The Partnership for Public Service today released the 2011 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings – an important tool for Congress, the Obama administration and agency leaders to measure employee job satisfaction and commitment, gauge federal agency progress and identify signs of trouble.
“When agencies are poorly managed and workers aren’t committed, the public suffers,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service.
“The rankings hold agency leaders accountable for the health of their organizations and provide a roadmap for leaders to make workplace improvements and better serve the American people.”
This is not about happy employees but rather about effective organizations … and engaging employees in these tight times.” – John Palguta
The Best Places to Work rankings measure federal employee satisfaction and commitment and are based on responses from more than 276,000 federal workers. The Best Places to Work rankings include 308 federal agencies and subcomponents – representing 97 percent of the 2.1 million person federal workforce. They are ranked within one of three categories: large agency, small agency and federal subcomponent. Scores and rankings are revealed for all agencies and subcomponents, from first to worst.
John Palguta, Vice President of the Partnership for Public Service, said one of the chief take-aways from this year’s rankings are that leadership and employee engagement are key.
“This is not about happy employees but rather about effective organizations … and engaging employees in these tight times,” he said.
Two new avenues of analysis were explored in this year’s data, according to Judy England-Joseph, strategic adviser at the Partnership for Public Service.
One examined the magnitude of gaps in perceptions between managers and staff at agencies; the other looked at similar analysis between employees who intended to leave their agency compared those intending to stay.
Looking at whether those gaps are wider than average can reveal clues about an agency’s cultural alignment, she said.
The key to the rankings is recognizing what they reflect about an organization, said Jodi Simco, principle, Hay Group, which helped analyze the data.
“We tie (employee) engagement to employee retention, customer satisfaction, and efficiency. Being a best place to work really means being a high performance organization,” she said.
In addition, agencies are ranked by 10 workplace categories, including effective leadership, pay, teamwork, training and development, and work/life balance. Agencies also are ranked by demographic categories including race, age and gender.
The top 10 Best Places to Work large federal agencies are:
1) Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
2) Nuclear Regulatory Commission
3) Government Accountability Office
4) Smithsonian Institution
5) National Aeronautics and Space Administration
6) Social Security Administration
7) Department of State
8) Intelligence Community
9) Office of Personnel Management
10) General Services Administration
The top five small agencies:
1) Surface Transportation Board
2) Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
3) Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
4) Peace Corps
5) Farm Credit Administration
According to the Best Places to Work analysis, the 2011 government-wide index score measuring employee job satisfaction and commitment is 64 out of 100, down 1.5 percent from 2010.
“While the drop in employee job satisfaction and commitment is not as steep as might be expected given the difficult economic and political climate that has led to a federal pay freeze, threats of government shutdowns and the certainty of significant agency budget cuts, it’s a warning that squeezing resources and attacks on public servants has consequence,” said Stier.
For the sixth time in a row, the primary driver of federal employee satisfaction is effective leadership, and in particular, senior leadership. In 2011, leadership continued to receive low scores from employees with a government-wide score of 54.9 out of 100.
Additional key drivers include a belief by employees that their skills are well-suited to their agency’s mission and a satisfaction with pay. Satisfaction with pay declined 6.1 percent to 59.1 out of 100, while workers gave high marks (78.6) for the link between skills and mission.
The analysis also notes that employees in the private-sector continue to be more satisfied with their jobs and organizations with a score of 70 out of 100, compared to their counterparts in the federal government.
The Partnership for Public Service honored the top ranked and most improved Best Places to Work agencies and subcomponents today in Washington, D.C.
Visitors can access trend analysis, demographic data and all 10 workplace categories, as well as generate custom reports and conduct side-by-side comparisons for up to three agencies at the Best Places website.
The Best Places to Work rankings are compiled by the Partnership for Public Service from OPM’s annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, and additional survey data from eight additional agencies and the Intelligence Community. This is the sixth edition of the Best Places to Work rankings, with the first produced in 2003.