Enable breadcrumbs token at /includes/pageheader.html.twig

Federal Employees Still Suffer Low Morale, Survey Shows

Consistent surveying key to mitigating problems of disgruntled employees

Federal employees continue to express overall discontent with their jobs, agencies and senior leadership, and the dissatisfaction leads to a staggering amount of lost productivity, experts say.

Unhappy employees lead to disengaged employees who fail to give their all to their jobs. Roughly 70 percent of federal employees reportedly are disengaged from their jobs, prompting them to take three sick days a year more than their engaged colleagues. The result is an annual loss of 19,000 work years throughout the federal government, says Paul Wilson, vice president of federal solutions at the Ken Blanchard Companies. The loss comes in to the tune of roughly $65 billion.

“Employees who are engaged use three fewer sick days a year than disengaged employees,” Wilson says. “When you look at the cost of that from a productivity perspective … those numbers are just unbelievable. I actually had to run these numbers three times to believe them.”

Additionally, the 2014 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), revealed a work force that was still overall unhappy in 2013—a year of furloughs and a government shutdown. The Department of Homeland Security, for example, continues to suffer from a disenfranchised work force, low morale and high turnover.

Agencies and companies that conduct employee assessments, such as Blanchard’s Employee Work Passion Assessment (EWPA), to pinpoint areas of discontent can then prescribe the needed changes to bring up morale. Such practices have led to improved employee engagement by 20 percent, increased employee retention by 17 percent and decreased workplace injuries by 83 percent, Wilson says.

The EWPA, a scientifically validated tool, identifies root causes of employees’ disengagement and dissatisfaction and can provide interventions. “It is like an MRI [magnetic resonance imaging]. It not only shows where you’re sick, but what is causing that sickness, so that real precise interventions can be developed,” Wilson says.

While the federal systems works to rebound from several tumultuous years, the federal survey of nearly 400,000 employees from 82 federal agencies did reveal some positives. More than 90 percent of the responding federal employees indicated they are willing to put in the extra effort needed to complete a job, and they consistently look for ways to do better, according to Katherine Archuleta, director of OPM.

“While the federal work force continues to face challenges, there are great opportunities for the talented employees who come to work every day prepared to do their very best to provide the service the American people deserve,” Archuleta says in the forward of the report released in late October.

The federal survey was administered between April and June and asked employees to assess how happy or content they were with their jobs, pay and the organization.

The global satisfaction index dropped from 67 percent in 2010 to 59 percent in 2014. Employees’ satisfaction in their jobs dropped from 72 percent to 64 percent, and satisfaction in pay dropped from 66 percent to 56 percent for those same years.

Consistent surveying of employees is key to mitigating problems of disgruntled employees, Wilson says. “Whether it’s as benign as a policy change … or a huge event like sequestration or an ethics breach by a leader, you can go in and take a pulse and see what the impact is.”