The 2023 Employee Perspective Survey

Leadership can’t know what what we think unless we tell them.

The 2023 Smithsonian Employee Perspective Survey (SEPS) launches this week. The survey is available in both English and Spanish and every employee who has been with the Smithsonian for at least three months will receive an email invitation to participate.

SEPS provides the Secretary and his leadership team an annual insight into your views about working at the Smithsonian. Participation is voluntary, and replies are confidential. Employees are encourage to submit candid feedback as we work together to create a work environment that is engaging for all and where every voice is heard. The overall results of the survey will be posted later this summer.We will post the overall results of the survey online this summer.

The results of the survey help shape the Smithsonian’s strategic workforce initiatives and measure our progress toward our strategic goals. Based on last year’s results:

• We launched a strategic initiative to develop a professional development program that invests in employees at all grade levels and facilitates the diversification of experiences and access throughout the Institution.
• We continued our efforts to create more nimble processes and procedures by tackling long-term challenges in operational areas such as hiring, financial planning, and contracting under the leadership of the Under Secretary for Administration.
• We introduced an action planning toolkit to encourage each Smithsonian organization to act on their SEPS results. The toolkit assists units craft and implement tailored plans to address low scoring areas and continue activities that are working well.

As always, your responses will remain confidential; reported information will not be traceable back to you as an individual unless you choose to include personally identifying information in your written comments. If you work in a unit that receives 10 or more responses to the survey, your director will share unit-level results with you in a format tailored to your organization. Directors leading organizations with fewer than 10 responses will provide Institution-level information.

Watch your email for your personal survey invitation.

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