Federal Manager's Daily Report

GAO said that six practices are the key drivers of the employee engagement index:

* constructive performance conversations,
* career development and training opportunities,
* work-life balance,
* inclusive work environment,
* employee involvement, and
* communication from management.

“Some agencies that have improved employee engagement, or that already have high levels of engagement, apply these practices,” GAO said, and OPM “provides a range of tools and resources to help agencies use EEI data to strengthen employee engagement” such as an online tool to share OPM-generated survey reports to facilitate agency data analysis.

“GAO’s ongoing work indicates that these resources could provide agencies with needed support. However, OPM does not report whether changes to an agency’s EEI are statistically significant—that is, whether an up or down change is not due to random chance,” GAO said. “As a result, agency officials may be misinterpreting changes to the EEI and acting on data that may not be meaningful. GAO’s preliminary analysis of the FEVS shows that 34 percent of the absolute changes in agency EEI scores from 2013 to 2014 were statistically significant. In smaller agencies and at component or lower levels within larger agencies, large absolute differences are not always significant.”

Agency officials “need to understand and take this and other limitations into account so that they properly interpret the information and target corrective actions accordingly,” GAO said.