Over time, federal surveys have consistently found that DHS employees are less satisfied with their jobs than the governmentwide average. Shortly after DHS was formed, 2004 federal survey data indicated a disparity between DHS and governmentwide averages in job satisfaction. At that time, 56 percent of DHS employees responded that they were satisfied with their jobs, compared to the 68 percent governmentwide.subsequent years when comparative data were available using the job satisfaction index, the disparity continued—ranging from a difference of 8 percentage points in 2006 to a 4 percentage point difference in 2008, 2010, and 2011. In 2011, DHS employees also consistently indicated less satisfaction on key items in OPM’s 2011 FEVS than employees in the rest of the federal government. On the basis of its analysis of its FEVS, OPM determined that responses to these items—called impact items— make a difference in whether people want to come, stay, and contribute their fullest to an agency. Specifically, DHS employees were less positive on 14 of the 16 impact items. In some key areas, DHS’s percentage of positive responses was lower than the rest of the federal government averages. For example: Slightly less than half of the DHS employees surveyed reported positive responses to the statement “My talents are used well in the workplace,” nearly 12 percentage points less than the rest of the federal government average of 61.6 percent. DHS employees had nearly 10 percentage points fewer positive responses to the statements “I am given a real opportunity to improve my skills in my organization” and “Managers communicate the goals and priorities of the organization” than the rest of the federal government averages of 66.0 and 65.3 percent respectively. In two areas, DHS’s percentage of positive responses was nearly the same or higher than the rest of the federal government average. Specifically: DHS’s percentage of positive responses to the statement “Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your pay?” was not statistically different than the rest of the federal government average, with responses of 62 percent for DHS and 63 percent for the rest of the federal government. DHS was nearly 2 percentage points higher than the rest of the federal government average for the statement “My workload is reasonable.” The percentage of DHS respondents with positive responses on each of 16 impact items and the difference between DHS and the rest of the federal government appear in appendix I. OPM calls for federal leaders to pay attention to the 16 impact items as key indicators of engagement and commitment to continued service. While improvement in any of the impact items that OPM identified could help DHS improve its attractiveness as an employer of choice, the items for which DHS is farthest behind the rest of the federal government could provide a focus for targeting improvement efforts. The 2011 job satisfaction data also indicate that satisfaction levels vary across components within DHS. For example, as shown in table 1, job satisfaction index results for the 2011 FEVS show the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) as 11 percentage points below governmentwide averages while other large components, such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the U.S. Coast Guard (Coast Guard), posted above average results. Identifying this variation across components could help target efforts to improve employee satisfaction. TSA performed analysis of its 2011 FEVS results to gain a better understanding of whether employee satisfaction varies across location, program office, or level. This analysis identified variation in job satisfaction within the component; specifically, with Federal Security Director staff at airports providing more positive responses for job satisfaction (69 percent positive) than the airport screening workforce (54 percent positive), as shown in figure 1. DHS has taken steps to identify where it has the most significant employee satisfaction problems and has developed plans for addressing those problem areas. DHS has conducted some analysis of employee survey results and developed action plans to address some employee satisfaction problems, but it has not yet addressed the key goals related to job satisfaction—to improve DHS’s scores on OPM’s job satisfaction index, among other indexes, and to improve its ranking on the Partnership’s Best Places to Work in the Federal Government. The results from our prior work at DHS and other departments identify a wide variety of issues that can lead to employee morale problems. Thus, conducting an analysis of the root causes of employee satisfaction problems and developing plans to address them are important. DHS’s job satisfaction scores could pose challenges to DHS in recruiting, motivating, and retaining talented employees that DHS needs to meet its mission requirements. Specifically, an agency’s reputation is a key factor in recruiting and hiring applicants. A Partnership for Public Service report published in 2010 noted that a good reputation is the most frequently mentioned factor in choosing potential employers, and agencies with high satisfaction and engagement scores were seen as desirable by college graduates seeking employment. Similarly, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) reported that employees’ willingness to recommend the federal government or their agency as a place to work can directly affect an agency’s recruitment efforts, the quality of the