2025-08-26 Merit Appeal Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board August 26, 2025 So, we’re really looking forward to being able to roll that out as some type of, like, lunch-and- learn or brown bag sessions where people can use their lunch period to gain some additional information and then connect with others, so. CHR. CABANAS: I think that’s wonderful that you are pursuing the various interests because whatever issues or burdens that employees may have, it may alleviate that for them—and then they can concentrate, too, more at work— MS. SAKAMOTO: Right. CHR. CABANAS: —they’re more focused— MS. SAKAMOTO: Right. CHR. CABANAS: —and they’re not worried about taking care of their ill mother or grandmother—because caregiving is really—it’s really a complicated issue, having gone through it myself. And it’s like—it’s very difficult and, yet, I have knowledge, I know what the resources are—but, at one point in time, taking care of, like, of my mother-in-law who lived to 106 and my mother is 97—I felt lost. It was, like, where do I go? And having that knowledge of resources, even more immediately available, just makes that load really lighter. Yeah, so I think that’s wonderful you folks are doing that—yeah, for the employees. MS. TOKIHIRO: And that was one of the things that has, kind of, come out more recently when we talk about employee benefits. I attended a training where they were saying, “Yeah, you can focus on the benefits that you offer as an employer, but some of these other value-added benefits—things like that may be just general life skills or general life knowledge—if we can help share that with our employees, that is approaching it from that wholistic area”—right? Recognizing that the services or benefits are things that people need, aren’t just things that come with health insurance and flexible working schedules and things like that. So, really, addressing our employees wholistically and trying to meet them where they’re at. And there’s a lot of skills, too, life skills things—budgeting—and as Jenny mentioned, applying for a mortgage that we’re not teaching people in school—and those are very valuable tools and insight. So, we’re trying to incorporate more of that. I appreciate that Jenny and Nawai and Junko are very responsive. I think I’ve tasked them more recently in the last year-and-a-half to try and change-up the way things are being done, and it’s based on feedback that we get from departments. But then, Jenny has also a lot of creative insights and ideas that come out of feedback that she receives from doing the training. And I appreciate—so, for example, her supervisory training, there is a larger program that covers—how many sessions—12? MS. SAKAMOTO: It’s nine. MS. TOKIHIRO: Okay. Page 10