Which agencies reward innovation?
Federal workers lack confidence that their employers will support efforts at innovation, says a new report from the Partnership for Public Service.
Federal employees say they are looking for ways to improve the way they work, but many feel the agencies they work for do not support their efforts, according to a new analysis of innovation in the federal workforce by the Partnership for Public Service.
The government-wide innovation score, based on responses to three key questions on the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, is 59.4 out of a possible 100, down 2.1 points from last year, and the lowest since the Partnership first tried to measure innovation in 2010.
The Partnership looks at whether employees feel encouraged to innovate, whether innovation is rewarded, and whether employees are consistently looking for better ways to do their jobs.
The Partnership observed year-over-year declines in the answers feds gave to a set of questions about respect for agency senior leadership, perceptions of opportunities for skill acquisition and advancement, and involvement in decision making.
NASA leads all federal agencies with the highest innovation score, and the top five scoring agency subcomponents are all NASA divisions. The State, Commerce, Health and Human Services departments all received high scores, along with the Navy, the Federal Trade Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the National Science Foundation and the Federal Communications Commission.
The Homeland Security, Labor, Transportation, and Agriculture departments were at the bottom of the innovation rankings. And some of the steepest declines were seen at small agencies hit hardest by sequestration. The Office of Management and Budget, for example, saw its innovation score fall by 7.1 percentage points. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission's score dropped 7.9 points. Very few agencies saw their scores rise over last year, and none significantly.
"The downward government-wide trend and the negative employee views on some key workplace indicators are troubling signs for sustaining a government that is able to innovate to meet new challenges," the report observed.