Additonal Resources

Best Places to Work

Designed to help a broad audience of job seekers, researchers, federal employees and government leaders, Best Places to Work in the Federal Government draws on responses from more than 212,000 civil servants to produce detailed rankings of employee satisfaction and commitment across 279 federal agencies and subcomponents.

The Partnership for Public Service and American University’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation use data from the Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Human Capital Survey to rank agencies and subcomponents. Agencies and subcomponents are ranked on a Best Places to Work index score, which measures overall employee satisfaction, an important part of employee engagement. The Best Places to Work score is calculated both for the organization as a whole and also for specific demographic groups.

In addition to this employee satisfaction rating, agencies and subcomponents are also scored in 10 workplace environment (“best in class”) categories such as effective leadership, employee skills/mission match and work/life balance.

Best Places also offers a snapshot overview of each agency and subcomponent, trend data on changes since 2003, 2005 and 2007, tips and information for job seekers, and expert analysis of what the results mean.

Among its new features, the 2009 rankings enable users to generate customized reports by selecting certain agency features. Users can also conduct side-by-side comparisons of how agencies or their subcomponents ranked in various categories.

Making the Difference

Call to Serve is a national initiative designed to educate a new generation about the importance of a strong civil service, help re-establish links between federal agencies and colleges and universities, and provide students with information about the unique and dynamic opportunities that federal jobs provide.

Launched in April 2002 in partnership with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Call to Serve has since grown to a national network of more than 670 schools and more than 75 federal agencies.

The Making the Difference Web site has free resources, including the downloadable “Red, White and Blue Jobs” booklets and career guides, which provide an overview of federal job opportunities.