U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Recruiting, Retaining, and Honoring a World-Class Workforce to Serve the American People

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama challenged Americans to "out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world." Federal leaders are working to empower our employees to do their part. This survey draws upon our employees' wisdom and experiences to reveal their agencies' strengths and uncover challenges. We use the knowledge gained to increase productivity and improve service for the American people.

The 2011 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey drew responses from a record 266,000 respondents. One clear finding: Federal employees continue to be dedicated to their jobs and to accomplishing their missions. Employees are willing to give extra effort, are looking for ways to do their jobs better, and believe their work is important. They are results-oriented, accountable for achieving results and know how their work relates to their agency's goals.

We have seen increases in satisfaction in the areas of telework, workforce skills, and safety and security. Employees continue to believe their agencies are successful and their approval of their supervisors remains high. Ratings of senior leaders have improved, but more work is needed in this area.

Agencies must remain focused on performance management, especially in dealing with poor performers and providing their employees with sufficient resources to get their job done. Performance management continues to persist as a problem area across government.

Our pledge at the conclusion of the last survey administration was to make the survey results more readily available to the public. In keeping with our goal of transparency, more detailed results of the 2011 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey can be found on our survey website: www.FedView.opm.gov.

On behalf of President Obama, thank you to all Federal employees who participated, and to all our employees who bring passion, skill, and dedication to serving their fellow Americans every day.

Sincerely,

John Berry
Director