There is a real dollar cost associated with conducting the Federal Annual Employee Survey. Also there is a real cost associated with the hundreds of thousands of Federal employees taking 30 minutes to complete the survey.
One of the, of not the major problem with the current annual survey method is that results are not provided in time to allow for government organizations to effect change before the next annual survey
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There is a real dollar cost associated with conducting the Federal Annual Employee Survey. Also there is a real cost associated with the hundreds of thousands of Federal employees taking 30 minutes to complete the survey.
One of the, of not the major problem with the current annual survey method is that results are not provided in time to allow for government organizations to effect change before the next annual survey is conducted.
Approximate annual survey timeline:
April - Survey conducted
Mid to Late Summer - Results returned to government agencies and distributed internally
Late Summer to Fall - Results considered and action plans designed
- Issues: 1) timing conflicts with end of fiscal year; 2) personal on leave during this time of the year. Winter to Late Winter - Precious few months available to effect change before the next survey is deployed
There is not enough time for the effect of organizational interventions to be assessed before the subsequent survey is administered. A two-year survey cycle would lower costs and allow organizations time to demonstrate improvement between survey administrations.
Lastly, some of the survey items are not relevant as the government cannot truly change its ways in those areas addressed by those items (e.g., performance to compensation linkage, removal of poor performers). There are in the range of 80 items on the survey depending on organizational variants. There is a need to shorten the survey and it is possible to do so while still collecting actionable information for government agencies.
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