Margaret Weichert, Acting Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), today issued the following statement regarding the 2018 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) Governmentwide Management Report:

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce the release of the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) Governmentwide Management Report – a snapshot of the Federal workforce perceptions as expressed by the workforce itself. This data reflects how Federal employees feel about their agencies, their role within their organizations, and the work they do serving the American people.

This year, the survey went out to every Federal civil servant, providing us with a wealth of valuable information. Our employees continue to feel positive overall about their work experience and feel invested in doing a good job; 90 percent of our workforce believes the work they do is important.

Unfortunately, our people also continue to feel that the Federal Government fails to fully align with Merit System Principles when measuring performance against rewards; only 26 percent of our people believe pay raises depend on positive performance.

Although the five-year trend for FEVS responses is moving in a positive direction, we cannot stop here and must continue to engage in dialogue with our workforce on how to enhance employee engagement. We have critical work to do in order to build a modern workforce designed to meet the needs of Americans in the 21^st century.

Our civil service is the backbone of the Federal government, and our workforce will play a pivotal role in improving government efficiency and effectiveness by focusing on the three pillars of the President’s Management Agenda (PMA):

Mission: A modern workforce will deliver mission outcomes the public expects by focusing on high-value, high-impact work.

Service: A modern workforce will improve customer service for the 21^st century by facilitating faster, more convenient and more cost-effective customer experiences

Stewardship: A modern workforce leads to better stewardship of taxpayer dollars by utilizing new approaches, increasing transparency, and delivering better services.

The 2018 FEVS results are especially critical as we strive to make our government more effective, efficient, and accountable to American taxpayers. We take seriously our responsibility to make data-driven decisions that result in long-term success. We will look at underlying causes behind employee perceptions in order to replicate those that lead to positive responses and reshape the issues behind the negative observations.

We are committed to a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. As the United States faces the challenge of serving the diverse needs of our growing country, we will do all we can to help ensure the Federal workforce is prepared to meet America’s needs in the 21^st century.

Best,

Margaret