Feb

We’re (still) number four!

For the third year, the Smithsonian ranked 4th among large agencies in the 2011 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government survey. The ranking is based on responses by Smithsonian federal, full-time, permanent employees to the 2011 Smithsonian Employee Perspective Survey.

The BPTW ranking was calculated from favorable responses to three survey questions:

Overall, I am satisfied with my job (82% favorable)
I would recommend the Smithsonian as a good place to work (78% favorable)
Considering everything, I am satisfied with the Smithsonian (77% favorable)

The good news is that more than half of Smithsonian employees participated in the 2011 SEPS (55%), a significant increase from 2010 (49%). Efforts to improve communications and collaboration across Smithsonian units are improving, as shown by dramatic increases in the favorable responses to “Smithsonian leaders and managers promote communication and cooperation across units in the Smithsonian,” as well as other questions regarding communications and access to information.

The 2011 SEPS also showed that there are areas where we can do better. For one, the percentage of staff who say creativity and innovation are rewarded is low, and decreased between 2010 and 2011 from 51% favorable to 42%, even though a substantial majority of survey respondents continued to say that they were “encouraged to come up with new and better ways of doing things” (74% in both years).

The results of the 2011 Smithsonian Employee Perspective Survey are available on the Office of Policy & Analysis’ website. SEPS is a valuable tool that we use to track our progress in making the Smithsonian a better place to work; thank you for participating. Though we have made progress since the last survey, we are committed to continued improvement. Please submit ideas and suggestions to comments@si.edu.

The 2012 Smithsonian Employee Perspective Survey will be announced in April.