SEC Employees to Participate in OPM's Annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey Soon

05/11/2012

5/11/12:  The SEC informed NTEU this week that the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) will be available for SEC employee participation soon, probably as early as next week. NTEU Chapter 293 strongly encourages all SEC employees to take this important opportunity to provide feedback about the agency by responding to this confidential survey.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is already administering the FEVS governmentwide. This survey initative has been in place since 2002. It measures employees' perceptions of whether, and to what extent, conditions that characterize successful organizations are present in each federal agency. The survey responses are utilized by the Partnership for Public Service to generate its annual “Best Places to Work” list, which agencies take very seriously when formulating their human capital policies.

This year's FEVS has a few notable changes from last year:

  • The survey will be administered to a "census" of employees (e.g., all employees will be permitted to participate), which means that approximately 1.8 million employees will have the opportunity to participate (up from over 560,000 employees last year). Last year, the SEC opted not to permit all SEC employees to participate in the survey.
  • This year, and moving forward, survey participants will include permanent, part-time employees, in addition to permanent, full-time employees;
  • Agencies are being given a six week survey administration period by OPM;
  • Agencies will be able to drill down to lower levels of reports, allowing for more meaningful analysis at the lowest level; and
  • The core survey questions will remain the same but, to continue the commitment to promote diversity in the broadest sense, OPM is adding three demographic items regarding disability status, veterans' status and sexual orientation. This data will be used to enhance the Federal government's understanding of the diversity of its workforce.

Employees may complete the survey during their workday. The responses of all individuals remain confidential and will have no impact on any individual's employment.