The Office of Personnel Management has published the 2024 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey results and I am pleased to share them with you. I want you to know that your voice matters: You are speaking up, your agency leadership is listening and we are taking action based on our employee’s feedback.

This year the Forest Service increased our participation and improved in all five OPM indices: Employee Engagement; Global Satisfaction; Performance Confidence; Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility; and Employee Experience. The table at the end includes all the breakdowns. A sincere thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy day to share their feedback with us. It truly does matter. Let’s look at what the results show.

The Forest Service is committed to treating everyone with respect and 88% of participants responded positively that their supervisor treats them with respect. Demonstrating our commitment to our value of service, 93% of FEVS respondents felt it is important that their work contributes to the common good. In support of our value of diversity, 75% felt their supervisors demonstrate a commitment to workforce diversity, and 75% agreed that their supervisor provides opportunities fairly to all employees in the work unit. We are experiencing a positive shift because of your commitment to providing a safe, inclusive work environment where we all can thrive.

Forest Service highlights:  

• The Forest Service’s overall participation rate of 47% is our highest in seven years. We outpaced many large agencies and exceeded the government-wide average of 41%.  

• The Global Satisfaction Index of 57% is our highest since 2020.

• The Overall Employee Engagement Index of 70% is our highest in seven years.  

• The Performance Confidence Index, which launched in 2021, is our highest at 82%.

• The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Index, which launched in 2022, is our highest at 72%

• Launching in 2023, the Employee Experience Index increased by 1% to 73%.  

FEVS is a critical tool that empowers employees to provide feedback while giving Forest Service leaders the information needed to implement important changes to the work environment. The following sample of actions are all rooted in feedback provided via FEVS (Note: links are internal only):

• Working to address issues related to firefighter pay and housing

• Increasing availability of Leadership Development Programs  

• Establishing the Forest Service Ombuds Program

• Celebrating Public Service Recognition Week to reaffirm our value of service  

• Hosting the second Employee Well-being Week and partnering with Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officers to focus on employee health and safety

• Offering enhanced support for New Employees

Our path forward includes analyses of the 2024 results across the Forest Service, using the results to inform our future work environment assessments, action planning and sharing with you the actions taken based on your feedback as we continue our improvements, together.

We are grateful to every employee who took the time to complete the survey.  Congratulations and thank you for being engaged in shaping the future of the Forest Service!

Employees can view and download detailed results in the Box folder FEVS Reports 2024 and learn more about the FEVS in the FEVS SharePoint. If you have additional data requests or question, please email WEPO Data Analysis and Evaluation. 

Note: Percentages are rounded. 

Editor's Note: Provide feedback about this column, submit questions or suggest topics for future columns through the FS-Employee Feedback inbox.