NOVEMBER 1, 2021 – A small percentage of U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command employees will receive an invitation to participate in the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey Nov. 1.
The FEVS, administered by the Office of Personnel Management, is a tool to measure federal employees’ perceptions of critical work-life areas driving employee engagement, satisfaction and retention across the workforce. The survey results provide senior leaders with valuable insights on the strengths of the civilian workforce, as well as gauge areas for improvement and current challenges.
In a change from previous years, only 50% of the federal workforce will receive the anonymous survey this year. Recipients will be randomly selected non-political, non-contractor employees onboard with the Army as of April 2021.
Carla Landers, a program analyst in the Training Career Management Division within G-1, oversees the FEVS for AMCOM. She said much like the 2020 FEVS, the 2021 FEVS results are expected to be very different from previous years.
“Last year’s results were very unique because of COVID-19,” she said. “This year will be even more unique because, not only will the survey once again include COVID-specific questions, but with the reduced percentage of recipients, we will not know who received it.”
Landers said the email notifications will be released in two waves; the first half of participants will receive an email between Nov. 1 and Dec. 3, and the second wave will receive notification between Nov. 8 and Dec. 10. The total of the two waves will not exceed more than 50% of the AMCOM workforce.
Another change this year will be largely transparent to the majority of federal employees, but will greatly affect Landers. OPM will release the results to level one commands only, meaning the Army Materiel Command FEVS point of contact will be responsible for sending AMC subordinate commands, such as AMCOM, their results.
“OPM decided to send the results to the level one commands to speed up the process,” Landers said. “We usually get results in late spring or early summer; this new distribution process should allow us to receive them much sooner.”
Regardless of the changes, the goal remains the same.
“The goal is 50% participation across all federal employees,” Landers said. “That’s going to be a difficult goal this year, especially with the email migration happening shortly before the FEVS kickoff.”
Landers said her biggest concern is employees ignoring the survey because they do not see the benefits. However, what they may not realize is their feedback is heard at levels higher than the local command.
“People say they’ve never seen results so why take it,” she said. “I think the hardest part to understand and appreciate is that with FEVS, sometimes you don’t see the results at the AMCOM level because it’s changing programs, policies and regulations above us.
FEVS is the bigger-picture survey. You may not see immediate results at first, but pilot programs that launch and policies that change or get updated are often because of these results. It’s important to take the survey if you receive the invitation.”
Story by Michelle Gordon
U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command