EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

The 2019 federal government-wide Best Places to Work employee engagement score is 61.7 out of 100, a 0.5-point decrease from 2018.

This modest dip came at a time when a lengthy government shutdown impacted about 800,000 of the 2 million federal employees, critical leadership vacancies emerged across government, and agencies encountered various political crosscurrents.

The 2019 data shows government-wide improvements in some aspects of the employee experience, with small increases in eight of 10 categories. The biggest gains occurred in training and development and performance-based awards and advancement, both up by 0.8 points. Effective leadership, which reflects how employees view their supervisors, senior leaders, fairness in the workplace and individual empowerment, rose by 0.3 points. Other categories had declining scores: satisfaction with pay, down 0.4 points, and support for diversity, which dropped 0.2 points.

In response to individual survey questions used to calculate these workplace category scores, 66.8% of respondents said they are receive real opportunities to improve their skills, up 1.5 points, while 61.2% said they feel encouraged to discover new and better ways of doing things, up 1.0 point. In addition, 89.3% view their work as important, the same as in 2018. 

The 2019 data also shows that 45.0% of the agencies included in the rankings registered an increase in employee engagement, down from 72.3% and 73.8% in 2016 and 2017, respectively, but up from 39.6% in 2018.

The 2019 data shows that federal agencies need to raise their efforts to improve the employee work experience in numerous ways – from training and developing leaders, and building more positive work environments to providing employees with the resources they need to do their jobs. Having a highly-motivated and engaged workforce is critical to a well-functioning government and the success of our country.