Most positive response rate involved satisfaction with the environment created by immediate supervisors. Image: Bill Perry/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffVA acquisition workforce employees are generally satisfied with their immediate supervisor, telework opportunities, and training but less so with their workloads and higher-up management, a survey conducted by GAO has found.
The pattern regarding supervision among the more than 400 employees who responded to GAO’s survey mirrors one commonly seen government-wide in the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.
The highest positive response rate in the GAO-conducted survey involved satisfaction with the environment their immediate supervisor creates; other top-rated aspects of work also related to direct supervision: allowance of telework; encouragement to use paid leave; support for work-life balance; and communication of performance expectations.
However, satisfaction with senior leaders on those issues “was considerably less in all categories,” said GAO, which noted that the VA—like many other agencies—has difficulties in recruiting and retaining employees for acquisition positions. “More than one-third of our survey respondents stated they were likely or very likely to leave their job in the next 3 years, nearly half of whom stated they would leave VA entirely,” it said.
The survey was part of a broader examination of the VA acquisition workforce in which GAO concluded that the department “does not have accurate counts of contracting officers, contracting officer representatives, and program/ project managers; where they are located; and certifications. VA’s insight into its workforce is hindered by inaccurate, outdated data that are manually updated.” Further, the roles of heads of contracting activity, or HCAs, are not well defined, it said.
VA management agreed with recommendations to ensure accurate and up-to-date workforce data and to document the HCAs’ roles and responsibilities for managing the acquisition workforce.
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