Methodology

The Partnership for Public Service created the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government® rankings in 2003 to provide the most comprehensive rating of employee engagement and satisfaction across federal agencies and their subcomponents. We use the term “employee engagement and satisfaction” to refer to the commitment of the workforce, employees’ job and organizational satisfaction, and the willingness of those employees to put forth discretionary effort to achieve results.

The 2024 Best Places to Work rankings include 532 federal agencies and their subcomponents, the most in the history of the rankings: 18 large agencies, 25 midsize agencies, 32 small agencies, 30 large subcomponents, 154 midsize subcomponents and 273 small subcomponents.

We group agencies and subcomponents by workforce size to provide comparisons of organizations that may face similar management challenges. Both large agencies and large subcomponents are those organizations with 15,000 or more employees. Agencies and subcomponents with 1,000 to 14,999 employees make up the midsize grouping. Small agencies and small subcomponents are those with at least 100 but fewer than 1,000 employees. While we have used the current size groupings for agencies since the 2012 rankings, 2024 is the first year that we have grouped subcomponents by size as well.

Both agencies and subcomponents need to have at least 100 employees and 30 survey responses to be included in the rankings. The number of employees is determined by the number of surveys the Office of Personnel Management sends to the agency or subcomponent’s employees.

Data Source

The majority of the data used to develop these rankings was collected by the Office of Personnel Management through its Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. This survey was administered as a census of all full-time and part-time, permanent, nonseasonal executive branch employees and some temporary employees. As a result, political appointees, contractors and nonfederal employees are not included. The survey was completed between May and July 2024 by 674,207 federal workers, for a response rate of 41%. Visit OPM’s website to learn more about the FEVS methodology.

The Best Places to Work rankings include responses from more than 413,600 additional employees at 14 agencies that conducted their own employee surveys. Employees were surveyed around the same time the FEVS was administered and had a response rate of more than 50%—or statistically significant response rate, based on a mathematical calculation. The rankings also incorporate responses from employees at the nation’s intelligence agencies, which conducted a similar survey but did not report the number of respondents. More information about the organizations included in the Intelligence Community can be found on the website for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

This year, the agencies that provided their own survey data include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Deposit and Insurance Corporation, the Government Accountability Office, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of the Inspector General, the Library of Congress, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Office of the Inspector General, the Architect of the Capitol, the Congressional Budget Office, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Intelligence Community.

The data from these additional organizations is not used in the calculation of our government-wide employee engagement and satisfaction score. However, because these agencies conducted employee surveys that included the three questions used to calculate an agency’s Best Places to Work employee engagement and satisfaction score, they are included in our rankings. However, because their surveys did not include some of the questions used to calculate workplace category scores, they are included in some workplace categories and not others.

Best Places to Work Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Ranking and Score Calculation

The Best Places to Work rankings are based on each agency’s employee engagement and satisfaction score, which is derived from three questions in OPM’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey:

• I recommend my organization as a good place to work.
• Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your job?
• Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your organization?ou with your organization? 

To calculate the score, we use the percentage of positive responses in a weighted formula to create an index. The more the question predicted intent to remain on the job, the higher the weighting. Starting in 2024, we began using a new weighting formula for the index. This enhancement to our Best Places to Work engagement and satisfaction score was introduced to reflect the significant changes that have occurred in the survey and the field of statistical analysis since the original formula was developed.

The percentage of positive responses is calculated by dividing the number of employees who answered a question positively by the number of employees who answered that question—rather than by the total number of employees who completed the survey. The latter calculation was used up until 2019. This percentage positive calculation change, made in 2020, aligns with the methodology OPM uses in analyzing the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.

The government-wide employee engagement and satisfaction score is calculated using data from agencies that participate in the FEVS. While agencies that conduct their own internal surveys are included in the rankings, their data is not used in the calculation of the government-wide employee engagement score.  

Workplace Category Rankings and Scores Calculation

We use questions in the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey to create the workplace category scores. The scores are calculated by averaging together the percentage of positive responses of each question included in the category. The positive response percentage is calculated by dividing the number of positive responses to a question by the total responses to that question.

The Partnership selects the topics of our workplace categories based on their relevance to employee engagement and satisfaction. The categories selected and the questions used to create them are based on academic literature and statistical analysis. Agencies may have missing workplace category scores if data for any of the questions that comprise the category is not available.

This year, the seven workplace categories included effective leadership at various levels, mission match, satisfaction with pay, work-life balance, recognition of performance, employee input in decision-making and professional development.

Comparing This Year’s Scores with Past Rankings

Because of the changes to the index calculation, the 2024 Best Place to Work engagement and satisfaction score cannot be compared to previous years’ scores.

The 2024 scores for all our workplace categories can be compared with the 2023 scores.

Some of our workplace categories were created in 2023 while others underwent significant revisions to their questions that year. These categories, listed below, cannot be compared with any scores released prior to 2023:

• Work-Life Balance
• Recognition
• Effective Leadership
• Employee Input
• Professional Development

The following workplace categories are comparable starting from 2020:

• Effective Leadership: Senior Leaders
• Effective Leadership: Supervisors
• Mission Match
• Pay

Comparing Older Historical Scores

In 2020, the Partnership changed how it calculates the percentage of positive responses (e.g., percentage of respondents who answered “agree” or “strongly agree”) to the FEVS questions to align with the Office of Personnel Management. Prior to 2020, the percentage of positive responses was calculated by dividing the number of employees who answered a question positively by the total number of employees who completed the survey.

Beginning with the 2020 edition of Best Place to Work, the percentage of positive responses was calculated by dividing the number of employees who answered a question positively by the total response to that particular question. This change resulted in filtering out respondents who skip questions as well as a slightly larger percentage of positive responses.

Because of the methodological change, none of the scores from before 2020 can be compared with those from 2020 or thereafter.

Finally, the Department of Veterans Affairs continues to administer its own All-Employee Survey and does not participate in the FEVS, a practice that began in 2018. Because VA is such a large organization, the government-wide scores and VA’s own scores from the years VA was included in the FEVS (2003 to 2017) cannot be compared to the scores after VA started to conduct its own survey in 2018. Since the VA’s survey uses the three questions needed to calculate an agency’s Best Places to Work employee engagement score, the department is included in our rankings. However, as with other agencies that conduct their own surveys, we have not included the VA’s data in the calculation of the government-wide score from 2018 onward.

The Partnership would like to thank OPM for the excellent administration of its employee survey, without which the Best Places to Work rankings would not be possible.