POLICY GUIDE

Executive Order 94 - Workplace Safety and Employee Health

On July 15, 2005, Executive Order EO(94), Workplace Safety and Employee Health was signed by the Governor. EO(94) requires agencies to include in managers' performance expectations, when appropriate, goals to encourage a safer work environment and reduction in work-related employee time lost.

• Section 19, Core Responsibilities (A. Examples of Measures for Performance Management), of the Employee Work Profile (EWP) has been updated to reflect this mandate.
• In addition, agencies need to ensure that job expectations are clearly defined in the EWP to include physical requirements.
• Section X, Physical Demands, has been added to the EWP to reflect this directive. Agencies may use this physical requirements section, develop their own or use the Physical Demands Worksheet prepared by Workers' Compensation to comply with this directive.
• The updated EWP form can be found on the DHRM web site attached to Policy 1.40, Performance Planning and Evaluation, as well as on the DHRM Form web page. The Workers' Compensation Physical Demands form also can be found on the DHRM form web page.

Questions about EO(94) or the Physical Demands Worksheet should be directed to Michelle Allen at michelle.allen@dhrm.virginia.gov

PMIS History Screens for Former Employees

Agencies now have access to PMIS screen PSE309 for the efficient retrieval of the histories of former employees who now work at other state agencies. PMIS provides information similar to that available through the e-480, but this method should be simpler and more efficient. Access is limited to the period of employment with your agency and does not include personal or historical data prior to or following employment in your agency.

Leave Planning

We are about halfway through the leave year – a good time for employees and supervisors to review leave usage and plan for the rest of the leave year. Although agencies can and should counsel employees concerning careful leave usage, they may not require employees to maintain a certain amount of annual leave . While employees should avoid pay-docking situations by careful leave management, the agency cannot impose a minimum balance requirement. In effect, such a requirement takes away from employees a part of their legitimate leave benefit by making that amount of leave inaccessible to them.

Employees need to check their leave balances and be sure they are managing their time wisely. Early planning can help avoid problems with leave balances that are either too high or too low as the end of the year approaches.

An employee's planned leave is much easier for a supervisor to manage than unplanned leave. Supervisors should encourage employees to manage annual leave and avoid that last minute rush near the end of the leave year when so many employees request time off that all of the requests cannot be approved. Encouraging appropriate leave planning and usage benefits agencies and employees because staff have time to deal with personal matters and to re-charge their batteries for the job.

Preparing for Performance Evaluations and Salary Adjustments

The annual performance evaluation process may begin as early as August 10, 2006 so this is a good time to begin preparations. Supervisors and managers should review documentation now and ensure that they are managing performance throughout the annual cycle.

Human Resources staff also can prepare by ensuring that employee records are up-to-date In those years when the Governor and General Assembly approve a statewide salary adjustment for employees, DHRM is asked to transact thousands of record adjustments or corrections in PMIS following the IPP Update. The majority of these transactions are required to update leave actions. One records correction typically requires five to six individual DHRM transactions.

An efficient tool for identifying employee records with leave issues and correcting them locally is the PSL001,AGENCY CODE screen in PMIS. You may access this screen directly or link to it from the PMIS broadcast message. The broadcast message immediately alerts you of employees with overdue leave return dates and those whose return dates are set to expire within the next 45 days. Having advanced notice of leave return dates should make it easier for agencies to maintain records throughout the year, particularly in advance of the IPP Update , thus avoiding the need for mass corrections.

Agencies can also download employee data into Excel for review using the e480 Workforce Planning query tool: http://web1.dhrm.virginia.gov/itech/ , “Workforce Planning” tab in left panel. To request access, select the "Request Access" tab in left panel.

Many related requests are submitted to DHRM to delete statewide adjustments, effect retroactive transactions, and then re-enter the statewide adjustments. While retroactive adjustments are sometimes unavoidable, most can be avoided by processing transactions in a timely manner.  DHRM appreciates your support in ensuring that all workforce data is current and reliable.

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