4 NFFT51002210786 PIRO Analysis 2018 FEVS Results.pdf

Summary of 2018 FEVS Results

Introduction

The Federal Employees Viewpoint Survey is an annual survey administered by the Office of Personnel Management to a random subset of every Federal Agency’s federal employee community. It measures government employees’ perceptions of whether, and to what extent, conditions that characterize successful organizations are present in an organization. Survey results provide valuable insight into the challenges agency leaders face in ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce and how well they are responding. PIRO tracks the results and trends closely each year and uses them to develop new initiatives within the office to address important employee issues. This documents presents the results from the FY17 survey and analyzes trends from FY15 through FY18.

Highlights and Bottom Line Up Front

● PIRO’s results declined for numerous questions, and we’ll be working to understand and address those.

● Based on the FY18 results, PIRO’s Senior Leadership Board will propose initiatives to improve PIRO’s workplace over the next year.

Results for FEVS Categories

The FEVS has six question categories that aggregate questions about similar worklife issues into a single metric. These categories give useful picture of employee feedback in each of six broad worklife areas, so PIRO tracks trends in these categories for a general sense of staff perceptions over time.

Overall, PIRO’s positive results decreased in My Work Unit, My Agency, My Supervisor, Leadership, and My Satisfaction relative to last year. The results for 2018 remained an improvement over the scores from 2015.

The numbers in green in the tables below represent a trend of more favorable responses: either a decrease in negative responses or an increase in positive responses. The numbers in red in the tables below represent a trend of less favorable responses: either decrease in positive responses or an increase in negative responses. Where there was an increase, whether it be in negative or positive responses, there is a + sign before the number. When there was a decrease, whether it be in the positive or negative responses, there is a - sign before the number.

Table 1. Positive Responses by Category from 2015-2018

Question Category

Positive Responses

Positive Responses

Positive Responses

Positive Responses

2017-2018 Change

Total Change Since 2015 (%)

My Work Experience

61 73 72 73 +1 +12

My Work Unit

55 65 65 55 -10 0

My Agency 50 61 70 58 -12 +8 My Supervisor

68 77 77 73 -4 +5

Leadership 42 54 66 55 -11 +13 My Satisfaction

38 51 57 54 -3 +16

Overall Positive Response Summary:

The positive responses as seen in Table 1 for My Work Experience were very similar over the last three years (around 73%). The positive scores for My Work Unit were almost identical to those from 2015 (55%, a 10% drop from the previous 2 years). The positive scores for My Agency were lower than the previous year by 12% but still 8% higher than 2015. They was only a 3% difference between 2016 and 2018. The positive scores for My Supervisor were 4% lower this year than 2016 and 2017 but still 5% higher than 2015. The positive scores for My Leadership were lower than 2017 by 11% but similar to 2016 and still 13% higher than 2015.

The Positive scores for My Satisfaction were only 3% lower than 2017 and 16% higher than 2015.

Table 2. Negative Responses by Category from 2015-2018

Question Category

Negative Responses

Negative Responses

Negative Responses

Negative Responses

2017-2018 Change

Total Change Since 2015 (%)

My Work Experience

23 14 16 14 -2 -9

My Work Unit

24 17 15 20 +5 -4

My Agency 21 15 13 19 +6 -2 My Supervisor

13 11 9 15 +6 +2

Leadership 31 18 12 20 +8 -11 My Satisfaction

39 29 22 26 +4 -13

Overall Negative Response summary:

Negative responses increased in all categories except My Work Experience (Table 2).

The Negative responses were higher in My Work Unit, Agency, Supervisor and Leadership than either of the past two years. All except My Supervisor were still lower than the 2015 levels. The most concerning change is in the My Supervisor category which scored lower this year than the past three years.

Results for Specific Questions

In addition to tracking the question categories, PIRO also has identified specific questions to which we pay close attention over time, and has set goals to decrease the negative responses to those questions. In 2016, PIRO set a goal of decreasing the negative responses by 15% for questions 18, 19, 23, 24, 30, 33, 37, 53, and 61. PIRO made significant progress in this goal for 2016, and made additional strides in 2017. Unfortunately, the score for many of these questions showed increases in negative responses between 2017 and 2018 (Table 3). The majority of these questions still show decreases in the negative responses of greater than 10% since 2016 with the greatest difference in question 18 (51%). The boxes highlighted below are the questions with the least improvement since 2015. A guide to the actual text of each question can be found below.

Table 3. Summary of scores for specific questions from 2015-2018

FEVS

Question

Negative Response

Negative Response

Negative Response

Negative Response

Change (%)

Total Change Since 2015 (%)

18 68 32 23 17 -6 -51 19 45 23 36 34 -2 -11 23 41 38 23 34 +11 -7 24 53 15 20 39 +19 -14 30 50 19 21 35 +14 -15 33 40 34 32 35 +3 -5 37 43 29 19 31 +12 -12 53 41 34 17 40 +23 -1 61 41 30 22 26 +4 -15 Key to the FEVS questions above:

18. My training needs are assessed

19. In my most recent performance appraisal, I understood what I had to do to be rated at different performance levels (for example, Fully Successful, Outstanding).