resulting applicant pool, and the acceptance of employment offers. In addition, MSPB noted that prospective employees would rather work for an agency billed as one of the best places to work compared to an agency at the bottom of the list. DHS has taken or has a variety of actions under way or planned to address employee satisfaction problems, including analyzing the results of employee surveys and developing action plans to improve employee satisfaction. Components and DHS have used a variety of approaches to analyze survey results to gain insight about employee satisfaction. As part of our ongoing work on employee morale, we reviewed survey analyses conducted by DHS’s Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer, TSA, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). DHS. DHS completed an evaluation of the 2008 Federal Human Capital Survey results to determine root causes of job satisfaction departmentwide, according to DHS officials. In that analysis, DHS determined that the drivers of employee satisfaction across DHS included the DHS mission, senior leadership effectiveness, and supervisor support. According to DHS officials, DHS is currently working with a contractor on a departmentwide analysis of root causes of employee morale. As of March 2012, this analysis was not complete. TSA. TSA’s analysis focused on areas of difficulty across groups, such as pay and performance appraisal concerns, and also provides insight on which employee groups within TSA may be more dissatisfied with their jobs than others. The analysis results are descriptive, showing where job satisfaction problem areas may exist, and do not identify the causes of dissatisfaction within employee groups. For the 2011 FEVS, TSA benchmarked its results against CBP results, as well as against DHS and governmentwide results. When comparing CBP and TSA scores, TSA found that the greatest differences in scores were on questions related to satisfaction with pay and with whether performance appraisals were a fair reflection of performance. TSA scored 40 percentage points lower on pay satisfaction and 25 percentage points lower on performance appraisal satisfaction. In comparing TSA results to DHS and governmentwide results, TSA found that TSA was below the averages for all FEVS dimensions. TSA also evaluated FEVS results across employee groups by comparing dimension scores for headquarters staff, the Federal Air Marshals, Federal Security Director staff, and the screening workforce. TSA found that the screening workforce scored at or below scores for all other groups across all of the dimensions. ICE. ICE analyzed the 2011 FEVS results by identifying ICE’s top FEVS questions with high positive and negative responses. ICE found that its top strength was employees’ willingness to put in the extra effort to get a job done. ICE’s top negative result was employees’ perception that pay raises did not depend on how well employees perform their jobs. ICE did not perform demographic analysis of the survey results or identify the roots causes of employee satisfaction problems, but did benchmark its results against DHS and governmentwide results, identifying those questions and Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework ICE (HCAAF) indices where ICE led or trailed DHS and the government. found, among other things, that employee views on the fairness of its performance appraisals were above DHS’s average but that views on employee preparation for potential security threats were lower. When comparing ICE’s results with governmentwide figures, ICE found, among other things, that ICE was lower on all of the HCAAF indices, including job satisfaction. The HCAAF indices provide metrics for measuring progress toward OPM goals for federal agencies, which include employee job satisfaction, leadership effectiveness and knowledge management, a results-oriented performance culture, and effective talent management. DHS and the components are taking actions that could improve employee satisfaction, with a focus on improving components’ positive responses to selected survey items. DHS’s Integrated Strategy for High Risk Management. In December 2011, DHS provided us with its updated Integrated Strategy for High Risk Management (Integrated Strategy), which summarized the department’s plans for addressing its implementation and transformation high-risk designation. In the Integrated Strategy, DHS identified corrective actions to improve employee job satisfaction scores, among other things. The corrective actions include the Secretary issuing guidance to component heads to address gaps in the 2011 FEVS results; launch of an Employee Engagement Executive Steering Committee, which held its first meeting in February 2012; implementation in June 2009 of an online reporting and action planning tool for components; and execution of a DHS-wide exit survey in January 2011 for departing employees to gain additional insight into why employees are leaving the department. According to the Integrated Strategy, DHS has begun implementing corrective actions but has not yet achieved its key outcome related to job satisfaction—to improve DHS’s scores on OPM’s job satisfaction index, among other indexes, and to improve its ranking on the Partnership’s Best Places to Work in the Federal Government. According to the Integrated Strategy, FEVS index scores did not improve appreciably relative to governmentwide averages from 2010 to 2011. DHS’s Partnership ranking also remains near last among federal agencies.