Budget calls for more data on employee satisfaction and health

President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget request includes plans to survey larger samples of government workers more frequently on job satisfaction and to evaluate the federal health insurance program by assessing the well-being of enrollees.

According to the budget, beginning this year the Obama administration will administer the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey annually, instead of every other year, and will increase the number of employees who receive the questionnaire. Broadening the scope and frequency of the survey -- last conducted in 2008 and formerly known as the Federal Human Capital Survey -- will provide better information for more organizational components of large departments, according to the proposal.

"Results will be reported so they can be used by agency leadership to inform management decisions," the budget document said. "[The Office of Management and Budget] and [the Office of Personnel Management] will examine the survey to identify promising practices to promote more broadly for governmentwide improvement."

To help make the data more useful for managers, the administration plans to create an online database of workforce statistics similar to the Federal IT Dashboard, which covers government technology projects and was launched in June 2009. The goal is to keep senior agency leaders and rank-and-file managers up to date on employee satisfaction with key personnel processes like hiring to help them develop plans for improvement.

OPM would receive funding to support initiatives to enhance recruitment, training and development, and to streamline the federal hiring site USAJobs.gov and background investigations services. Obama asked for a $17 million increase over fiscal 2010 for the talent service section of the agency's revolving fund, bringing it from $620 million to $637 million. Investigations services would receive a $45 million increase from $935 million to $980 million, and efforts to improve agencies' leadership development programs would receive a $1 million boost, from $55 million to $56 million.

In addition, the administration proposed measuring the health of enrollees in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program to assess the program's effectiveness. It's not clear what health data the government would gather, or whether federal employees would be required to undergo screenings. But the administration is seeking funding for "new analytical capacity" so it can do more than simply evaluate FEHBP for fraud risks.

Obama also sought funding for wellness demonstration projects, similar to those OPM has set up in collaboration with neighboring agencies in downtown Washington.