Want to Rate Your Job? You May Get the Opportunity

The Office of Personnel Management has begun distributing the 2015 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, and the OPM director wants to make sure you fill out the survey if you receive one.

Do you like your job? Do you hate it? Do you like the agency you work for? What about your boss?

The annual survey from OPM asking for feedback from federal employees to rate their agencies, work experiences, and supervisors has arrived.

The Office of Personnel Management has begun releasing the 2015 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, and federal workers will have until early June to complete it. Not all federal employees will receive the survey, however as it is only being sent to a sample of employees. Employees selected will receive an invitation email with a link to the survey.

In a blog post, OPM director Katherine Archuleta listed four reasons why federal employees should fill out the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey:

  1. Your voice is important. The FEVS asks for your opinion on a wide range of topics, such as training, job satisfaction, performance appraisals, work-life programs, and management. Agencies use this valuable information to improve their organizations.
  2. Your responses are confidential. Individual FEVS responses cannot be linked back to you. No one – not even your supervisor – will know how you answered. The reason we insist on confidentiality is, we need your candid and unfiltered feedback.
  3. Your participation matters. The FEVS is sent to a sample of employees, so not every Federal worker gets a survey every year.  If you received one this year, your participation is important and will serve as a crucial voice for employees like you. If you’re not sure if you received an invitation, look for an email from OPM.
  4. You will have an impact. Leaders across the government pay close attention to FEVS scores. Thanks to new tools from OPM, including an online tool called Unlocktalent.gov, agency leaders can use the results in new and significant ways. With Unlocktalent.gov, they can slice and dice the data in ways that give them insights at every level of the agency, even individual offices.

To see how last year’s survey results came out, see FEVS Results Show Declining Trends in Employee Satisfaction.

About the Author

Ian Smith is one of the co-founders of FedSmith.com. He has over 20 years of combined experience in media and government services, having worked at two government contracting firms and an online news and web development company prior to his current role at FedSmith.