2013 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey – BBG Results
OPM has provided the initial BBG results from the 2013 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. The agency had an important increase in the participation rate of employees as well as significant increases in several categories of questions.
In 2013, 70% of eligible employees took the survey – up from 53% participation in 2012. The BBG saw significant (a difference of 5 percentage points or more) improvement on ten survey questions and no significant decreases. There are higher rates of satisfaction in terms of health and wellness and work-life issues as well as improvements on communication and transparency related questions.
Along with continued strengths in terms of a high level of commitment and personal satisfaction from employees, the agency has some persistent challenges including performance management and leadership related issues.
Given that many of these challenges were identified in the 2012 survey results, the BBG initiated a Workplace Engagement Plan with 12 action teams in March of 2013 just prior to the April 2013 survey. While not yet reflected in the survey results, the efforts that are underway draw upon the experience of the Partnership for Public Service working with other federal agencies, include engaging a group of trained employee-facilitators, and tap into teams of employees and leaders across the agency to address workplace issues.
This initial OPM data release gives the agency-wide responses. OPM is expected to release additional data for the BBG and the rest of the government that provides useful context and detail in December. The results will further shape the ongoing action plans of the agency’s Workplace Engagement teams.