U.S. Department of the Treasury

1. Interpretation of Results: The 2018 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) offers unique insights into federal employees’ perceptions of employee satisfaction, engagement and workforce management.  Treasury values its employees and respects workplace perceptions.  The results of the FEVS are reviewed and analyzed to determine patterns and themes to identify Treasury’s strengths and challenges, and are used to guide improvement efforts.

The 78-item survey includes 71 items that measure federal employees’ perceptions about how effectively agencies manage their workforce, 7 items specific to work/life programs usage and 16 demographic items.  The survey includes eight topic areas:

• Personal Work Experiences
• Work Unit
• Agency
• Supervisor/Team Leader
• Leadership 
• Satisfaction
• Work/Life Programs
• Demographics

The key message of Treasury’s 2018 FEVS is stability, with only one survey item (Q29) changing by more than 2 percentage points. The 2018 FEVS results reflect:

• 36 items were identified as strengths (65% positive or higher)
• 5  items were identified as challenges (35% negative or higher)
• 11 items increased from 2017 with only survey item increasing significantly in 2018 (Q. 29 by 13% Positive percent). Other increases were by 1%. See attached results for the specific corresponding survey item numbers above.
• 13 items decreased from 2017. Three survey decreased by 2 percentage points (Q9, Q10, Q14). The other survey item decreases were by 1%.  See attached results for the specific corresponding survey item numbers above.

Treasury employees continue to remain committed to the mission, are willing to give extra to get the job done, are proud of the quality of their work, and feel that their supervisors treat them with respect as evidenced by the six items with the highest positive scores shown below:

• 94% Positive- When needed I am willing to put in the extra effort to get a job done. (Q. 7)
• 89% Positive- The work I do is important. (Q. 13)
• 88% Positive- I am constantly looking for ways to do my job better. (Q. 8)
• 86% Positive- How would you rate the overall quality of work done by your work unit? (Q. 28)
• 85% Positive- My supervisor treats me with respect. (Q49)
• 85% Positive- My supervisor supports my need to balance work and other life issues. (Q42)

Treasury employees also had positive responses to questions regarding their immediate supervisors. The questions below indicate employees trust their supervisors and feel they are respected and supported by them.  There were one to two percentage point increases in all of these positive responses over 2016.

• 85% Positive- My supervisor treats me with respect. (Q. 49)
• 81% Positive- My supervisor listens to what I have to say. (Q. 48)
• 78% Positive- Overall, how good a job do you feel is being done by your immediate supervisor? (Q. 52)
• 74% Positive- I have trust and confidence in my supervisor. (Q. 51)
• 73% Positive- Supervisors in my work unit support employee development. (Q. 47)

Employees provided high negative responses in the areas of pay, resources and empowerment demonstrating opportunities for Treasury to improve.

• 44% Negative - Pay raises depend on how well employees perform their jobs. (Q. 33)
• 41% Negative - I have sufficient resources (for example, people, materials, budget) to get my job done. (Q. 9)
• 39% Negative - How satisfied are you with your opportunity to get a better job in your organization? (Q. 67)
• 37% Negative – My work unit is able to recruit people with the right skills. (Q. 21)
• 36% Negative – I believe the results of this survey will be used to make my agency a better place to work. (Q. 41)
   

2. How the survey was conducted: The 2018 FEVS was administered within Treasury May 1 – June 12, 2018 via email by the Office of Personnel Management.

3. Description of sample: The 2018 survey was administered to all eligible employees, defined as full - or part-time, permanent, non-seasonal, non-political employees onboard as of October 31, 2017.

4. Survey items and response choices: All survey items and response choices required by 5 CFR 250.302 are included in the 2018 Survey and are included in the attached 2018 Treasury Survey Results.

5. Number of employees surveyed, number responded, and representativeness of respondents: The Department of the Treasury achieved a response rate of 54% with 42,027 out of 78,195 eligible employees responding.  Treasury’s 2017 response rate was of 58% with 46,368 out of 79,744 eligible employees.  Table 1 below shows the representativeness of respondents.
 

Table 1- Representativeness of Respondents