Meanwhile, data from the Gallup polling organization show that federal workers lag the private sector in engagement, although the only about three tenths in both fit that description.
The data show that 27 percent of federal workers are actively engaged in their jobs, compared with 31 percent in the private sector and that 19 percent are what it called “actively disengaged” compared with 17 percent. The rest are deemed not engaged.
“Those federal government employees who are actively disengaged, combined with those employees who are not engaged, translates into 11 percent lost productivity across the government,” it said, which translates into $18 billion in lost productivity each year, seen as a percentage of salary costs.
It further found that lack of engagement is a problem in the federal government across all age groups, ranging from 25 percent engagement for those younger than 30 to 30 percent for those aged 41-50, then dropping to 27 percent for those age 51-60.
“These trends in federal workers’ engagement align with previous Gallup research showing that older federal employees use their strengths less than younger federal workers. Given that employees who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged in their jobs, older federal workers’ low engagement is not surprising,” it said.
