Federal employees will have the opportunity to share their thoughts on the workplace in a new independent survey conducted by the Partnership for Public Service.
After the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) canceled its Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) for the first time since it launched in 2002, the Partnership for Public Service said it will step up to fill in the data gap.
“For more than 20 years, workforce data generated through the FEVS has helped leaders across government – regardless of administration – identify problems, track progress, and deliver better results for the American taxpayer,” Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, said in a statement.
“We are conducting the Public Service Viewpoint Survey because we know our government’s most important asset is its people, and it is critical that federal employees across government have an opportunity to share their views about their organizations and leaders,” Stier added.
FEVS was an organizational climate survey that assessed how employees jointly experience the policies, practices, and procedures characteristic of their agency and its leadership.
Earlier this year, OPM said it was removing questions related to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and gender identity, while adding a question about poor performers that was removed by the Biden administration. The survey was initially delayed but ultimately canceled by OPM.
In its announcement of its plans to continue FEVS, the Partnership for Public Service said that OPM’s decision to cancel the survey “eliminates a critical management tool that agency leaders have relied on for decades to understand workforce perspectives, identify opportunities for improvement, and make evidence-based decisions about workplace policies.”
The Partnership said it is working with federal employee unions and professional organizations to distribute its survey and will use “a smaller set of questions focused on workplace experience and satisfaction to reduce completion time and burden.”
Survey results will undergo an independent analysis to determine their validity and reliability and will be released next year, the Partnership said.
All responses will also remain confidential and be reported in aggregate at government-wide, agency, and subcomponent levels, the Partnership assured.
Those results will reflect sweeping changes within the federal government over the past year, including agency closures, office consolidations, and large-scale layoffs under the Trump administration.
“The data from our survey will help agency leaders and policymakers make data-informed decisions during a year of significant workforce transition,” Stier said.