The Office of Personnel Management will administer the 2024 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) beginning in the middle of May.
Survey invitations will be distributed to federal employees in two waves one week apart. Specific dates of when the survey invitations will be distributed were not included in OPM’s announcement.
Results from past years of the FEVS are available on OPM’s website.
The text of OPM’s memo with the announcement about the 2024 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey is included below.
OPM Memo – 2024 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey
April 26, 2024
Memorandum for Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, Chief Human Capital Officers, and Chief Diversity Officers
From: Kiran A. Ahuja, Director
Subject: 2024 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey
I am pleased to announce that OPM will launch the 2024 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) in mid-May. Through your partnership over the past 22 years, the survey has evolved from a high-level department and agency overview of employee feedback into a powerful management tool that guides workforce policy and change initiatives governmentwide.
The FEVS remains a true data asset for every single participating agency, providing leadership with a reliable method for capturing and analyzing employee feedback, benchmarking successes, and identifying emerging opportunities and challenges, keys to retaining the best employees and recruiting talented new hires into the Federal government. Overall, the FEVS is one of the most powerful platforms for Federal employees to share their work experience, a voice critical to achieving effective agencies and responsive public service in times of significant change and adaptation. To promote candid feedback from agency employees, OPM prioritizes the confidentiality of participant responses and the protection of participants’ personal data throughout the FEVS process. Survey results are aggregated for reporting purposes, and results for work units are only reported when ten or more employees in the unit participate.
Agency leadership support is key to a successful FEVS
As in previous years, survey invitations will be rolled out in two waves one week apart. Points of contact at each agency and the Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO) Council will be updated continually with the information you need to support your campaigns to encourage employee participation in the FEVS.
Strong survey participation is foundational to providing you with the highest quality data possible to support both your agency action initiatives and governmentwide priorities, such as the President’s Management Agenda. Successful strategies to improve survey response rates include tracking survey participation during fielding, communication of actions taken throughout the year, and, most importantly, frequent and ongoing communication from agency leadership expressing strong commitment to the FEVS and acknowledging its importance.
Your clear support of the survey is critical to ensure you have the robust, valid data you need to pursue internal action and to support multiple governmentwide initiatives. Strong FEVS data support the President’s Management Agenda, organizational health and performance priorities, evaluations of government programs and policies, and provides a resource for members of the public.
Accessing and acting on final results
Agency leaders will continue to access 2024 FEVS results through a portfolio of action-focused reports, dashboards, and the data explorer analysis tool, which allows in-depth exploration of results to address specific analytic questions. Reports support decision-making by relaying feedback to leadership about employees’ experiences of each agency’s policies and practices, insights essential to supporting effectiveness strategies. Report production begins once data from all 85 participating agencies are processed (e.g., files combined, data weighted, quality controls engaged). Agency report distribution initiates approximately five weeks after the survey closes in all agencies.
How well your reports represent overall employee sentiments in your agency is a function of transparent leadership action on results. OPM’s research consistently shows a strong relationship between response rates and employee belief that leadership will take action on the feedback they provide through the FEVS. Taking action begins with results sharing. Cascade the results throughout your agency; ensure reports are distributed to managers, supervisors, and employees at all levels of your agency as soon as possible. The comprehensive suite of FEVS reports OPM creates and distributes are intended to facilitate sharing of results within your agency. Provide information and resources about where employees can view results. Direct employees to your agency’s public website where your agency Annual Employee Survey (AES) results must be posted in keeping with statutory requirements and the OPM FEVS website which includes an abundance of information including technical reports, white papers, governmentwide reports, and public release data files for research (see the FEVS website).
Finally, interpret what the results mean for your agency and emphasize to employees that actions will be taken on results. This messaging is critical in that it reinforces to employees that their voice matters, and leadership takes employee opinions and feedback seriously. OPM reports are intended to facilitate access to and understanding of results. The comprehensive Agency Management Report includes a decision aid intended to facilitate your interpretation of results and identify the best focus for action planning efforts. See the FEVS Point of Contact in your agency for access to your complete portfolio of reports.
Modernizing FEVS results reporting
In 2024, our FEVS modernization efforts will include innovations to support results use and action. Building on 2023 dashboard improvements, agencies will be able to access even more results in an updated 2024 FEVS Agency Dashboard. This cutting-edge, interactive data visualization tool provides a dynamic interface that, when used in conjunction with distributed FEVS reports, provides an expanded view key to interpreting results. OPM’s investment in data visualization tools support innovation and is a major step toward helping agencies to access, digest, and fully utilize their FEVS to drive effective change initiatives.
As we move toward administration of the 2024 FEVS, I want to thank you for your ongoing partnership in making the FEVS a comprehensive human capital data asset relied upon by multiple stakeholders in and out of government. Again, your communicated support of the FEVS is key to its success and the level of detail accessible through your results reports. I deeply appreciate your efforts to engage your employees in the FEVS.
If you have any questions about the upcoming survey, please contact Dr. Kim Wells, Survey Manager, at evs@opm.gov.
