VA climbs into top-five best places to work in the federal government

Of 17 large federal agencies, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in 2021 climbed into the top-five best places to work in the U.S. government, according to the 19th annual employee engagement assessment, released by the Partnership for Public Service on July 13, 2022.

VA’s slightly improved “employee engagement and satisfaction” score of 70.2 out of a possible 100, from 70 in 2020, moved the 430,000-personnel agency up three spots to fifth on the good government group’s ranking of 17 agencies with over 15,000 employees.

Although more than 600,000 Veterans are employed across the federal government, VA at 31% is the executive branch agency with the third-highest proportion of employees who have served in the military, according to the 2021 report, The State of Veterans in the Federal Workforce. (With nearly half of its workers having worn the uniform, the Department of Defense employs the highest proportion of Veterans, data show.)

VA’s score is a bright spot in harsher assessment

VA’s better score is one of the brighter spots in what amounts to a grimmer yearly assessment of federal workers’ attitudes toward their employers: Most of the 70 large, midsize and small agencies scored the same or lower in 2021 compared to 2020. VA was among just 25 of 70 agencies assessed to see a one-year uptick in its score. VA beat the all-agency median score of 64.5 — a decline of 4.5 points compared to 2020 — and came in ahead of the large-agency median score of 66.

“Those (agencies) registering higher scores present a model and roadmap for federal leaders of what is working and how to create a rewarding and safe employee experience during this volatile time,” the partnership said in an analysis of its findings.

In fact, VA was the only large federal agency in the top five to see its score rise. Even NASA — employer of 18,000 people and perennially ranked number one on the partnership’s assessment of large agencies — saw its score tick down to 85.1 from 86.6. These second-, third- and fourth-ranked large agencies also saw one-year declines in scores: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (to 74.4 from 75.3), U.S. Department of Commerce (to 73.7 from 74.9) and the Intelligence Community (to 73.4 from 76.7).

The assessment considers the Intelligence Community an agency, even though it draws employees from 17 federal agencies and offices, including parts of DOD. Scoring eighth was an agency called “Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Staff, Defense Agencies, and Department of Defense Field Activities,” which represented over 114,000 DOD employees.

Lower pay raise, high inflation one possible driver of low scores

The partnership cited several possible reasons for the lower governmentwide scores. These include continued pandemic-related workforce disruptions during the late 2021 survey period; slow confirmation of President Joe Biden’s appointees during the administration’s initial year in office, which led to key leadership vacancies; and a low 1% employee pay raise in 2021 as consumer prices increased by 7%.

“Notably,” the partnership said in its analysis, “the 2022 pay raise for federal employees is 2.7%, and a proposed pay raise of 4.6% in 2023 would be the highest in two decades.”

In addition to pay concerns, other challenges dragging down scores in 2021 may have included work-life balance and workload increases as telework opportunities evolved, the partnership said.

The overall Best Places to Work engagement score, calculated by the partnership in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group, uses a formula based in part on responses to three questions asked by the Office of Personnel Management in its Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS).

The score tabulates positive responses to these FEVS questions: “I recommend my organization as a good place to work,” “Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your job?” and “Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your organization?” The formula then weights the responses to predict an employee’s “intent to remain” at the organization.

The five lowest ranked large agencies starting from 13th place were the State Department, U.S. Department of Agriculture (14th), Social Security Administration (15th), Department of Justice (16th) and the Department of Homeland Security (17th).

Learn more

• 2021 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings, Partnership for Public Service, July 13, 2022: https://rly.pt/BestPlacesToWork

• Analysis of governmentwide findings: https://rly.pt/3RBIT6B