Employees report satisfaction with work, supervisors

A now-annual survey of federal employee attitudes shows most employees are satisfied with key aspects of their jobs, including workload, management and work-life balance.

The Office of Personnel Management released the results of the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, formerly known as the Federal Human Capital Survey, on Monday. Over a quarter-million federal employees responded to the survey and OPM Director John Berry said there is much good news to report.

"Employees are more confident in their leaders, and have increased respect for their honesty and integrity," Berry said. "They are proud to work for the government and feel an increased sense of personal accomplishment. The vast majority believe their agency is accomplishing its missions and would recommend it as a good place to work. We hope to build on these results to increase employee engagement in improving agency operations."

More than 85 percent of employees said they like the kind of work they do. Almost 60 percent said their workload is reasonable and just over half said they have sufficient resources -- such as people, materials and budget -- to get their jobs done.

Employees also indicated high levels of satisfaction with their supervisors. More than three-fourths said their managers support their need to balance work and other life issues.

More than 70 percent said that, considering everything, they are either satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs. Only 12 percent said they were dissatisfied.

But there were some areas where employees expressed disappointment or frustration. Relatively low numbers of respondents (less than 40 percent in each case) agreed that promotions in their work unit are based on merit and that steps are taken to deal with poor performers who are unable or unwilling to improve.

Only 36 percent of respondents said they agreed that differences in performance are recognized in a meaningful way in their work units. Almost half indicated that arbitrary actions, personal favoritism and coercion for partisan political purposes may be tolerated at their agency.

In keeping with widespread criticism and concern over federal hiring, fewer than half of employees agreed that their work unit is able to recruit people with the right skills. Employees also expressed relative dissatisfaction with their ability to advance within their organizations. Only 41 percent said they were satisfied with advancement opportunities.

"Identifying and exposing problem areas, while at times uncomfortable, is essential to improving government operations," Berry said. "Performance management, including the management of poor performers, and the promotion process are areas of concern. We've added a new section on work/life to better understand the impact of these programs. They should be given extra consideration; significant room for improvement is possible."

Two work-life balance areas, in particular, drew poor responses. Only 23 percent of respondents said they are satisfied with the child care programs available in their agency and even fewer -- 20 percent -- said they are satisfied with elder care programs.

Using the data from the survey, OPM ranked agencies in a number of areas: leadership and knowledge management; results-oriented performance culture; talent management; and job satisfaction. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission earned the top spot in all four areas. The Federal Trade Commission also got top marks, taking second place in each category except job satisfaction, where it ranked fourth.

NASA, the State Department and Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency also ranked well in job satisfaction.