5. Government Transformation &
Agency Partnerships (GTAP)
Partnership Mission
The Partnership for Public Service is a nonprofit,
nonpartisan organization that works to revitalize our
federal government by transforming the way
government works and inspiring a new generation
to serve.
GTAP Team: Transform the way government works
6. The Challenge:
Employee Engagement
Government needs highly engaged employees to provide
critical services to the American public, yet this is a place
where government continues to struggle- especially with
budget constraints, hiring and pay freezes, and across-the-
board cuts.
7. The Opportunity:
Employee Engagement
Our Best Places to Work rankings give leaders a tool for
measuring progress and identifying trouble spots, helping
them improve communication and engage their employees in
making their agencies better places to work.
8. The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government®
rankings, produced by the Partnership, provide a
comprehensive analysis of employee satisfaction in
the federal government
12. BPTW Rankings Index Score
Proprietary formula using the
percent of positive responses
to these 3 questions:
• I recommend my
organization as a good
place to work.
• Considering everything, how
satisfied are you with your
job?
• Considering everything, how
satisfied are you with your
organization?
65.0
64.0
60.8
57.8
56.9
70.6 70.0 70.0
70.7
72.0
50
55
60
65
70
75
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Government Private Sector Agency
Produced by the Partnership and Deloitte
13. Best Places to Work
Government-Wide index score
60.5
62.1 61.8
63.3
65.0
64.0
60.8
57.8
56.9
50
55
60
65
70
75
2003 2005 2007 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
18. Now, what do we do with all
of this information?
Best Places to Work Advisory Services
Educate
• Briefings: United States Geological Survey
• Deloitte Webinars
Consult
• National Credit Union Administration
• Foreign Agricultural Service Work-Outs
Train
• ACE: Appreciation, Communication, Empowerment
• APFT: Action Planning Facilitation Training
• Custom trainings
19. What I Do
• Core team meetings
• Presidential Management Fellows training
• LEAP
All that fun stuff, plus…
20. Key Takeaways
• Positive change in organizations cannot be driven solely
from the top down: Employee engagement is crucial!
• BPTW Advisory Services provide custom agency
briefings, data analysis and action planning to help
agencies learn from their Best Places to Work data and
identify ways to improve employee engagement.
• I enjoy hockey and cats.
Primary work in my portfolio- it encompasses so much
Kelly and I are both from New Rochelle
Cat Café- Crumbs and Whiskers on O St. officially opens tomorrow (June 20): You have to reserve in advance. $10/hr
About me on GTAP
Team offsite last Friday- had to include pics
We did a photo scavenger hunt
Deloitte sponsors Best Places rankings
Office of Personnel Management sends survey (FEVS), PPS uses data (public) to create rankings
Based on employee responses to the FEVS, administered annually by the US Office of Personnel Management to all full-time and part-time permanent federal employees
Index score measures the performance of agencies related to employee satisfaction and commitment
Scale of zero to 100
After reviewing nearly 10 years of Best Places to Work data, we created a list of agencies to profile based on their Best Places to Work performance. Some of the questions explored during agency selection included:
Did the agency show an improvement in employee satisfaction or was the agency a consistent top performer? If the agency improved, was the improvement rapid or steady?
Is the agency centrally located or does it have offices at many different locations (nationally or internationally)?
What is the composition of the agency’s workforce? What types of occupations do the agency’s employees hold?
What is the size of the agency’s workforce?
Is the agency independent or is it a subcomponent of a larger organization?
The case studies report highlighted the accomplishments of six agencies, from them we’ve drawn out common themes and strategies for maintaining and improving a high preforming, satisfied and committed workforce
Organizations selected all have varying missions, strategies, sizes, etc. and they all achieved success in different forms (e.g., maintaining high rank, coming up slowly but surely, quick improvements, etc)
** Update agency data
Index score is comprised of three questions employees respond to on the FEVS
The percent positive responses to these 3 questions comprise the index score
Proprietary formula
The 2014 government-wide score marks the lowest score since rankings began
Since 2010, government-wide score decreased by 8.1 points
Thanks to Hay Group, our technical partner, who have provided private sector benchmark data for us since 2009.
The Private sector scores much higher than government in 2014. in 2010 (government’s high point), the gap between the two was only 5.6 points. In 2014, that gap widened to 15.1 points.
Workplace Categories – Scores 10 specific categories within the workplace
Identifying categories allows agencies to target specific areas for improvement
These are the 10 categories that comprise the Workplace Category score. These categories encompass 47 specific questions
Questions organized into these 10 categories
As well as the index score, the BPTW rankings examine ten workplace categories- category scores are calculated by averaging the percent positive responses to 44 additional FEVS questions
While many factors are involved in shaping how employees view their workplace, the 2014 survey for the eighth time in a row showed the primary element that drives worker satisfaction in the federal space is Effective Leadership.
Effective leadership has been the key driver every year since the rankings launched in 2003.
A regression analysis determines which workplace categories are the best predictors of the BPTW index score- categories with most impact are key drivers
To better understand the Effective Leadership categories we broke it into 4 subcategories – Senior Leaders is the biggest driver of overall satisfaction and commitment. Then Empowerment, Fairness, Supervisors.
The Effective Leadership category measures the extent to which employees believe leadership at all levels of the organization generates motivation and commitment, encourages integrity, and manages people fairly
Empowerment subcategory measures the extent to which employees feel empowered with respect to work processes and how satisfied they are with their involvement in decisions that affect their work.
Fairness subcategory measures the extent to which employees believe disputes are resolved fairly in their work unit, whether employees believe arbitrary action and personal favoritism are tolerated and if employees feel comfortable reporting illegal activity
Senior Leaders subcategory measures the level of respect employees have for senior leaders, satisfaction with the amount of information provided by management, and perceptions about senior leaders’ honesty, integrity and ability to motivate employees
Supervisors subcategory measures employees’ opinions about their immediate supervisor’s job performance, how well supervisors give employees the opportunity to demonstrate leadership skills, and the extent to which employees feel supervisors support employee development
Biggest change on senior leaders (-3.0), Empowerment (-1 point), smallest change on supervisors (-0.3 points)
The 2014 empowerment score is the lowest that it’s been in the ten-year history of the rankings
Only 4 out of 10 federal employees feel empowered with respect to their work processes.
The lowest score in the Senior Leaders category is on the question, “Leaders generate high levels of motivation and commitment in the workforce.”
Only 35.1 percent responded positively
Decreased by 3.4 points
Senior Leaders also get low marks on communication.
Only 42.9 percent say they are satisfied with the information they receive from management about what’s going on in the organization.
Advise agencies to help improve employee engagement for better organizational results
Our advisory services program assists agencies with examining their data and learning how to transform their culture, by providing specific data analysis, facilitated workshops and targeted online or on-site training, all with the aim of increasing employee engagement
Work Outs- GE
NCUA OCFO action planning sessions
Deloitte Webinars- assist in creation of content and execution of webinars and in-person events
