The Partnership for Public Service has rated agencies based on how much of a disparity there is between the viewpoints of management and staff.
The Best Places to Work “snapshot” was prepared with Deloitte and analyzes staff/manager alignment from government-wide and agency vantage points, based on 44 questions asked in OPM’s 2013 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.
Government-wide, managers and staff are relatively aligned, for example, in their mutual doubt that their work unit is able to recruit people with the right skills, and only about half of each cohort agrees that training needs are adequately assessed.
The biggest gaps in alignment center on whether promotions are merit-based, with
47.2 percent of managers saying they are but only 25.9 percent of employees saying that’s the case. On the question of whether employees have the opportunity to demonstrate leadership skills, 17 percent fewer employees feel that’s the case.
Almost six out of 10 managers say employees are rewarded for good work while only four out of 10 employees say that’s the case. However, employees are more likely than their managers to say they have reasonable workloads and have the resources necessary to do their jobs effectively.
The highest level of manager/staff alignment can be found among the Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, State, the Navy, the Federal Communications Commission and the US Agency for International Development.
The greatest disparity in manager/staff alignment is found among the National Labor Relations Board, the National Credit Union Administration, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education, the National Archives and Records Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to PPS.
