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[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 179 (Friday, September 16, 2005)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 54658-54660]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-18374]

========================================================================
Proposed Rules
                                                Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________

This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of 
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these 
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in 
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.

========================================================================


Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 179 / Friday, September 16, 2005 / 
Proposed Rules

[[Page 54658]]

OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

5 CFR Part 250

RIN 3206-AK77

Personnel Management In Agencies--Employee Surveys

AGENCY: Office of Personnel Management.

ACTION: Proposed rule with request for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing proposed 
regulations concerning employee surveys required by the National 
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004. The regulations will 
add a new subpart which requires agencies to conduct an annual survey 
of their employees. In addition, the proposed regulations provide a 
list of questions that must appear in each agency's employee survey.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before October 17, 2005.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by RIN number, by any of 
the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
     E-mail: [email protected]. Include ``RIN 3206-AK77, Employee 
Surveys'' in the subject line of the message.
     Fax: (202) 606-2329.
     Mail: Mark Doboga, Deputy Associate Director for Talent 
and Capacity Policy, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Room 6551, 
1900 E Street, NW., Washington, DC 20415-9700.
     Hand Delivery/Courier: U.S. Office of Personnel 
Management, Room 6551, 1900 E Street, NW., Washington, DC 20415.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on the survey 
questions, contact Nancy Kichak by phone on 202-606-0722, by FAX on 
202-606-2922, or by e-mail at [email protected]. For all other 
information, contact Hakeem Basheerud-Deen by phone on 202-606-1434, by 
FAX on 202-606-2329, or by e-mail at [email protected]. You 
may contact Ms. Kichak and Mr. Basheerud-Deen by TTY on 202-418-3134.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Requiring Annual Employee Surveys

    Section 1128 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 
Year 2004 (Public Law 108-136, 5 U.S.C. 7101 note) requires each agency 
to conduct an annual survey of its employees ``to assess--

    (1) Leadership and management practices that contribute to agency 
performance; and
    (2) Employee satisfaction with--
    (A) Leadership policies and practices;
    (B) Work environment;
    (C) Rewards and recognition for professional accomplishment and 
personal contributions to achieving organizational mission;
    (D) Opportunity for professional development and growth; and
    (E) Opportunity to contribute to achieving organizational mission.

Prescribing Certain Survey Questions

    The law requires OPM to ``issue regulations prescribing survey 
questions that should appear on all agency surveys.'' In addition, the 
law requires agencies to make the survey results available to the 
public and post the results on their Web sites, unless the head of the 
agency determines that doing so would jeopardize or negatively impact 
national security.
    To select the survey questions to prescribe in regulation, OPM 
survey staff identified questions from the 2002 Federal Human Capital 
Survey (FHCS) that meet one of the assessment requirements in law. OPM 
survey staff subjected those questions to a regression analysis to 
identify the questions with the highest correlation to leadership and 
management practices or employee satisfaction.
    As a second step, OPM survey staff independently listed major 
components of human capital management and verified that OPM had 
selected at least one question in each area. As a result, OPM added 
questions that address security and performance appraisal.
    Based on these considerations, staff applied judgment to pare the 
list down to 24 questions. The recommended questions were presented at 
a Chief Human Capital Officers Council meeting, as well as a meeting 
with interested agency stakeholders and survey staff. Analysis of the 
comments received resulted in the addition of one question and the 
slight modification of several others. Finally, OPM survey staff 
convened a panel of senior experts to review the list of questions. The 
panel added three questions to improve coverage of human capital 
management systems and to ensure the 28 questions selected comply with 
the law.
    The assessment requirements in law are restated below, with the 
questions that meet each requirement identified by number in brackets 
[].

    (1) Leadership and management practices that contribute to agency 
performance [5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 17, 20]; and
    (2) Employee satisfaction with [27];
    (A) Leadership policies and practices [18, 19, 23, 25];
    (B) Work environment [1, 10, 21, 22];
    (C) Rewards and recognition for professional accomplishment and 
personal contributions to achieving organizational mission[14, 15, 24, 
28];
    (D) Opportunity for professional development and growth [2, 16, 
26]; and
    (E) Opportunity to contribute to achieving organizational mission 
[3, 4, 8, 9].

    OPM may vary the composition of the survey questions from time to 
time. The questions published in 5 CFR part 250, subpart C, will remain 
valid until changed by OPM through the regulatory process. Agencies 
should prepare and conduct surveys in accordance with professionally 
accepted survey standards to: ensure results are of high quality (e.g., 
the agency uses a communication strategy to publicize the survey and 
has determined an appropriate survey sample); the survey adequately 
assesses employee satisfaction; and the processing protects respondent 
confidentiality. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) publication 
entitled ``Developing and Using Questionnaires'' (October 1993, GAO/
PEMD-10.1.7) provides guidance for agency use. OPM will provide 
additional guidance to agencies on this topic.

