After four years of decline, federal employees’ job satisfaction and commitment improved in the most recent Best Places to Work report from the Partnership for Public Service.
The improvement “may be the result of several factors, including a rebound by the workforce from events such as the 2013 across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration, the partial government shutdown that same year that resulted in the furlough of more than 800,000 employees and three years of pay freezes that ended in 2014,” it said.
The results are based largely on the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which this year trended up slightly in many measures, including three of particular focus in the Partnership’s analysis: willingness to recommend the organization as a good place to work, overall job satisfaction and over satisfaction with the organization.
Among large agencies, at the top were NASA, the intelligence community, Justice, State and Commerce, and at the bottom were DHS, VA, Army and Treasury. Among mid-sized agencies, at top were FDIC, Peace Corps, GAO, FTC and FERC, and at bottom SBA, Broadcasting Board of Governors, NARA, HUD and Energy.
Among small agencies, tops were FMCS, OPIC, FLRA, National Endowment for the Humanities and Surface Transportation Board, while at the bottom were FEC, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, Millennium Challenge Corporation and CFTC.
The report also contains breakouts by demographic and selected occupations, while also comparing agencies with similar missions, including law enforcement, national security, energy and environment, financial regulation and oversight.
