A new report from the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) says that federal employees are more satisfied with their pay than they were in the last 1980s, but lack confidence in their managers.
In 2005, 76 percent of federal employees said they would recommend the government as a place to work, up from just 49 percent in 1989. Likely, this is at least partially due to increased satisfaction with federal pay and benefits. Sixty percent of feds in 2005 reported satisfaction with their pay, compared to only 28 percent in 1989.
Interestingly, while 76 percent recommend the government as an employer, only 66 percent said they would recommend their specific agency. That “get a job with government, but don’t come to my office” gap might be explained by negative experiences with managers. In 2005, 68 percent of participants in the survey said they had a high opinion of their manager’s technical ability, but only 55 percent said their supervisor had strong management skills. Even worse, 22 percent had little or no trust in their manager to rate applicants effectively.
OhMyGov!’s own polling of readers found results less rosy. When asked if they recommend federal service to their friends, only 48 percent said yes. The question about supervisor quality found 49 percent of readers unhappy with their supervisor’s technical and management skills.
The MSPB recommends that federal agencies need to capitalize on their strengths as an employer and improve the selection and development of supervisors. The report writers said, “Although supervisors are key to effective workforce management, federal employees continue to report that supervisors’ management abilities are inferior to their technical competence. That persistent gap suggests that agencies need to examine both what they expect of their supervisors, and how they select, develop, and evaluate their supervisors.”
The report also includes selected statistics of the federal workforce. These statistics show that the current workforce is more diverse, older, longer serving, and higher paid than previous generations. They are also more educated and fewer of them are in clerical or blue-collar positions. In 1983 just 28 percent of workers had a bachelor’s or higher degree; in 2007 that figure was 45 percent. Sixty-one percent of occupations in 2007 are classified as professional or administrative, with just six percent clerical and 11 percent blue-collar. In 1983, only 39 percent were professional or administrative, 20 percent clerical, and 21 percent blue-collar.
There are some surprising results in the report. Older federal employees with many years of service were less likely to recommend the federal government as an employer than were younger and newer employees, shattering any assumption that only highly satisfied employees would stay in federal service throughout their career. Higher paid employees were also slightly less likely to recommend the government, perhaps suggesting a lesser pay competitiveness at higher levels of government.
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