The Washington Governor relies on the state’s COVID-19 dashboards that were created in partnership with the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) and Microsoft. The dashboards allow policymakers, the public, medical teams, and community partners access to near-real-time information on cases, hospital capacity, investigations and contract tracing, and vaccination rates. The Governor uses these dashboards to determine COVID-19 restrictions and guidance for counties across the state. The dashboards have been – and continue to be – instrumental in deciding when to reopen activities and locations across the state. Resulting decisions, guidance, and associated information have been communicated to the public by the Governor via multiple channels, including regular press conferences that include top Department of Health and other officials.
The Washington Office of Finance Management’s (OFM) State Human Resources division deploys the Statewide Employee Engagement Survey, which goes out to the entire executive branch workforce and is now in its 12th cycle, to gather satisfaction and sentiment information from state employees. Engagement survey data has been used to inform agency internal strategic priorities that improve retention and performance of employees.