SpectrumTalk

Is the FCC the Best Place to Work in the Federal Government?

We May Never Know as FCC Dodges Another Interagency Survey

The Best Places to Work, produced by the Partnership for Public Service and American University’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation, rankings are the most comprehensive and authoritative rating and analysis of employee engagement in the federal government. The 2007 rankings are the third edition of this ongoing series, following the 2003 and 2005 versions.

The survey describes its goals as follows:

Why the Rankings Matter

As we advance into a new century, America faces a new set of great public challenges: fighting a war against terrorism, prospering in the global economy, and expanding opportunity by improving schools and health care. Now, more than ever, we need the best and brightest to work on our behalf in government.

Employee engagement and commitment are two necessary ingredients in developing high-performing organizations and attracting the best and brightest. The Best Places to Work rankings are an important tool in recognizing the importance of employee engagement and ensuring that it is a top priority for government managers and leaders.

Since the first rankings were released in 2003, they have helped create much-needed institutional incentives to focus on key workforce issues and also provided managers and leaders with a roadmap for boosting employee engagement. Federal human capital professionals have told us that the Best Places to Work project has heightened awareness among senior leaders and spurred reform of human capital practices. As time goes on, we hope that agencies will use the results of this ranking to gauge the success of their efforts.

The rankings also directly address one of the biggest barriers to federal employment: a staggering lack of information among prospective employees. The Best Places rankings provide job seekers unprecedented insight on opportunities for public service by highlighting the federal government’s high-performing agencies and promoting federal organizations that often go unheralded.

This is the third recent intergancy survey that FCC has not participated in. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission captured the prize as the best large agency for employee satisfaction and engagement. NRC is slightly larger than FCC with about 3300 employees.

NRC Chairman Dale Klein spoke at a ceremony held by the Partnership for Public Service
where he accepted an award for NRC being ranked the best place to work in the federal government.

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which is close to the FCC's old 20th & M location, won the award for the best small agency.