Rankings that reflect employee satisfaction and engagement in federal agencies and departments "raise red flags for areas of concern," for low-ranked agencies but could clue job seekers into good work opportunities for high-ranked ones, according to Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service.
PPS recently released the 2007 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings, produced with American University, based on the government-wide employee survey OPM conducted last year.
The Partnership ranked agencies by 10 categories including effective leadership, strategic management, teamwork, training and development, pay and benefits, and work-life balance.
The top-ranked agencies for 2007 are: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, GAO, the SEC, NASA, Justice Department, State Department, Social Security Administration, GSA, EPA and the Department of the Army.
The aggregate score remained basically unchanged since 2005 — about 62 out of 100, but there was improvement in the category of performance-based rewards and advancement, as well as the category measuring the match between employee skills and mission, PPS found.
It said employees tend to be most satisfied with employee skills-mission match, followed by teamwork, pay and benefits, and work-life balance.
Agencies are also ranked by demographic categories including race, age and gender. Asian employees expressed the most satisfaction, followed by Hispanics, while women expressed a bit more satisfaction than men, and workers under 40 said they were more satisfied in general than those over 40, according to the survey.
