Federal Agency Sees Increase in Employee Happiness and Engagement

401(k)-like retirement savings program officials said they have started to backtrack on the engagement downturn among federal employees.

During the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board meeting, officials said the agency was trying to improve the employee engagement score from 66 to 68 points. The board, which controls the Thrift Savings Plan, wants to improve the TSP’s global satisfaction index – a measurement of the employee happiness. Currently, it’s sitting at a score of 64 points.

Each year, the Office of Personnel Management releases a Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey to federal employees to determine how happy and engaged their area. While the OPM has yet to release the 2018 results, according to the TSP’s Office of Resource Management Director Gisele Goethe, there has been a one point increase in government satisfaction. For engagement, the agency matched other areas of the federal government.

Goethe said TSP satisfaction numbers have appeared to stabilize though the numbers are still not as high as prior years. She said engagement numbers increased two percentage point, which keeps the pace of the government-wide results.

The TSP has been rated as one of the best places to work within the federal government, but in 2017, its failed, dropping from 72 to 66 for engagement and, for global satisfaction, it dropped from 68 to 66 on the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.

Officials believe the scores were the result of an impending leave of Greg Long, the agency’s TSP executive director.

According to Goethe, the additional turnover could have affected efforts to improve its employee engagement. When the results were released last year, the agency looked at how it could improve communication from employees to agency leadership, getting regular feedback from its workers.

Goethe said change is constantly taking place. And, trying to improve engagement is working toward stabilizing the change and coming up with some type of steadiness. She said the agency is working to communicate on the going-ons in the agency and focusing on the leadership team’s priorities and goals.  She said a majority of the questions that relate to this have led to the increase in percentage points.

Ravindra Deo, executive director for the TSP, said it would take many years before there is an improvement in both employee happiness and engagement.  However, early signs point to some individual question scores. He said a question regarding how the work they do relates to the mission saw a rise of seven points – from 77 to 84.

Deo said change isn’t easy for anyone, but the answer lies in communication. He said communication is already being seen through the goals question. Deo said now attention needs to go to improving communication and the message, and also ensure people see the results of their feedback.