Federal Veterinarians Dedication to Public Service
Need a lifeline? We’re here for you. Visit WAEPA.org.
The prompt for this round of the FEDforum is team morale. This week, hear from the National Association of Federal Veterinarians (NAFV).
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) measures employee engagement and satisfaction with their workplaces, or in other words morale. The FEVS serves as a tool for employees to share their perceptions in many critical areas including their work experiences, their agency, and their leadership.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM) and its Office of Employee Experience (OEX) use the results of FEVS to inform efforts and the initiatives currently underway with the “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government” ranking according to the Partnership for Public Service on employee satisfaction, engagement, and morale—all of which support and inform USDA’s 2022-2026 Strategic Plan and the Secretary and Deputy Secretary’s FY2022 priority to “Make USDA a Best Place to Work.”
And this is where an association such as the National Association of Federal Veterinarians (NAFV) can come in.
Today’s veterinarians are the only doctors educated to protect the health of both animals and people. These dedicated professionals apply their medical skills not in “private practice” but in “public practice” in the service of every American through the many programs administered by the federal government. Though federal veterinarians touch the lives of every American every day, many feel undercompensated, underappreciated, and overworked. These feelings can contribute to high employee turnover rates, which impact overall morale of the team, the health and wellness of Americans, and the agency’s performance.
Many times, there are significant gaps between the perceptions of an agency’s executive leadership and the realities of mid-level management. This can be even worse when including agencies rank and file grassroots employees.
The majority of NAFV members (and most of the veterinarians employed by the federal government) work for the USDA. The results of FEVS indicated that morale at USDA is low, ranked 14 of 17 large federal agencies, only slightly better than the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). When you look at the sub-agency rankings our major membership comes from the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS; ranked 331 out of 432) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS; ranked 284 out of 432).
For those working there, this may not come as a surprise. But, how can these agencies benefit from working with NAFV, as an association of managers and supervisors?
There are finer points of job satisfaction that the FEVS cannot measure. The impact of mandatory deployments on people's job satisfaction, for example. When that deployment is seen as furthering the mission of the agency, it can be a positive motivating factor; however, if that mandatory deployment is seen as making up for an agencies failure to fill critical vacancies, it has just the opposite effect on morale. When deployments are viewed as unfairly assigned where certain individuals seem to be exempt from deployment, then it can destroy the sense of fairness and mutual commitment to mission accomplishment. This level of detail can't be reached by the FEVS, but through consultations with NAFV members and executive leadership these insights can be addressed. In many cases, just hearing a third party explain the situation can make all the difference in how the issue is perceived.
The NAFV strives to serve both veterinarians and the agencies they work for by facilitating communication, making suggestions for improvements, and working collaboratively to address issues of concern. This advocacy includes emphasizing professionalism and expertise in federal service, but also promoting continuing education, teamwork and morale, and a standard of excellence. NAFV is working hard to improve your professional working environment. NAFV engages with senior leadership in the department regarding member and workforce concerns to develop solutions, not as a union but as an organization that represents the dedicated medical and scientific professionals working as federal veterinarians.
NAFV’s goal is to enhance the productivity and impact of federal veterinarians’ work life, which instills a positive sense of accomplishment. When a veterinarian is lifted, that positively reflects the team, and that morale boost translates into increased productivity and pride in your work which makes all the difference.
The column from the National Association of Federal Veterinarians is part of the FEDforum, an initiative to unite voices across the federal community. The FEDforum is a space for federal employee groups to share their organizations’ initiatives and activities with the FEDmanager audience.
Be sure to subscribe to FEDmanager so you never miss an update!