Agency Discretion

    Agencies retain discretion to decide who shall administer their 
surveys, how

[[Page 54659]]

the information will be collected, and how the results will be made 
available to the public and posted on their Web sites. Agencies may 
contract with other agencies, including OPM, or other sources to 
conduct surveys, but are not required to do so.
    Agencies may add survey questions, change the order of the 
questions, and ``reverse'' the order of responses, except for the ``Do 
Not Know'' response option, which should remain last.

Using Agency Results

    Survey results will be used to compare data over time and across 
agencies. Further, the survey results will support the requirement that 
OPM ``design a set of systems, including appropriate metrics, for 
assessing the management of human capital by Federal agencies,'' as set 
forth in 5 U.S.C. 1103(c). OPM is preparing proposed regulations 
revising 5 CFR 250 to provide this design and appropriate metrics.

Data Collection

    Data must be collected by December 31 of each calendar year. To 
coordinate and encourage the timely availability of agency survey 
results, OPM is establishing a date of no later than 120 days after an 
agency completes survey administration each year for posting survey 
results on agency Web sites, based on surveys conducted during that 
calendar year. OPM expects to issue final regulations in early 2006. 
Consequently, each agency will need to conduct its employee survey by 
December 31 of each calendar year, beginning with calendar year 2006, 
and post results no later than 120 days after survey administration is 
complete, as noted in the regulation.

Relationship to Federal Human Capital Survey

    In years when OPM administers the Federal Human Capital Survey 
(FHCS), which will always include the survey questions prescribed in 5 
CFR part 250, subpart C, it is anticipated agencies will choose to use 
the FHCS to comply with the requirement to survey employees for that 
calendar year. OPM ultimately expects to administer the FHCS in the 
fall of even-numbered years and to offer services to support agencies 
surveying their employees with the subpart C questions in the fall of 
odd-numbered years. To achieve a systematic 12-month interval with 
survey administrations ultimately accomplished each fall, and given the 
fact that surveys using subpart C questions will not be conducted in 
calendar year 2005, OPM plans to address the annual employee survey 
requirement for 2006 by administering the next FHCS in late spring 
2006. In 2007, agencies could administer the subpart C questions in the 
fall. In future even-numbered calendar years, the FHCS would be 
administered in the fall.

Regulatory Flexibility Act

    I certify that this regulation will not have a significant economic 
impact on a substantial number of small entities because it affects 
only certain Federal employees.

Executive Order 12866, Regulatory Review

    This rule has been reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget 
in accordance with Executive Order 12866.

List of Subjects in 5 CFR Part 250

    Authority delegations (Government agencies), Government employees.

Office of Personnel Management.
Linda M. Springer,
Director.
    Accordingly, OPM is proposing to amend 5 CFR part 250, as follows:

PART 250--PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT IN AGENCIES

    1. The authority citation is revised to read as follows:

    Authority: 5 U.S.C. 1101 note, 1103(a)(5), 1104, 1302, 3301, 
3302, 7101 note; E.O. 13197, 66 FR 7853, 3 CFR 748 (2002); E.O. 
10577, 12 FR 1259, 3 CFR, 1954-1958 Comp., p. 218.

    2. Add subpart B to read as follows:

Subpart B--[Reserved]

    3. Add subpart C to read as follows:
Subpart C--Employee Surveys
Sec.
250.301 Survey requirements.
250.302 Availability of results.

Subpart C--Employee Surveys

Sec.  250.301  Survey requirements.

    (a) Each executive agency, as defined in 5 U.S.C. 105, must conduct 
an annual survey of its employees containing each question in this 
section.
    (b) The 28 prescribed employee survey questions and response 
choices are listed in the following table:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
       Employee survey questions            Employee response choices
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Personal Work Experiences
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) The people I work with cooperate to  Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 get the job done.                        Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
                                          or Strongly Disagree.
(2) I am given a real opportunity to     Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 improve my skills in my organization.    Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
                                          or Strongly Disagree.
(3) My work gives me a feeling of        Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 personal accomplishment.                 Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
                                          or Strongly Disagree.
(4) I like the kind of work I do.......  Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
                                          Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
                                          or Strongly Disagree.
(5) Overall, how good a job do you feel  Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, or
 is being done by your immediate          Very Poor.
 supervisor/team leader?
----------------------------------------
                  Recruitment, Development & Retention
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(6) The workforce has the job-relevant   Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 knowledge and skills necessary to        Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
 accomplish organizational goals.         Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
                                          Know.
(7) My work unit is able to recruit      Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 people with the right skills.            Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
                                          Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
                                          Know.
(8) I know how my work relates to the    Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 agency's goals and priorities.           Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
                                          Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
                                          Know.
(9) The work I do is important.........  Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
                                          Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
                                          Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
                                          Know.

