Class Descriptions - Second Annual CalHR Conference
Get the agenda and presentation descriptions in a PDF file
Presenter biographies - You can click any presenter's name to read that person's biography.
Schedule - Get the full schedule for the conference.
Accessible Documents and Why it’s Important to Create Them
Presenter: Joe Krack
Schedule: 9:30 a.m. in Classroom 4 and 1:30 p.m. in Classroom 4
This workshop will raise awareness regarding the importance of developing accessible documents to promote and build an inclusive workforce and provide equitable services. Attendees will learn practical examples of why it is important to create accessible documents, identify impacts to equality when accessibility considerations are implemented, and how to overcome common barriers of document accessibility.
Advanced LR's Do's and Don'ts
Presenters: Randy Fisher, Paul Starkey
Schedule: 1:30 p.m. in Classroom 10
In this interactive session about labor relations do’s and don’ts, this workshop will explore “best practices” for effective labor relations. We will identify situations that can cause labor relations “headaches” and offer prescriptions for immediate relief. In this session, you will also learn how to identify and address labor relations “warning symptoms” and will hear about tips for prevention, including when and how to call in the specialists at CalHR Labor and Legal.
Big Happenings in Health Benefits: New HMO Plans for 2014; Dependent Eligibility Verification
Presenters: Ralph Cobb, Michelle Garbato, Elaine Smith
Schedule: 9:30 a.m. in Classroom 3 and 1:30 p.m. in Classroom 3
This session will enable HR staff to effectively assist employees in understanding the expanded health plan offering for 2014; provide HR staff an understanding of their role in the dependent eligibility verification project; and, enable HR staff to assist employees in complying with verification requirements.
Board Items and Class Specification Revisions
Presenters: Nicole Holtzman, Debbie Dolenga
Schedule: 9:30 a.m. in Classroom 11 and 1:30 p.m. in the Executive Dining Room
This class is designed to provide participants with a thorough understanding of the Board Item process and class specification revisions. It includes the following topics: Board Meeting dates and time frames, Consent/Non-Hearing Calendar Items, Classification Board Item Process (Department’s Role and CalHR’s Role), Union Notification, and Pay Letter Preparation. It also provides participants with an overview of the process to revise class specifications.
Current Hot Topics in the Personnel Services Branch
Presenter: Kim Herlache, Maria Pires-Molina, Mary Sue Paul
Schedule: 9:30 a.m. in Classroom 5 and 1:30 p.m. in Classroom 5
This class will discuss the current issues and projects the Personnel Services Branch staff are working on with various departments. It will also provide an opportunity for input from departments to identify future training areas.
Executive Panel Discussion
Presenters: Howard Schwartz, Anne Stausboll, Joan Markoff
Schedule: 11:00 a.m. in the Gymnasium and 1:30 p.m. in the Gymnasium
Do you work in an environment that values customer service? Are we ensuring that employees have the right tools to deal effectively with the public? Come hear a leadership discussion on how to improve customer service functions. Find out what you can do to train and motivate employees to provide high quality services to the public.
Individual Development Plans and Performance Appraisals – Building Better Employees
Presenters: David J. Neill, Stephen Palazzo
Schedule: 3:00 p.m. in the Gymnasium
This interactive workshop will provide an overview of Individual Development Plans (IDPs) and Performance Appraisals and their importance as an effective management tool in the evaluation, development, and mentoring of employees. The workshop will address the role of both the supervisor and employee in the IDP and Performance Appraisal development process, tips for supervisors to facilitate the preparation of IDPs and Performance Appraisals, the importance of honest, timely, and constructive feedback to employees, and mistakes to avoid in the preparation of IDPs and Performance Appraisals.
Maximizing the Strengths of a Multi-Generational Workplace
Presenters: Erica Salinas, Danielle Metzinger
Schedule: 11:00 a.m. in the Executive Dining Room and 3:00 p.m. in Classroom 10
Maximizing the Strengths of a Multi-Generational Workplace is about succession planning and the four generations in our current workforce. We will present each generation’s unique characteristics and strengths, and how they can be leveraged effectively for employee retention and succession.
