New Survey on Government Job Satisfaction

The Partnership for Public Service recently announced the results of its 10th annual survey of the best places to work in the Federal Government. While this may not interest a lot of readers of this blog, it offers some insight on how the folks we deal with on a regular basis view their work. The survey reflects the views of 433,300 civil servants from 391 federal organizations on a wide range of workplace topics.

Overall federal employee job satisfaction and commitment increased 1.2 points from 2014 for a score of 58.1 out of 100. This doesn't sound too good but at least the number is increasing. By comparison, the job satisfaction rate for private sector employees is 76.7 so the Government has a ways to go.

The first agencies we turned to in the survey were, of course, the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) and the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA). Overall, the Agency's rankings were 194 and 122 out of 320 agencies. Both Agencies recorded a decline from 2014. Still, DCAA ranked above medium. DCMA however ranked below medium.

Both Agencies scored low in the category of Employee Skills - Mission Match which measure the extent to which employees feel that their skills and talents are used effectively and the level to which employees get satisfaction from their work and understand how their jobs are relevant to the organizational mission. We know that auditors - many of whom are CPAs - feel like their skills are underutilized. By contrast, both Agencies scored well in the category of effective leadership.

If you are an auditor, you might want to check out jobs at the Inspector General's office at the Department of Interior (satisfaction rating of 86.2) or the Treasury's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (satisfaction rating of 90.6). DCAA finished in the middle of the pack, slightly below the medium at 63.6. Surprisingly, the DoD Inspector General finished dead last for the Auditor category at 38.0. The Agency that other agencies fear most must really have some issues. The GAO (Government Accountability Office) is a pretty good place for audits. Their satisfaction rating was 78.5.