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 satisfaction and commitment are two necessary ingredients in developing high-performing organizations and attracting top talent. The Best Places to Work rankings are an important tool in recognizing the importance of employee satisfaction 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 reported that the Best Places to Work project has heightened awareness among senior leaders and spurred reform of human capital practices. Looking ahead, these rankings should serve as an excellent benchmark to the Obama administration as it tries to gauge the success of its own efforts to revitalize the federal workforce.
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.
The Best Places to Work rankings — the most comprehensive and authoritative rating of employee satisfaction and commitment in the federal government — are produced by the Partnership for Public Service and American University's Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation (ISPPI).
