Pulse Survey Preliminary Insights Reveal Federal Managers are Navigating Reentry
The President’s Management Council recently disclosed preliminary results from their inaugural federal pulse survey. In October of last year, the Council launched the survey focusing on three topics: employee engagement, inclusion, and the reentry process.
For the first pulse survey, the Council invited about two million civil servants across 24 agencies to participate. Participants could respond on a five-point scale between strongly agree and strongly disagree to each of the questions. Considering the disparity in response rates between agencies, this survey can only provide a partial picture of the federal workplace as a whole.
A pulse survey enables leaders to hear directly from employees, thereby guiding efforts to improve and motivate federal personnel. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the General Services Administration (GSA), can use survey insights to inform their discussions with agency leadership regarding employee engagement and autonomy.
According to the survey, federal employees generally agree with their supervisors in helping them navigate conversations about office re-entry - the most positive response of the entire sample. For most of the survey's prompts, the federal workforce responded either "neutral" or "somewhat agree". Other than feedback on return-to-office plans, federal employees gave the highest ratings to having someone they could approach about day-to-day problems, as well as agency leadership demonstrating their commitment to diversity and inclusion goals in the workplace.
Respondents differed the most on whether leadership was doing a good job protecting employees' health, safety, and wellbeing. Employees at the National Science Foundation (NSF) gave their leadership the top mark for office re-entry plans and plans to protect their health, safety, and wellbeing. While, in terms of returning to work and protecting employees' health and well-being, the Defense Department (DOD) received the lowest scores from employees.
Federal employees at DOD, Education Department (DOEd), Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD), and Social Security Administration (SSA) said they were most likely to take a different job that offered more flexibility or remote work options. Furthermore, employees at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and SSA said they would most likely take another job that offered the same pay and benefits as their current position.
Response rates for the pulse survey were highest at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the General Services Administration (GSA). The survey data indicate the lowest response rate was recorded by employees at the State Department, Interior Department, and the SSA.
Formed in a pilot program, the Council’s initial plan is to send three pulse surveys approximately every two months. According to OPM, the next survey is imminent.
