Another Chance for Feds to Say How They Really Feel About How They Are Being Treated
Merit Board survey will allow managers and employees to share their views anonymously over the next four weeks.
The Merit Systems Protection Board on Tuesday announced that it is inviting federal employees and managers to begin completing the latest of its surveys on issues such as whether workers are being treated fairly, and recruitment and retention.
The Web-based Merit Principles Survey will go out to 25 major agencies and departments, and 120,000 employees will be invited to complete it over the next four weeks. It is narrower in scope, smaller in sampling size and less frequent than the Office of Personnel Management’s annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.
Voluntary and confidential, the MSPB questionnaire focuses on merit system principles and human resources policy and practice, the MSPB said in a release. The 2016 version of the statutorily required survey will inquire about “employee engagement, fair treatment and nondiscrimination, recruitment and retention, sexual and non-sexual harassment, HR services and addressing poor performance,” the board said.
MSPB asked employee unions to encourage participation. To minimize burdens, MSPB will administer three versions of the questionnaire, each focused on a portion of the larger topics.
Results and subsequent recommendations will go to “the president, Congress, and other federal decision-makers to promote merit-based and effective human resources policies and practices,” the board announced.
A 2013 version of the survey found that more than a quarter of federal employees believed their supervisors demonstrated favoritism.