The 2023 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings released today show that employees who teleworked full-time were more satisfied in their jobs and with their agencies compared to Feds working on-site at headquarters or in field offices.
Partnership for Public Service and Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) annual rankings show the first increase in Federal employee engagement and satisfaction since 2020, with agencies’ telework policies playing a significant role.
The 2023 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government engagement and satisfaction score is 65.7, representing a 2.3-point increase from 2022 in how the nation’s civil servants view their agencies and jobs.
“The gains in Federal employee engagement are promising and indicate that an intentional focus on the management of the workforce can make a difference,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service. “A highly motivated, engaged, and expert career Federal workforce, a cornerstone of American democracy, is critical to a well-functioning government and the success of our country.”
The survey – which includes 532 Federal agencies and agency subcomponents, the most in the history of the rankings that began in 2003 – finds that Feds who teleworked full-time registered the highest score (74.6) followed by those who worked at headquarters (69.2) and those who worked in field offices (61.7).
“Organizations that invest in their workforce reap the benefits of both engagement and productivity,” said?Brooke Bollyky, leader of BCG’s Public Sector Practice in North America. “Our research shows that the future of work revolves around talent, particularly developing generative leaders and building a continuous learning culture.”
Of the 73 agencies included in this year’s rankings, 49 registered increases or held steady in their Best Places to Work scores compared with 2022. Among the 459 subcomponents, 303 improved or held steady. Both findings are substantial improvements from the past two years, the organizations said.
NASA maintained its top spot among large agencies for the 12th consecutive year, while the runner-up Department of Health and Human Services again increased its Best Places to Work score.
In the midsize agency category, the Government Accountability Office remained at the top for the fourth year in a row, and among small agencies, the National Indian Gaming Commission – a first-time participant in the rankings – topped the list.
The Department of Homeland Security, Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Defense Technical Information Center within the Department of Defense are the most improved in their respective groupings.
The Social Security Administration remained in last place among 17 large agencies, falling 1.8 points for a score of 52.1. Both the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development saw declines in their scores for the second year in a row, landing near the bottom of their rankings.
In the midsize agencies, the National Science Foundation dropped out of the top five after finishing second the previous two years. The Export-Import Bank remained in last place among 30 small agencies with a score of 40.6 points, a drop of 14.4 points, while the Federal Bureau of Prisons was at the bottom of the subcomponents list with a score of 38.1 points, an improvement of 2.6 points over 2022.
Other notable findings include that Feds aged 30 to 39 showed the lowest satisfaction (62.3) of any age group in 2023, and employees gave their agencies a score of 47.7 on the question of whether “the results of this survey will be used to make my agency a better place to work.” Although still low, this figure represents a 4.8-point increase from 2022 and suggests increased confidence that agency leaders will respond to employee feedback, the organizations said.
This Best Places to Work data includes responses from more than 1 million Federal employees. Most of the data used to develop the Best Places to Work scores and rankings was collected by the Office of Personnel Management’s annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS), which was administered during the summer of 2023. The FEVS survey was completed by more than 625,000 Federal workers. An additional 394,800 Federal employees completed separate surveys within 12 other agencies.
