a sheet that I print it out, marked up, and scanned back in. I marked next to each one a P or an M. If a test has a P next to it it’s preventive, and if you get it done, you have to pay for it up front at Wyoming health fair, but then you can submit it to Cigna and they will reimburse you at a hundred percent. If it’s got an M next to it, that means it’s medical but you can still submit it

to Cigna, but it’ll go either towards your deductible, or if your deductibles met, they’ll pay the 85% copay.

Voice Over:

Wow! I’m on a roll. I got two things wrong here. First of all, Wyoming health fairs isn’t a participating provider. Therefore, Cigna would only pay 80%. Also, it’s not a copay, its coinsurance… so Cigna would pay the 80% coinsurance. It’s just wording, but it’s important.

Next, I want to go to their website because it’s got a lot of good information, and it’s also got a login where you can track your results. Wyoming Health Fairs is just wyominghealthfairs.com… simple. Here’s their homepage.

Wyoming Health Fairs homepage

There’s a lot of information on their site. For instance, you can look at the test descriptions, in case you’re wondering what that even means. There’s also a calendar to show you when the events are happening near you or in your town. Then there’s “my results” which I’m gonna show you in just a minute.

Wyoming health fairs state of wyoming section

First of all, I’m going to take you to the Wyoming, or the state of Wyoming, page, which you can go to under corporate… to state of Wyoming. This shows you just a little bit of specific information to us at the state of Wyoming. It shows you here the things that are covered by the state of Wyoming… every year two chemistry profiles, flu shot, blood pressure and body fat analysis. When you go, the folks at Wyoming health fairs are probably going to be able to help you out with the claim form, if you do some of the other things that aren’t covered for free, otherwise you can download the claim form right here.

Now let’s go to the results part… this is the coolest part of course. If you haven’t created an account, you’re going to need a receipt from your most recent blood draw, your date of birth, and a valid email address to create your account. If you’ve created one, you log in right here.

This is my results page. As you can see I’ve got four tests in here. I haven’t done it nearly enough, but I’m starting to do it. I did it twice a year last year. So you can see all your stuff. As I mentioned, I kind of had high cholesterol. It was usually two twenty or so, or over two hundred. I made my diet change and it dropped to 182. The biggest deal for me was the bad cholesterol, that was 130, and 123, and I dropped 40% to 83. That was great. So this is really cool, and that you can see the change, or just monitor where you’re at.

You can also click here the show only abnormal, which will show just the stuff in the red. Or you can see it all. So, a very handy website… very useful tests. At least get your free stuff done and check out your results on their website. Alright, I hope you guys found this useful… now get out there and use this great benefit. I want to mention, please, if you see me out there, do say hi. I love meeting all of you. Thanks for joining me on this month’s subject matter minute, I’ll see you next month!