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News from State Human Resources

Publication Date Title
05/17/2022 Save the date - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Summit 2022 to be held Tuesdays in June
04/20/2022 Celebrating state employees May 1-7, 2022

Public service recognition week logo, May 1-7, 2022

The first week of May is when we celebrate public employees for their great work and service to the public. 

While there will be no in-person, multi-agency event in Olympia this year, there will be in-person events in Spokane and the Tri-Cities. OFM is also offering several online presentations on state employee benefits and business resource groups, and it will hold these events in partnership with the Seattle Mariners and Tacoma Rainiers.
01/21/2022 Call for nominations: 2022 Public Service Recognition Awards

Do you know a state employee or manager who consistently excels beyond expectations? In the spirit of recognizing such service, OFM is asking you to nominate state government and higher education employees and teams for one of the awards below. Nominations close Monday, Feb. 28, and awards will be announced on May 4 as part of Public Service Recognition Week.
01/12/2022 State employee vaccination verification data - Jan. 12

We have been gathering data from state agencies affected by the governor’s vaccination mandate to show how many employees have completed COVID-19 vaccination verification, how many have requested and received exemptions and accommodations, and how many have been separated due to no longer meeting the conditions of employment.
10/18/2021 Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS)/WA Cares Fund employee premium
09/01/2021 2022-23 tentative agreements
05/26/2021 Healthy Washington - Roadmap to Recovery Guide for State Agencies [PDF]
02/26/2021 State Auditor’s Office data security incident

What happened?

We recently learned that someone may have gained unauthorized access to personal information for more than 1 million Washingtonians, including many state employees. The data breach involved Accellion, a private software service provider the State Auditor’s Office was using to transfer data. Accellion, the Auditor’s Office and law enforcement are investigating the incident.
02/09/2021 Information for state employees regarding payroll direct deposit

Notify your payroll office if you choose to make changes to your banking information and use this form:

If you decide to make a change, here are some things to note:
02/09/2021 Guidance for state agency employers when updating an employee’s electronic fund transfer (direct deposit) information
01/15/2021 Healthy Washington – Roadmap to Recovery guide for state agencies [PDF]
05/21/2020 Hiring freeze Q&A
05/13/2020 Gov. Inslee issues directive to state agencies to freeze hiring, personal service contracts and equipment purchases

Gov. Jay Inslee issued a directive to executive and small cabinet agencies today to freeze all hiring, personal service contracts and equipment purchases. The directive aims to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Washington's economy and financial outlook.
04/09/2020 COVID-19 telework policy memorandum (updated)
03/24/2020 New federal COVID-19 leave laws and how they apply to state employees
03/20/2020 Emergency telework guidance and resources
03/15/2020 Coronavirus - HR guidance for state agencies
01/31/2020 New IT Professional Structure Governance Committee meets

The newly established ITPS Governance Committee held its first meeting on Jan. 28, 2020.  This IT & HR joint governance committee is a first-of-its-kind collaboration to help manage the state's IT workforce.

Read more about the the purpose of the ITPS Governance Committee and what was covered in the first meeting.
01/21/2020 2020 Governor’s Award for Leadership in Management nominations due March 9, 2020
01/21/2020 New directive requires state organizations to develop or update their workforce diversity plans [PDF]
12/10/2019 Faster, more efficient and more secure: Washington state’s business systems will get some major tech updates

Gov. Jay Inslee recently signed an executive order that directs Washington state agencies to update many of the state’s technology systems — some of them from the dinosaur era, in computer years. These systems help the state continue uninterrupted services to Washingtonians and are overdue for important and more current technology updates.
12/10/2019 See all statewide workforce DEI events in one calendar
10/29/2019 Lunch and Learn sessions offer collaboration opportunity for state HR community


The  Lunch and Learn series is a bi-monthly hour-long workshop that provides training and resources to state human resource professionals. These sessions are intended to promote collaboration and learning within the state’s human resources community.
05/21/2019 New IT classification & compensation restructure to take effect July 1
04/09/2019 2018 State Employee Engagement Survey results

This message from Governor Jay Inslee was sent out to all state employees on April 9, 2019:

Dear Fellow State Employee,
03/19/2019 Status of IT classification & compensation restructure - March 2019 update
11/06/2018 New support website for HRMS users

WaTech and OFM are very excited to announce the launch of the HRMS Support Hub website, designed to create a user-friendly support experience for our Human Resource Management System (HRMS) professional user community.
07/12/2018 Q&A related to the Janus decision by the U.S. Supreme Court
06/14/2018 Inslee honors 20 state government managers for outstanding performance
04/10/2018 Results are in — 2017 Employee Engagement Survey

This message from Governor Jay Inslee was sent out to all state employees on April 10, 2018:

Dear fellow state employee,
03/20/2018 We answer your questions about the IT classification & compensation restructure
01/19/2018 Status update on the IT classification and compensation restructure
09/22/2017 Update on IT classification implementation

During July and August 2017 Statewide IT Position Evaluation teams evaluated over 4,000 IT position descriptions for placement in the new IT classification structure.  The project team is currently working with agency and institution HR offices to validate the initial evaluation results.  Additionally, scheduling of evaluations is in process for a number of positions that did not go through the evaluation process conducted during the formal evaluation sessions this summer. 
03/20/2017 Employment verification and W-2s

If you're looking to verify employment of workers from state agencies, or get information about W-2s, please contact the employing agency HR office.
07/20/2016 Changes to HR.wa.gov

Between February and August 2016, we're making some changes to the HR.wa.gov website. Much of the content on the site will be moved to the websites of the three agencies that now carry out state HR services and policy functions.

HR.wa.gov will become a portal site to make sure you can still find the services and information you need. We'll also ensure that the links you currently use still get you to the right place.

Where will content move to?

This list will be updated as we complete the move for each section:
06/29/2016 Gov. Inslee honors 22 state government managers for excellence in leadership

Gov. Jay Inslee today honored state agency managers who have demonstrated outstanding leadership. The 2016 Governor’s Award for Leadership in Management was presented to 22 recipients at an awards luncheon at the Executive Residence.

This year’s recipients were recognized for a wide range of accomplishments, including work to save taxpayer dollars, improve communications with local governments, small businesses and the public, and protect public health.