Working at NASA is out of this world, but Homeland Security employment is not so hot: report

A new study shows that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is one of the best places to work in the federal government.

NASA, which placed first among large agencies in the annual Best Places to Work in the Federal Government report for the 10th straight year, has made clear investments in its people.

The Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Commerce were among the top agencies. The Government Accountability Office and National Science Foundation scored the highest marks among mid-sized agencies.

Not all government agency workforce environments are healthy as the federal government transitioned from the Trump administration to the Biden administration.

For the last 10 years, the Department of Homeland Security has ranked last. The Department of Justice and Social Security Administration ended in the basement.

The Federal Election Commission and International Boundary and Water Commission were last among small agencies.

The Federal Trade Commission dropped from its number two spot in 2020 to 22nd place in the mid-size agency rankings, while the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service plummeted from 11th to 24th.

The engagement and satisfaction of federal employees decreased slightly from 2020 to 2021, but still stands at a score of 64.5 out of 100.

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Reasons for change

A comprehensive assessment of how federal workers view their jobs and workplace is offered in the 16th edition of the rankings.

The number of federal agencies and subcomponents is the most in the history of Best Places to Work.

The Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General finished dead last in the list of agency subcomponents.

President Joe Biden's first year in office resulted in a decrease in employee engagement and satisfaction. It's lower than Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

A major challenge for the administration is the problem of leadership vacancies. According to the report, the Biden administration stated that federal employees are the "backbone of our government" and that they would make every federal job a good job.

"Noting that this is the first year of the Biden administration, it's going to be a period of change for every agency as they get new leaders on board and they cope with priorities and new missions," he said.

While she can't speak to agencies' individual experiences, she said employees' opinion of their leaders has always been a factor in determining an agency's employee satisfaction score.

Work-life balance, compensation, recognition, agency innovation, and how well an agency managed its COVID-related work policies all factor into agencies scores.

"Especially around the FTC, I think looking at issues around leadership change and some of the issues associated with returning to the office, definitely impacted them." When it comes to senior leaders and supervisors, I think it's important for any agency that's seeing their rankings go down to pay close attention to those issues.

The survey's other findings are also included.

• Supervisors received a rating of 79.8 out of 100 for their leadership. But senior leaders rated considerably lower, at 56.1.
• Employees gave their work units a score of 84.9 out of 100 based on "performance," but only 61.2 for satisfaction with pay and 59.8 for agency efforts to recognize good work through awards and advancement.
• Federal employees aged 30 to 39 had the lowest employee engagement and satisfaction score of any age group.
• Employees aged 60 and over registered the highest job satisfaction.
• Low engagement and satisfaction scores were recorded for those identifying as LGBT as well as people with disabilities, Native Americans and Alaskans, and those who identified as being of two or more races.

One of the largest pay raises for federal employees in the last two decades has been proposed by the Biden administration. They had a 1% across-the-board pay increase in 2021.

The rankings serve as a good indicator of what agencies are doing well and where they need to improve.

She said that it gave them a chance to listen to what their employees were saying. Employees who are more satisfied are more likely to serve the people better.

Jane Datta, Chief Human Capital Officer at NASA, explained her agency's vision in an interview with Michael Keegan, host of The Business of Government Hour. NASA uses employee experience data to find where it is experiencing challenges and where it is seeing improvements.