Employees rank NASA as most innovative agency
Nonprofit looks at how federal workers view creativity in their jobs.
More than half of federal workers value creativity and innovation in their jobs, according to a new report from a nonprofit organization.
The Partnership for Public Service and the Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, looked at the factors driving innovation in agencies and found 63.3 percent of employees gave the government a positive score on innovation. The percentage was based on the average of three innovation-related questions posed in the Office of Personnel Management's annual survey of federal employee attitudes; the 2010 survey included more than 263,000 employees from 32 large agencies, 34 small agencies and 224 agency subcomponents.
NASA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission topped the list of most innovative agencies, according to the report. The General Services Administration, State Department and Army rounded out the top five agencies. Employees ranked the Securities and Exchange Commission last for innovation on the list of 28 agencies included in the snapshot.
While a majority of employees viewed innovation in the government favorably, the response to some individual questions was less enthusiastic. Thirty-nine percent of employees felt their agency rewarded creativity and innovation, and 59.6 percent of respondents said they felt agencies and managers encouraged them to devise new and better ways of doing things. A whopping 91.4 percent said they were constantly looking for ways to do their jobs better.
"The most interesting thing to me, when you look at the numbers, is you have a workforce that is individually motivated to be creative, but not organizationally supported to achieve that," said Max Stier, president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service.
That motivation needs to come from the top leadership, Stier said. According to the report, some factors contributing to greater innovation include: recognizing employees for their work, providing workers with the opportunity to improve their skills, involving employees in decision-making and demonstrating respect for workers.
"Well-defined processes and systems support innovation, but they cannot create it; that is the role of leaders," the report concluded.
NASA and NRC were also on the Partnership's 2010 Best Places to Work list.