Federal Manager's Daily Report

Ongoing agency efforts to get and keep their employees more engaged in their work are showing results, the Partnership for Public Service has said, pointing to a 2.1 point rise in the employee engagement score in its annual Best Places to Work in the Federal Government report.

That score has improved in each of the last three years and now stands at 61.5 out of 100, the good-government group said, following a “concerted effort by agencies across government to improve how employees view their leaders and their jobs. Building on this momentum will require a strong commitment from the Trump administration to continue improving the employee experience — from training and developing leaders to ensuring employees have a positive work environment and the resources they need.”

It said that scores increased at 74 percent of agencies in 2017 over 2016.

The engagement rating–commonly seen as a proxy for the level of morale in the workplace–is based on measures including those relating to leadership, teamwork, training and development, work–life balance, support for diversity, rewards/advancement, strategic management, innovation and pay. It is primarily based on data from the Federal Employees Viewpoint Survey, which is conducted in the spring each year.

However, the group noted that the government’s aggregate score still falls well below that of a comparable index used in the private sector that shows a 77.8 percent score–only eight federal agencies scored above the private sector average–and that scores dropped at State, EPA, Justice, OMB and the intelligence community.