2026 Public Service Viewpoint Survey

All permanent, civilian, career federal employees from executive, legislative and judicial branch agencies are eligible to participate. This includes civilian employees of the Intelligence Community, the Department of War and its components, as well as uniformed members of commissioned corps.

Federal contractors are not eligible to participate.

Eligible federal employees can access the survey using the link below:

Please complete the survey outside your normal working hours.

At the beginning of the survey, you will be asked to answer a short series of screening questions to confirm your eligibility. Responses that do not meet the eligibility requirements will not be included in the final sample. Completing the survey therefore does not guarantee that a response will be included in the analysis.

Yes. The Partnership is committed to protecting participants’ confidentiality. Response data will be kept secure and encrypted.

Any personally identifiable information or demographic data shared with us will be restricted to the Partnership’s data team and only be used in the survey administration and analysis process. We ask only the most essential demographic and screening questions required to properly weight survey responses and confirm respondent eligibility.

We are regularly reassessing to improve the confidentiality of our survey. In response to feedback from last year’s survey, we are no longer asking respondents to provide a personal email to help us identify duplicate submissions. Other methods to screen duplicate responses have been included to avoid collecting personal information.

To maintain your confidentiality, all survey findings shared by the Partnership will be anonymized in a way that will prevent you or your responses from being identified. Following the Office of Personnel Management’s former approach with the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, data for demographic groups with less than 30 respondents will not be shared outside the Partnership.

The survey is scheduled to close at 11:59 p.m. EST on Dec. 4, 2026.

The survey examines:

1. Federal employees’ experiences at work.
2. The performance of their immediate work units.
3. The effects of workforce and organizational changes on performance and employee engagement.
4. Federal employees’ views of leadership, trust and organizational conditions.

Together, these questions will provide a government-wide view of how federal employees experience their work and how workplace conditions may affect agency performance and service to the public.

The Partnership will analyze the responses, apply appropriate weighting and conduct diagnostic checks before determining how best to share the findings publicly.

The goal is to provide useful, transparent information that can help:

• Agency leaders identify workplace challenges and improve internal operations.
• Federal leaders make data-informed management decisions.
• Congress and policymakers carry out their agency oversight responsibilities and legislative agendas.
• The public understand how agencies are functioning.
• Federal employees have their perspectives represented in government-wide discussions.

Agency surveys and the Public Service Viewpoint Survey serve unique purposes.

Agency surveys can provide leaders with an internal management tool tailored to the needs and circumstances of their organizations. The Public Service Viewpoint Survey uses a common set of questions to develop a broader, government-wide view of the federal workforce and make findings available to federal leaders, Congress, policymakers and the public.

The Public Service Viewpoint Survey is not intended to replace agency surveys, and federal employees should consider providing feedback through both channels.

A standardized government-wide survey can provide consistent information on workplace experience, employee engagement, workload, leadership and organizational effectiveness across agencies.

This broader view helps leaders understand patterns across government, compare agency experiences and assess changes over time when the data and methodology support those comparisons. It also provides Congress and the public with transparent information about the management and effectiveness of federal agencies.

While the Partnership has replicated elements of the former Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey’s design and methodology where possible, this survey includes additional questions that measure employee engagement, workload, workplace performance and leadership effectiveness.

The Partnership does not have access to federal personnel files or a comprehensive roster of federal employees. It therefore reaches participants through partner organizations and public communications rather than inviting employees through a government-wide personnel list.

Participants complete screening questions to confirm their eligibility. The Partnership also uses response-validation techniques and a weighting approach modeled on relevant elements of the former federal methodology. Because the surveys differ in their sampling and design, the Partnership will analyze the results before making judgments about comparability with prior findings.

The Partnership is working with a range of organizations, including federal employee unions and management associations, to make eligible employees aware of the survey. The survey will also be promoted through the Partnership’s website, newsletters and social media channels.

Organizations interested in helping share the survey may contact psvs@ourpublicservice.org.

For general questions about the Public Service Viewpoint Survey, contact psvs@ourpublicservice.org.

For media inquiries, contact press@ourpublicservice.org.