In addition to differences in employee views by agency, the Best Places to Work ranking showed differences by occupational groups that cross agency boundaries.
The report examined contract/acquisition specialists, economists, human resources specialists and information technology/cybersecurity specialists–occupations that have been the focus of special attention from OPM and the Chief Human Capital Officers Council “because shortages or a loss of staff in these job categories could interfere with the ability of agencies to effectively accomplish their missions,” as the Partnership for Public Service put it.
All five groups saw increases in 2016 over 2015, with economists having the highest overall employee engagement score, followed by auditors, HR specialists and contract specialists.
However, IT specialists fell more than two points below the government-wide score for all employees, which the report called “particularly troubling because of the importance of computer systems to the basic functioning of government, from managing information and finances, communicating internally and interacting with the public. In addition, security is a major concern, with the government’s computer networks experiencing more than 77,000 intrusions in 2015, an increase of 1303 percent since 2006.”
