Feds: Tell Your Manager How You Really Feel -- With No Repercussions

The Office of Personnel Management will begin emailing the 2016 federal workforce survey to employees across government at the end of April, soliciting feedback on compensation, morale, agency leadership and job satisfaction.

OPM will send out the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey in two phases. Each agency’s survey will be open for six weeks, with the final survey closing in mid-June. OPM will release results on a rolling basis starting in August.  

“The best way to increase your agency’s response rate for this year is to showcase to employees what you have done with the FEVS results in the past [bold in original],” said a March 4 memorandum from OPM Acting Director Beth Cobert to agency heads.

The annual survey is voluntary and confidential, so employees do not have to worry about any backlash for being candid.

More than 400,000 employees responded to the 2015 survey – a 50 percent response rate. The survey is grouped into eight topic areas: personal work experiences; work unit; agency; supervisor; leadership; satisfaction; work/life programs; and demographics.

Federal employees reported slightly more faith overall in their agency’s leadership in 2015 compared to 2014, but trust in top officials was still shaky, according to the 2015 data. Employees also said they were more satisfied with their jobs and pay in 2015: The FEVS global satisfaction score, which measures workers’ happiness with pay, their individual jobs and the overall organization, rose to 60 percent in 2015 from 59 percent in 2014.

Among other things, OPM has created an internal dashboard of survey data – Unlocktalent.gov -- to help federal managers drill down into the results from their agencies to improve where needed.

“Critical to the success of the 2016 FEVS is the visible support of each agency’s senior leadership,” Cobert said in the memo. “That success starts with you and your leadership team.”

OPM collects demographic data, including the agency and job of the employee, but no identifying information is shared.

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