All of you should have a voice on how your work environment can be safe, inclusive, respectful, resilient and productive. Our new Work Environment Improvement Program was created to help promote continued engagement with employees at all levels of our organization. 

The Work Environment and Performance Office has begun working with regional foresters, station directors and deputy chiefs on a new initiative of locally focused work environment assessments. The assessment consists of an online anonymous survey that allows you to provide direct feedback to your local leadership. When necessary, this feedback will be supplemented with interviews and focus groups to better understand issues.

Results will be provided to leaders to support them in making positive, practical and local changes through specific action plans. Implementation and effectiveness of those action plans will be dependent on your feedback. This is your opportunity to make concrete change at your local unit.  

This new program will supplement the continued use of the OPM-sponsored Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. FEVS is still an essential tool for annual assessments of how we are doing as an agency and how we compare with other executive departments. We still need you to support FEVS each year. Yet, we have learned that an agency-wide approach alone does not give us a full understanding of your experiences and concerns at the local level, nor does it help us identify specific, timely actions for improvement.

We believe the localized approach of this new Work Environment Improvement Program will allow for better listening and deeper understanding of the work environment and your experiences and concerns. It will also foster development of specific actions relevant to the places where you actually work every day. Through this level of continuous engagement, we are living by our core values and promoting our Code and Commitments. This Is Who We Are—and it is who we should be!

For more information about this program, resources and tools related to work environment improvement, or to see when your unit is scheduled for their assessment, visit our website.

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