[[Page 54660]]

 
(10) Physical conditions (for example,   Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 noise level, temperature, lighting,      Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
 cleanliness in the workplace) allow      Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
 employees to perform their jobs well.    Know.
----------------------------------------
                           Performance Culture
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(11) Promotions in my work unit are      Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 based on merit.                          Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
                                          Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
                                          Know.
(12) In my work unit, steps are taken    Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 to deal with a poor performer who        Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
 cannot or will not improve.              Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
                                          Know.
(13) Creativity and innovation are       Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 rewarded.                                Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
                                          Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
                                          Know.
(14) In my work unit, differences in     Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 performance are recognized in a          Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
 meaningful way.                          Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
                                          Know.
(15) My performance appraisal is a fair  Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 reflection of my performance             Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
                                          Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
                                          Know.
(16) Discussions with my supervisor/     Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 team leader about my performance are     Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
 worthwhile.                              Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
                                          Know.
(17) Managers/supervisors/team leaders   Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 work well with employees of different    Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
 backgrounds.                             Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
                                          Know.
----------------------------------------
                               Leadership
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(18) I have a high level of respect for  Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 my organization's senior leaders.        Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
                                          Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
                                          Know.
(19) In my organization, leaders         Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 generate high levels of motivation and   Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
 commitment in the workforce.             Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
                                          Know.
(20) Managers review and evaluate the    Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 organization's progress toward meeting   Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
 its goals and objectives.                Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
                                          Know.
(21) Employees are protected from        Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 health and safety hazards on the job.    Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
                                          Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
                                          Know.
(22) My organization has prepared        Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither
 employees for potential safety and       Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree,
 security threats.                        Strongly Disagree, or Do Not
                                          Know.
----------------------------------------
                            Job Satisfaction
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(23) How satisfied are you with your     Very Satisfied, Satisfied,
 involvement in decisions that affect     Neither Satisfied Nor
 your work?                               Dissatisfied, Dissatisfied, or
                                          Very Dissatisfied.
(24) How satisfied are you with the      Very Satisfied, Satisfied,
 recognition you receive for doing a      Neither Satisfied Nor
 good job?                                Dissatisfied, Dissatisfied, or
                                          Very Dissatisfied.
(25) How satisfied are you with the      Very Satisfied, Satisfied,
 policies and practices of your senior    Neither Satisfied Nor
 leaders?                                 Dissatisfied, Dissatisfied, or
                                          Very Dissatisfied.
(26) How satisfied are you with the      Very Satisfied, Satisfied,
 training you receive for your present    Neither Satisfied Nor
 job?                                     Dissatisfied, Dissatisfied, or
                                          Very Dissatisfied.
(27) Considering everything, how         Very Satisfied, Satisfied,
 satisfied are you with your job?         Neither Satisfied Nor
                                          Dissatisfied, Dissatisfied, or
                                          Very Dissatisfied.
(28) Considering everything, how         Very Satisfied, Satisfied,
 satisfied are you with your pay?         Neither Satisfied Nor
                                          Dissatisfied, Dissatisfied, or
                                          Very Dissatisfied.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sec.  250.302  Availability of results.

    (a) Each agency will make the results of its annual survey 
available to the public and post the results on its Web site, unless 
the agency head determines that doing so would jeopardize or negatively 
impact national security. The posted survey results will include the 
following:
    (1) The agency's evaluation of its survey results;
    (2) How the survey was conducted;
    (3) Description of the employee sample, unless all employees are 
surveyed;
    (4) The survey questions and response choices with the prescribed 
questions identified;
    (5) The number of employees surveyed and number of survey 
respondents; and
    (6) The number of respondents for each survey question and each 
response choice.
    (b) Data must be collected by December 31 of each calendar year. 
Each agency must post the beginning and ending dates of its employees 
survey and either the survey results described in paragraph (a) or a 
statement noting the decision not to post no later than 120 days after 
the agency completes survey administration. OPM may extend this date in 
unusual circumstances.
    (c) Each agency must submit its survey results to OPM no later than 
120 days after the agency completes survey administration.

[FR Doc. 05-18374 Filed 9-15-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6325-39-M
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