MAY 9, 2023 – In less than two weeks, the Office of Personnel Management Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey will be available so employees can share their perceptions of whether, and to what extent, conditions characteristic of successful organizations are present in their agencies.
The 2023 FEVS will kick off the week of May 15 and last six weeks, ending June 30.
The FEVS serves as a tool for employees to share their thoughts in many critical areas including their work experiences, their agency, and their leadership.
The FEVS is an important tool for the U.S. Army Sustainment Command to better understand how the organization is doing as it relates to employee engagement and overall employee satisfaction in the workplace.
Employee feedback is voluntary, confidential, and anonymous.
Agency participation in the OPM FEVS provides federal agency leadership with actionable insights regarding the success of improvement initiatives, as well as information for identifying aspects of the workplace where improvements should be made.
At a government-wide level, OPM FEVS data is used to shape human resource policies and evaluate human resource programs through, for example, assessments of the human capital framework, diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, veterans’ programs and other work-life programs.
In 2022, OPM FEVS introduced new content to include questions about returning to the physical workplace after engaging in maximum telework, which allowed a better understanding of the role remote and hybrid work plays in agency effectiveness.
OPM also developed the new Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Index for the 2022 OPM FEVS. The government-wide results serve as a baseline to assess future changes as well as benchmark comparisons for agency DEIA initiatives.
In 2023, full and part-time non-seasonal permanent employees, non-seasonal employees, term and temporary employees, and foreign nationals on-boarded on or before Nov. 30, 2022, will receive an email invitation from OPM containing a unique link to participate in the survey.
The FEVS survey only takes about 25 minutes to complete, giving employees a high-visibility venue to voice their opinions about their workplace environment. The Employees are authorized official time to complete the FEVS survey.
Employees can forward the FEVS survey email to their personal email accounts if they would like and will be able to complete the survey from anywhere, to include mobile devices. The two caveats are: DoD won’t allow surveys to be sent directly to personal accounts (you must forward it yourself), and each survey link is unique to that employee, so you can’t forward the link to a colleague, or their answers will be attached to your survey.
Completing the survey provides valuable insight for ASC leaders into the strengths and challenges within the workplace. The ASC Command team endorsed the creation and deployment of the “You Asked For It” campaign and program because of employee input.
This valuable program was created to equip leaders with knowledge and resources to take care of their people, and empower employees to take care of themselves because “You Asked For It.”
The more employees who take the survey, the better picture ASC has of the concerns and needs of the workforce. FEVS feedback allows ASC to incorporate initiatives into the four lines of effort under the ASC People Strategy, and work with stakeholders to improve the organizational culture of our workforce.
FEVS participation is also a good indicator of employee engagement. Measuring an engaged employee can take on several forms. Positive responses indicate an engaged employee, while negative responses indicate a disengaged employee.
Other ways include helping co-workers, going above and beyond one’s normal duties, and being an active participant in meetings.
The president has set a civilian workforce engagement goal of 67%. At ASC, it was 64%, based on the latest figures from the 2022 Employee Engagement Index. While ASC missed the goal by just 3%, that still is an unacceptable cost in that figure.
ASC’s goal is increased awareness about the purpose and intent of the FEVS survey. FEVS, along with other ASC Command surveys, does make a difference and it’s a multifaceted tool used to help prioritize, create and deploy new programs, initiatives and resources across the Command footprint.
Based on previous year’s FEVS surveys, here is a sample of initiatives ASC has implemented:
- R2 Campaign: “You Asked For It” and quarterly initiatives like Choose To Lose and Transformational Tuesdays.
- Increased encouragement of military spouse employment across the area of operations, to include Military Spouse Accommodations.
- Increased participation and social media coverage in intern recruitment initiatives/career fairs/BEYA conferences. BEYA stands for Becoming Everything You Are.
- Offering new training programs to support a 21st century workplace/workforce.
- Resume Reduction initiative to reduce the hire time/onboarding timeframe.
- DoD Performance Management and Appraisal Program workshops and training.
- Expansion of the Civilian Fitness Program.
The following initiatives are a small snapshot of what is under development in ASC:
- ASC Acquiring Skilled Sustainable & Empowered Talent.
- ASC Regulation rewrite of 690-12 – Civilian Personnel Filling General Schedule Positions.
- Development and Implementation of ASC People Strategy 2023 – 2028, and ASC Team Implementation Plan.
- Significant increase in community health/safety/wellness/resiliency messaging and course offerings through ASC R2 team.
By Christine Garcia
ASC G-1 (Human Resources)
U.S. Army Sustainment Command