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 during a time when about 800,000 of the 2 million federal employees were affected by a lengthy government shutdown, when there were a number of critical leadership vacancies at agencies across government, and when many agencies were dealing with a variety of political crosscurrents.

The 2019 data shows government-wide improvements in some aspects of the employee experience, with small increases in eight of 10 categories that help define the employee experience. The biggest gains were in training and development as well as performance-based awards and advancement, both up by 0.8 points. Effective leadership, which encompasses employee views of their supervisors, senior leaders, fairness in the workplace and individual empowerment, rose by 0.3 points. The categories with declining scores were satisfaction with pay, down by 0.4 points, and support for diversity, which dropped by 0.2 points.

On individual survey questions used to calculate these workplace category scores, 66.8% of the respondents said they are given a real opportunity to improve their skills, up 1.5 points, while 61.2% said they feel encouraged to come up with new and better ways of doing things, up 1.0 point. In addition, 89.3% said the work they do is important, the same as in 2018. 

The 2019 data also shows that 45.0% of the organizations included in the rankings registered an increase in employee engagement compared to 39.6% in 2018, 73.8% in 2017 and 72.3% in 2016.

The 2019 data shows a need for federal agencies to step up efforts to improve the employee work experience – from training and developing leaders to ensuring employees have a positive work environment and 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.