Now this is an idea whose time has come: a list of the best places to work in the government. Of course, it’s not the Government of Canada, but the US federal government.
The rankings for the US government departments and agencies are put together by the Partnership for Public Service and American University’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation (ISPPI).
So let’s be clear on what the list is and is not. It reflects employee satisfaction; it does not reflect performance.
The scores are based on employee assessments of areas that include Strategic Management, Teamwork, Diversity and four categories of Effective Leadership: empowerment, fairness, leaders and supervisors. An interesting category is the Employee Skills/Mission Match that measures the degree to which employees think their talents are used effectively, whether they like their work and if they understand how their jobs support the organization.
Employees and managers (and taxpayers, if they care) can compare how organizations have fared and check out how much their scores have changed (for better or for worse).
The authors draw some lessons from the data.
First, change can happen: overall, the government-wide index has gone up 4.6% since the ratings were started in 2003.
Second, leadership matters: the site notes that “it is actually the quality of an agency’s senior leadership that has the greatest bearing on employee views.”
This is a useful tool in assessing government organisations. One can add it to the list that includes citizen satisfaction and performance.
The new scores are released today (Sept 1). You can check out them out at http://data.bestplacestowork.org/bptw/index