Progressive Discipline
Presenters: Melissa Meith, Cathy Spencer, Joan Markoff
Schedule: 9:30 a.m. in Classroom 10
Do performance problems go unaddressed in your department? As a supervisor or manager, do you understand the state’s progressive discipline policy and how to work with it to keep your organization running smoothly? Do you feel intimidated by the complexity of the whole effort and opt to just hope the problem employee leaves? This one hour training provides an overview of how to manage poor performance within the progressive discipline process. The presentation will include specific tools supervisors can use to define and address performance problem employees, how to given written and verbal feedback to employees, and options for holding employees accountable up to and including formal disciplinary action. The course also reviews resources available to supervisors and HR staff for additional support when dealing with a challenging employee.
Rejection During Probation
Presenter: Nikki Mozdyniewicz, Keith LaMar
Schedule: 11:00 a.m. in Classroom 10
The probationary period is the final phase of the selection process because no one becomes a permanent civil service employee without passing the demonstration phase of selection, the probation period. As a supervisor, you are responsible for assessing and reviewing your employee’s work, completing timely probation reports, determining training needs, and ultimately deciding whether this person has demonstrated she can really do the job you hired her to perform. And you have exactly six months (or a year in some cases) to decide. This session will provide supervisors with an understanding of the roles and responsibilities new employees and supervisors have during the probationary period, how to stay on top of the process, how to prepare a probation report, the do’s and don’ts of issuing a rejection during the probation period, and the process the employee may follow to appeal that rejection.
The Savings Plus Retirement Program is with You for Life
Presenters: Kelly Richmond, Tiffanie Vick
Schedule: 11:00 a.m. in Classroom 5 and 3:00 p.m. in Classroom 11
Savings Plus strives to simplify your retirement planning needs and educate your employees about the benefits of the State’s lifetime supplemental retirement program. In this course we will introduce you to new tools, features and an array of upcoming free training classes offered to you and your employees throughout the State.
Selection Systems – Past, Present, and Future
Presenter: Gina Forman
Schedule: 11:00 a.m. in Classroom 3 and 3:00 p.m. in Classroom 3
Examinations and Certification Processes seem to be ever changing with the myriad of necessary systems in the State Hiring Process. This presentation will outline the current systems and processes and the timelines of what to expect and when through the various phases of the Exam and Cert Online System (ECOS) project implementation.
State Personnel Board Compliance Review
Presenters: Michael Brunette, Diana Campbell
Schedule: 9:30 a.m. in the Executive Dining Room and 3:00 p.m. in Classroom 5
This workshop will provide an overview of the State Personnel Board’s compliance review of Departments’ Examinations, Appointments, Personal Services Contracts, and EEO Programs. Information on our methodology in these areas will be shared, including common themes and/or deficiencies found, and areas where departments are excelling or need improvement.
Statewide Learning and Performance Management
Presenter: Guy Burghgraef
Schedule: 11:00 a.m. in Classroom 4 and 1:30 p.m. in Classroom 11
CalHR’s Statewide training team will provide an overview of the State's leadership competency model and how performance management, coaching and mentoring, and interpersonal skills are essential for leaders. CalHR will also provide a detailed overview of the new State Training Center services including the calendar of instructor led classes and the wealth of training, consulting, and other services available through our newly established partnership with the UC, CSU, and CA Community Colleges. Participants will also be given a detailed overview of the thousands of free on-line resources available for state employees.
Transfer Determinations
Presenters: Jamie Inderbitzen, Vanessa Singh
Schedule: 11:00 a.m. in Classroom 11 and 3:00 p.m. in Classroom 4
This course is designed to provide participants with valid information on how to apply transfer regulations and determine when a transfer is permissible. The focus of the presentation is on the legality of voluntary transfers made between classifications. Participants will be provided with the necessary tools and resources to ascertain the validity of transfers as it relates to the regulations governing transfers and the Civil Service Act.
Union Access
Presenters: Lori Green, Andres Mejia
Schedule: 9:30 a.m. in the Gymnasium and 3:00 p.m. in the Executive Dining Room
This workshop will provide a brief summary of current contractual rights regarding access. The instructors will place emphasis on: union representatives, access, distribution of union information, steward time off and employee time off. There will also be discussion about the access side letter agreement between the state and SEIU Local 1000. At the end of the workshop, the instructors will provide a hypothetical access dispute for the participants to review. The instructors will then assist the participants with identifying access issues raised in the hypothetical and will offer ideas as to how to facilitate communication between parties when access disputes arise.