23. In my work unit, steps are taken to deal with a poor performer who cannot or will not improve.

24. In my work unit, differences in performance are recognized in a meaningful way.

30. Employees have a feeling of personal empowerment with respect to work processes.

33. Pay raises depend on how well employees perform their jobs.

37. Arbitrary action, personal favoritism and coercion for partisan political purposes are not tolerated.

53. In my organization, senior leaders generate high levels of motivation and commitment to the workforce.

61. I have a high level of respect for my organization's senior leaders.

While PIRO has identified the questions above for specific goal-setting, we review carefully the results of all questions and track trends in all questions over time. In analyzing the 2018 results and trends, we found that the greatest improvements in 2018 were to questions 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 13, 18, 29, 47, 67, 68, and 70. These improvements resulted either from an increase in positive responses or a decrease in negative responses (Table 4).

Table 4. Summary of questions with the greatest improvement from 2017 to 2018 FEVS Question 2017 Positive

Response (%) 2018 Positive Response (%)

Improvement from 2017-2018 (%)

2 66 76 +11 4 71 81 +10 5 82 88 +6 7 91 97 +6 10 54 62 +8 29 73 84 +11 47 69 75 +6 67 29 37 +9 FEVS Question 2016 Negative

Response (%) 2017 Negative Response (%)

Improvement from 2017-2018 (%)

13 9 1 -8 18 23 17 -6 68 23 16 -7 70 32 24 -9 Key to the FEVS questions above:

2. I have enough information to do my job well.

4. My work gives me a feeling of personal accomplishment.

5. I like the kind of work I do.

7. When needed I am willing to put in the extra effort to get a job done.

10. My workload is reasonable.

13. The work I do is important.

18. My training needs are assessed.

29. The workforce has the job-relevant knowledge and skills necessary to accomplish organizational goals.

47. Supervisors in my work unit support employee development.

67. How satisfied are you with your opportunity to get a better job in your organization?

68. How satisfied are you with the training you receive for your present job?

70. Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your pay?

Numerous questions showed less favorable results with either a decrease in positive or an increase in negative responses. The results are summarized in Table 5 below.

Table 5. Summary of questions with less favorable results from 2017 to 2018

FEVS Questions 2017 Positive Response

2018 Positive Response

Decrease in Positive Response from 2017-2018 (%)

9 61 50 -11 20 88 70 -19 21 70 54 -16 26 89 75 -14 27 68 58 -10 31 73 47 -27 32 56 45 -12 34 75 55 -21 38 74 58 -16 39 86 67 -19 40 78 60 -18 41 76 48 -29 42 97 80 -17 54 70 47 -23 55 71 59 -12 58 69 57 -12 59 82 55 -27 65 60 49 -11 FEVS Questions 2017 Negative

Response (%) 2018 Negative Response (%)

Increase in Negative Response from 2017-2018 (%)

3 6 18 +12 25 16 32 +16 44 12 24 +12 52 3 18 +15 56 5 16 +11 60 11 24 +13 63 16 31 +16 69 14 25 +11 71 7 20 +13 Key to the FEVS questions above:

3. I feel encouraged to come up with new and better ways of doing things.

9. I have sufficient resources (for example, people, materials, budget) to get my job done.

20. The people I work with cooperate to get the job done.

21. My work unit is able to recruit people with the right skills.

25. Awards in my work unit depend on how well employees perform their jobs.

26. Employees in my work unit share job knowledge with each other.

27. The skill level in my work unit has improved in the past year.

31. Employees are recognized for providing high quality products and services.

32. Creativity and innovation are rewarded.

34. Policies and programs promote diversity in the workplace (for example, recruiting minorities and women, training in awareness of diversity issues, mentoring).

38. Prohibited personnel practices (for example, illegally discriminating for or against any employee/applicant, obstructing a person's right to compete for employment, knowingly violating veterans' preference requirements) are not tolerated.

39. My agency is successful at accomplishing its mission.

40. I recommend my organization as a good place to work.

41. I believe the results of this survey will be used to make my agency a better place to work.

42. My supervisor supports my need to balance work and other life issues.

44. Discussions with my supervisor about my performance are worthwhile.

52. Overall, how good a job do you feel is being done by your immediate supervisor?

54. My organization's senior leaders maintain high standards of honesty and integrity.

55. Supervisors work well with employees of different backgrounds.

56. Managers communicate the goals and priorities of the organization.

58. Managers promote communication among different work units (for example, about projects, goals, needed resources).

59. Managers support collaboration across work units to accomplish work objectives.

60. Overall, how good a job do you feel is being done by the manager directly above your immediate supervisor?

63. How satisfied are you with your involvement in decisions that affect your work?

65. How satisfied are you with the recognition you receive for doing a good job?

69. How satisfied are you with the training you receive for your present job?

71. Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your organization?

The following two graphs are the comparison of PIRO’s response by subject area for 2015-2018.

The following two graphs are a comparison of PIRO’s responses to those questions in the Work Experience category for 2015 to 2018.

The following two graphs are a comparison of PIRO’s responses to those questions in the Work Unit category for 2015 to 2018.

The following two graphs are a comparison of PIRO’s responses to those questions in the Agency category for 2015 to 2018.

Supervisor category for 2015 to 2018.

Leadership category for 2015 to 2018.

The following two graphs are a comparison of PIRO’s responses to those questions in the My Satisfaction category for 2015 to 2018.