June-July 2020
Customer Service
Darcy Johnson with the Creston office recently received a call from a customer who was concerned that she had too much money on her Reliacard. She wanted to make sure there wasn’t an error and she would have to return the money. Upon review of her case, it was noted that she received a larger sum of money as the result of the federal offset for the stimulus package. She stated she had no idea she was going to be receiving the money and now she would be able to purchase her growing child new clothes. She thanked Darcy through tears after being told she had the extra funds.
New Hires
  • Katie Manning, Pleasant Hill (6/1)
  • Darcy Johnson, Creston (6/8)
  • Catherine McDaniel, Council Bluffs (6/12)
  • Heather Kriener, Ankeny (6/15)
  • Stephanie Butler, EPICS (6/22)
  • Michelle Nejdl, Cedar Rapids (6/26)
  • Jennielee Cordes, Cedar Rapids (6/26)
  • Nicole Cooper, Sioux City (6,26)
  • Holly Wengert, ISU (7/1)
  • Colleen Theis, DSM North (7/6)
  • Mandy Reed, Council Bluffs (7/10)
  • Akisha Hill, EPICS (7/13)
  • Amanda Winter, Decorah (7/13)
Staff Anniversaries
5 Years:
  • Mark Dietrich, Mason City
  • Alyssa Sparks, Fort Dodge
  • Evy-Ann Bajet, Cedar Rapids
15 Years:
  • Jan Peterson, Fort Dodge
  • Shelly Binns, Council Bluffs
  • Amanda Timm, Marshalltown
  • Josie Barrow, Pleasant Hill
  • Sherry Halbur, Carroll
  • Stacey Sherman, Des Moines South
  • Matt Uthoff, Dubuque
20 Years
  • Karla Delarm, Davenport
  • Shelly Franzen, Davenport
  • Content Geary, Central Office
  • Melissa Gray, Central Office
  • Shannon Thill, Central Office
  • Amanda Luong-Baccam, Ankeny
  • Laurie Runyan-Kathman, Des Moines North
  • Marcelina Laughridge, EPICS
  • Cassandra Nichols, Davenport
  • Nancy Harriman, Council Bluffs
  • Carolyn Mauer, Council Bluffs
  • Deborah Thomsen, Council Bluffs
  • Sandra Wilkens-Lynch, Davenport
  • Jerilynn Swenson, Council Bluffs
40 Years
  • Diane Curry, Central Office
ISU Insights

The ISU-CSRU Contract team put together a visual and interactive electronic booklet to showcase the work they've done in the past fiscal year.

Staff Highlight
Onboarding new employees in the age of COVID-19 presents unique obstacles. During the onboarding of three new employees in the Des Moines region, two individuals stood out in managing the challenges: Holly Bills and Adam Goodvin.

Becca Henson explained, “Holly and Adam have always answered our questions, never made us feel like a burden, and have been very helpful!”

Thank you for your hard work and dedication, Adam and Holly.
Policy Corner

Did you know? 

  • In 2019, DHS initiated a large scale project to have all divisions update their out-of-date employee manuals.
  • During the past year, CSRU has updated or re-written 19 policy manuals and 15 appendices! 

Central office policy staff write the manual chapters. They are then sent to the Bureau of Communications (BOC) to complete the publishing process and add the finished document to the manual SharePoint. The BOC completes the publishing process for all divisions of DHS. Due to the large volume of manuals submitted, there is often a delay before the publishing process is complete. In the interim, you can access updated information through Quick-Links the CSRU Portal Page .  There are 12 manuals and 8 appendices currently in the interim share, so be sure to look here for updated manual!
Training
Is Motivation Missing from Your Training?
Training is an essential part of any business strategy. Unfortunately, employees often lack enthusiasm to learn something new. How can we motivate trainees with a ho-hum attitude toward training? 

Outreach
Using Unified Messaging to Stay Connected
When schools closed in March, the Parenting: It’s a Life (PIAL) team had to consider new methods of reaching teachers and students. They landed on the idea to focus more on their social media outreach by choosing a theme each month to promote a unified message across various outlets.