Some Positives in 2012 Best Places to Work Rankings
Scores rose for most of the federal agencies involved with safety and health – including NTSB, the National Institutes of Health, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, the National Nuclear Security Administration, FAA, and CDC.
NASA topped the list of in the 2012 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings, in terms of large agencies, while EPA ranked fifth and the U.S. Department of Labor tied for 16th. Most of the agencies' scores changed little from 2011. Encouragingly, scores improved for most of the federal agencies involved with safety and health -- including NTSB, the National Institutes of Health, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, the National Nuclear Security Administration, FAA, and CDC.
The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission ranked fourth and the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board ranked 10th among very small agencies, the category for federal agencies with fewer than 100 employees.
The annual rankings are produced by the Partnership for Public Service and Deloitte, and it measures how federal employees view their jobs and their workplaces. The partnership's release about the 2012 rankings said it was a challenging year for most federal agencies and employees, an understatement, perhaps, given the sequester and continuing uncertainty about the federal budget. The index ranks agencies according to 10 workplace categories, including effective leadership, pay, teamwork, training and development, and work/life balance. "Government-wide, the new rankings show a decline in not just overall employee satisfaction, but in all of these categories," according to the release.