MNIT meet and confer minutes Feb. 7, 2018

MNIT M&C Meeting Minutes 2/7/18

Old Business
PMP alternative – Looking for an update, wondering if management has had a chance to consider this yet? With Jesse’s departure, is there a strong desire to still have an agency certification?

Executive team meeting in December to start discussion about an alternative but there is still a strong desire to have a certification.

Intranet start up page – Jed will demonstrate how the startup page works at DNR. Will want to plug in his laptop or pull something off of a flash drive. * Jenna indicated there can be a group policy change to allow the use of tabs after the home page is presented.*

Bidding and applying for jobs– not qualified for bidding because of current position. Class options seem to be causing issues with bidding. Lateral moves can’t happen due to class options. Thought ITS1 & 2 didn’t have class options but have run into class option issues.

MetroPass progress – Is MnIT still pursuing MetroPass on their own?

Looking at the governance process with agency partners and discussing at management team level

Brown and Bigalow? Update on building issues

Why were MNIT staff moved before construction was complete?

DHS and MNIT worked on a move schedule for all staff that focused on how to continue uninterrupted IT services to DHS. Specific tweaks to the Brown and Bigelow building were unforeseen but necessary, and not part of the original construction schedule.

• How long will staff be moved to B&B? Is this permanent?

DHS opened the B&B facility to accommodate for growth in staff and work. DHS and MNIT worked together on designing and implementing the B&B move to accommodate MNIT staff. There are no plans to relocate staff that were relocated to the B&B facility. The parts of the B&B property leased by DHS are now considered a “permanent” DHS facility.

• How was/is it determined who is moved to B&B?

See above

What will be the final numbers that will be moved to B&B?

474. If DHS elects to lease additional space at B&B in the future, additional MNIT or DHS staff could be relocated there.

• Is there a cafeteria planned? If not, is there a little store planned?

Cafeteria and store facilities are included based on a threshold of staff per building. Current staff numbers at B&B do not meet this threshold, and such businesses may be hesitant to open in this facility based on these thresholds.

• Will there be more kitchenettes and/or enhancements made to existing kitchenettes?

The number of kitchens is also based on staffing thresholds, and the B&B kitchens meet or exceed the standards for these facilities in other DHS buildings. No additional enhancements are planned for B&B kitchens.

• Can we have white noise installed?

At Brown & Bigelow, the mechanical noise in the building creates a natural sound masking system that would lesson’s the effectiveness of a installed sound masking system. Sound masking also can cause problems for staff who are hyper-sensitive to certain sounds, or staff with sinus problems and with certain hearing aids. They also don’t always work well with Video Conferencing systems.

**MnIT@MDH – Update on work being done there

Have engaged state mediation services. Working with new commissioner. Robert Maki is on loan from DNR as interim CBTO.

Accessibility – TAAC seat, follow-up if needed on this. Jed to check with state chair prior to M&C

Charter limits membership of who can attend.

New Business

Veteran issues – Veterans are not being made aware of the option to receive service credit for vacation accrual. Accrual not always granted across the agency. Would like to see incoming Vets have access to ERG groups (Employee Resource Engagement Group) MAPE member will introduce this and related topics to management.

Bob Cajune stated that there are some benefits that vets are entitled to that are not being recognized and vets are not aware of.

Chad asked Bob to provide examples to him.

Call Tree Exercise – Who on the MAPE side did HR talk to about the exercise as mentioned in the email?

Management responded that this was an oversite on their part.

**Training opportunity consistency – **

• Training policy clarification in regards to DHS. Training funds come from DHS, not MnIT Central.
• Microsoft training vouchers: They seem to be used up by staff at central and not distributed out, some supervisors don’t know the certificates exist. How do staff request / receive them?
• Skillsoft access: not always very equitable across the agency
• Group Training options: Some state agencies bring in staff from technical colleges to do training for larger groups. Think we saw a little of this with MnIT week last year. Will there be any more opportunities for group MnIT training?

Will need to get back to us on this. Did explain a little about where training money comes from. For the At agency locations, the training money all comes from the host agency thus things are not currently equal across the board. Long term MnIT will be working to address those disparities. Some agencies have a formula to determine fridge benefits for MnIT staff and some don’t.

Air quality test – Ask that MnIT request air quality tests be conducted by OSHA at B&B and COB in all areas where MnIT staff are housed.

Management had questions about this since they felt there was no standards for internal air quality. Also had concerns about cost. Jed said he would check back with OSHA contact.

MNIT week - Did it happen? What was it? We are all confused on what the purpose was and who could participate in anything?

Said there were many opportunities for staff. There were some differences of opinion on the effectiveness of MnIT week this year. MAPE offered to partner with management on it next year which they were open to.

Manager names to applicants – why is HR screening out who the hiring manger is? There seemed to be a number of hoops to jump through.

*The union asked about why MNIT won’t share the name of the hiring manager with applicants who ask for that information. As we explained, MNIT has always and consistently posted the staffing rep’s name as the contact for questions re: postings. MNIT HR provides this as a service to hiring managers to manage questions about the hiring process. We believe this is more efficient and effective because the staffing reps are well versed about application/interview process type questions, and we also believe this is less disruptive for our busy managers and the work for which they are responsible. MNIT will continue listing the staffing rep in job postings as the primary contact for questions. *

That said, if a potential candidate contacts the staffing rep whose name and number are on the job posting and requests the name of the hiring manager, HR will provide that information as requested.