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Government Leader home > November 2005 issue
November 2005; Vol. 1 No. 4
HUMAN CAPITAL: Fairness, Interesting Work Please Employees
By John L. Guerra
A survey of executive branch employees put the Office of Management and Budget squarely at the top of the list of the 2005 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government, compiled by the Partnership for Public Service and American University’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy. Yet OMB has sponsored no employee ski trips, opened no on-site daycare centers, nor added other amenities workers often cite when describing a quality workplace.
OMB execs did it by changing the way they evaluate employee performance.
“We changed our performance evaluation process and designed it to have a positive impact,” said Clay Johnson, OMB’s deputy director for management. “We agreed that a good performance evaluation process serves the employees, and ensures supervisors are being very clear with their employees on what they’re doing well, what is expected and what the supervisor can do to help employees grow.”
OMB formerly used a pass-fail system under which 80 percent of its employees were rated as “outstanding.” One would think handing out high marks would lift worker morale, but the opposite can happen. Such blanket praise can lead to a feeling of unfairness when undeserving colleagues get “outstanding” status, Johnson said.
“We changed our evaluation categories to three different positive levels—outstanding, exceeds expectations and meets expectations. We trained our managers on the different [classes] of evaluations, that they’re put together as a communications device for the employee for helping them grow.”
The new evaluation system has paid off in job satisfaction, according to employee voting. “Scores suggest the employees have given us credit” for more accurate evaluations, Johnson said. “It’s not true that 80 percent of government employees are working at an ‘exceptional’ level. We weren’t being truthful.”
Employees at the National Science Foundation and Nuclear Regulatory Commission ranked their agencies as the second- and third-best places to work, respectively. Those agencies have a high percentage of employees with doctorates and have highly satisfying missions, top administrators said. Both also have on-site health care and other “family friendly” facilities.
“Employees have a strong commitment to the missions, which are very interesting—including research stints in the Arctic and Antarctic,” said Joe Burt, director of NSF’s Human Resource Management Division. “The work is fascinating and varied, which contributes to job satisfaction.”
NSF also has a project management system in place that includes input from scientists and other employees. “There’s a lot of consensus building,” Burt added. “People believe they’re part of the decision-making process; they have input in what the NSF does.”
NSF has made improvements to flexible work conditions in response to the last employee satisfaction survey, which took place in 2002. Employees at that time cited a need to improve flexibility for workers. “We have a full suite of flexible time options, including the creation of a telework program, which improved our score,” Burt said.
NRC employees face stressful work conditions. The agency is under pressure to finish relicensing the nation’s 104 nuclear power plants (they’ve completed 35 so far). Employees spend a lot of time on the road, conducting public hearings for each nuclear power plant from Killington to Kalamazoo.
“It’s challenging work and a tough work environment,” NRC commissioner Jeff Merrifield said. “We want to keep them healthy and happy.”
The amenities at NRC’s headquarters in Rockville, Md., help, according to its employee survey. “We have [facilities] including an on-site workout center with universal gym, an on-site medical staff and a daycare center,” Merrifield said.
Employees also have a welfare and recreation league that plans trips to sporting events and ski slopes, and other activities.
NRC has improved training and education for employees, too. It sends plant operator trainees to an independent facility complete with four nuclear-plant control room simulators, where they learn to handle glitches that occur while running reactors.
Best Places to Work in the Federal Government: 2005 rankings
1 Office of Management and Budget
2 National Science Foundation
3 Nuclear Regulatory Comm.
4 Government Accountability Office
5 Securities and Exchange Comm.
6 NASA
7 General Services Admin.
8 Environmental Protection Agency
9 Energy Dept.
10 State Dept.
11 Veterans Affairs Dept.
12 Commerce Dept.
13 Justice Dept.
14 Interior Dept.
15 Defense Dept.
16 Agriculture Dept.
17 Health and Human Services Dept.
18 AID (tie)
18 Labor Dept. (tie)
20 Transportation Dept.
21 Social Security Admin.
22 Housing and Urban Development Dept.
23 Treasury Dept.
24 Equal Employment Opportunity Comm.
25 Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
26 National Archives and Records Admin.
27 Office of Personnel Management
28 Education Dept.
29 Homeland Security Dept.
30 Small Business Admin.
Source: The Partnership for Public Service/American University Institute for Public Policy Implementation
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| "It’s a challenging work environment. We want to keep them healthy
and happy." —NRC’s Jeff Merrifield
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