In late 2023, the Office of Personnel Management published the 2023 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey results, and I am pleased to share them with you now. I want you to know that your voice matters: You are speaking up, your agency leadership is listening, and we are taking action.

This year, the Forest Service increased our participation and improved in all OPM FEVS indices. In addition to the long-standing indices of Employee Engagement and Global Satisfaction, the Performance Confidence index was added in 2021, and the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility index was added in 2023. A sincere thank you to everyone who took time out of your busy day to share your 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 87% of participants responded positively that their supervisor treats them with respect. Demonstrating our commitment to our value of service, 92% of FEVS respondents felt it is important that their work contributes to the common good. In support of our value of diversity, 74% felt their supervisors demonstrate a commitment to workforce diversity and 68% agreed that our management practices promote diversity. We are experiencing a positive shift because of your commitment to providing a safe, inclusive work environment where we all can thrive.

Highlights across the Forest Service include:

• The Forest Service’s overall participation rate of 44% is our highest in six years. We outpaced many large agencies and exceeded the government-wide average of 39%. The highest participation rates came from the following:

  • Work Environment and Performance Office: 83% 

  • Research and Development Deputy Chief Area: 75% 

  • Alaska Region: 67%

• The Rocky Mountain Research Station had the highest Employee Engagement Index at 81% and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Index at 82%.

• The Chief Financial Officer had the highest Global Satisfaction Index at 76%.

• The International Institute of Tropical Forestry had the highest Performance Confidence Index at 97% and the highest Employee Experience Index at 85%.

FEVS is a critical tool that empowers employees to give honest feedback while providing 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 on solutions to address firefighter pay and the cost of housing 

• Increasing availability of Leadership Development Programs 

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

• Hosting the second Employee Well-being Week, focusing on employee health and safety 

• Offering enhanced support for New Employees

Our path forward includes analyses of the 2023 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.

We are grateful to every employee who took the time to complete the survey.

Congratulations, and thank you for sharing your truth and being engaged in shaping the future of the Forest Service!

Employees can view detailed results in the Box folder—FEVS Reports 2023. If you have additional data requests or question, please email WEPO Data Analysis and Evaluation.

* Presented results and percent change data are rounded and may not compute as expected.

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