Room to Improve

How do federal employees rate their pay and benefits? The Office of Personnel Management surveyed 210,000 of them in October and November to get the answer.

The 2008 Federal Human Capital Survey results released last week indicated that while employees are fairly satisfied with pay, health insurance benefits and paid time off, they have more lukewarm opinions of other programs -- such as long-term care insurance, flexible spending accounts, telework and alternative work schedules.

The government's time-off policies elicited the most positive response on the survey; of the six possible answers (very satisfied, satisfied, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, dissatisfied, very dissatisfied, or no basis to judge), 87.7 percent of respondents picked "satisfied" or better. Just behind that, 84.3 percent noted that they were satisfied with the paid sick time they were offered.

Slightly more than 60 percent of respondents said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their salary. But the percentage varied according to job status. For example, 70.6 percent of managers were satisfied with pay, while 66.1 percent of supervisors and 59.8 percent of executives noted satisfaction. Only 58.1 percent of nonsupervisors said they were pleased with their pay.

Additionally, despite some satisfaction with pay, only 25.6 percent of federal workers said raises were linked to how well employees perform their jobs. Only 41.4 percent said awards depended on employee performance, and 35.2 percent said promotions were based on merit.

"Although progress has been achieved and sustained in many areas, the survey tells us improvement is needed in others," said OPM acting Director Michael Hager, pointing to the results for pay and promotions and their connection to performance.

Meanwhile, a question on telework benefits yielded only a 22.6 percent satisfaction rate. The same was true for alternative work schedules, such as the popular schedule that gives federal employees every other Friday off in exchange for long hours the other nine days. That had a 46.9 percent satisfaction rate. Those percentages may be deceiving, however, because 43.3 percent of respondents said they had no basis on which to judge telework, and 23.4 percent said they had no way to judge alternative work schedules. Only a single-digit number of respondents said they were unable to judge retirement or health insurance.

Rounding out the 10-question benefits portion of the survey were flexible spending accounts, with 34.8 percent of respondents satisfied, and long-term care insurance, with a 32 percent satisfaction rating. The "no basis to judge" figure came heavily into play in these cases as well, with 34.5 percent and 30 percent of respondents respectively checking that answer for these categories . A mere 9.1 percent of employees were satisfied with child care subsidies, but 63.7 percent said they had no basis to judge.

The results, which are used by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service to determine the "Best Places to Work" ranking for job-seekers, likely will be used to shape OPM's agenda and priorities for the 111th Congress. An aide for the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia said last week that the agenda has not been set.

Travel Tidbits

The General Services Administration has issued a travel bulletin to clarify the government's response to additional fees many airlines now are charging for checked baggage and other services.

Federal travelers are eligible to be reimbursed for all fees related to their first checked bag, according to GSA, and government agencies are allowed to compensate employees for additional baggage, provided it is used for official purposes.

Additionally, the bulletin states that the use of upgraded/preferred coach seating options is a personal choice and comes at employees' personal expense. Agencies are permitted to authorize and reimburse a seat upgrade and fee only when it is determined that doing so is in the best interest of the government, GSA said.