FMCS | 250 E St. SW, Washington, D.C. 20427 | 202-606-8100 | www.fmcs.gov

NEWS RELEASE

Wednesday, December 12, 2018 Contact: Kimberly Ayers Warren

For Immediate Release Acting Director of Public Affairs

Website: www.fmcs.gov Phone: 202-606-8100

FMCS Again Selected As “Best Place to Work” Among 

Small Federal Agencies in Back-to-Back Years

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) again

received the top ranking among small Federal agencies as a Best Place to Work in the Federal 

Government, according to the 2018 rankings released today by the nonprofit Partnership for Public 

Service and Boston Consulting Group.

With rankings first being held in 2003, this marks the fifth time FMCS was selected for the top 

spot, having earned this distinction in 2005, 2007, 2015, and in 2017. Additionally, the Agency has 

consistently ranked in the top 4 since the “small agency” category rankings were first included in 2007.

Data points from the FEVS revealed that FMCS’s 2018 employee engagement score is 87.2 out of 100, 

which placed FMCS at 1 out of 29 small agencies. The FMCS score improved by 0.3 points since last year, 

while the government-wide engagement score is 62.2, down 0.6 points from last year.

“I could not be prouder of our FMCS team, and I am truly humbled that FMCS has earned the 

top award for small agencies once again,” said FMCS Acting Director Rich Giacolone. “Serving as an 

FMCS employee myself for more than 23 years, I’ve always been honored to be a part of our vital 

mission helping to resolve workplace conflict. Our team also holds this mission in the highest regard and 

it continues to be reflected in their self-reported analysis of job satisfaction in this survey. Time and 

again, FMCS employees have demonstrated their strong commitment to excellence as public servants 

and to the mission which unites the FMCS organization.” 

Looking forward to the 2019 FEVS, FMCS will maintain its focus on continuous improvement and 

has already begun work to increase innovation, one of two categories where scores declined slightly 

from the previous year. The nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, and Boston Consulting Group, 

which released the rankings of Federal workplaces today, based their overall ratings on responses from 

more than 598,000 civil servants to the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) conducted by the 

U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) annually. Historically, there have been between 28 and 35 

agencies in the “small agency” category for Federal government rankings.

The Best Places to Work rankings provide critical information to help Federal agencies and 

Congress assess workplace health and performance. In addition to overall satisfaction and commitment, 

the rankings measure employee attitudes on multiple workplace categories, including effective 
FMCS | 250 E St. SW, Washington, D.C. 20427 | 202-606-8100 | www.fmcs.gov

leadership, strategic management, innovation, support for diversity, training and development, worklife balance, teamwork and pay. 

Complete rankings and more information about the survey are available at the Partnership for 

Public Service website at https://bestplacestowork.org/ 

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The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, created in 1947, is an independent U.S. government agency whose 

mission is to preserve and promote labor-management peace and cooperation. Headquartered in Washington, DC, 

with 10 regional offices and more than 60 field offices, the agency provides mediation and conflict resolution 

services to industry and government agencies.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Dec. 12, 2018) (From L to R) Deputy Director, Field Operations Gary Hattal, Acting Director 

Rich Giacolone and Change Management Advisor Traci Coddington accept a plaque recognizing the Federal 

Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) as the Best Place to Work in the Federal Government (Small Agency 

category) for 2018. (Photo courtesy of Partnership for Public Service)