The level of federal employee engagement in their jobs is not as bad as it may seem, GAO has said, although adding there are many steps available to improve it.
GAO was testifying at a House hearing on the agencies that finished toward the bottom of the Partnership for Public Service’s most recent ranking of the best places to work in government. Those ratings, which are largely based on some indicators in the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, for example continue to show DHS at the bottom of the large agency rankings.
One main channel of response has been an emphasis on an “employee engagement index” that strongly correlates to overall agency ratings, but GAO said the fact is that most agencies have “either sustained or increased” by that measure even as overall employee views of the federal workplace have declined.
While the government-wide score has dropped from 67 to 63 percent over 2011-2014, “this decline is attributable to several large agencies—like the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security—bringing down the government-wide average. Specifically, 13 out of 47 agencies saw a statistically significant decline in their EEI from 2013 to 2014. While this is 28 percent of agencies, they represent nearly 69 percent of federal workforce.
“However, the majority of federal agencies either sustained or increased engagement levels during this period. Specifically, from 2013 to 2014, 31 agencies sustained and 3 agencies increased their engagement level.”
