Many businesses at some point attempt to gauge the happiness of its employees, and those businesses that don’t, really should. Determining the happiness of employees is a good way to make sure employee retention is high. If a business has a high number of unhappy employees it would serve the business leaders well to determine why.
The Partnership for Public Service recently released its rankings on the best places to work within the federal government based upon surveys done by the Office of Personnel Management. A total of 19 different federal agencies were ranked after three questions were asked to federal employees. The questions that were asked include:
- If you recommend your organization as a good place to work?
- How satisfied are you with your job?
- How satisfied are you with your organization?
The Social Security Administration placed sixth on the list of 19 federal agencies. This was a bit surprising. Everyday Social Security employees face long lines of people they have to serve at government offices all over the country, not to mention an endless number of phone calls on a daily basis. Considering that most would consider Social Security to be considerably understaffed, one would think that this type of atmosphere is ideal in developing a stressed out and overwhelmed workforce, but that does not seem to be the case. Understanding the types of services Social Security provides, like ensuring benefits to the disabled, retired and less advantaged, may be the reason Social Security employees seem to be pretty happy. Most of them go to work every day knowing they have a chance to help people try and live better lives.
The top agency for best place to work within the federal government was the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, followed by the intelligence community and the Department of Justice. Unfortunately, considering we are all concerned about safety in this country, last place on the list for best places to work was the Department of Homeland Security. For a complete list of best places to work in the federal government click here.
