Thread: DHS Management Strives to Improve Employee Morale

By: Mickey McCarter

03/23/2012 (12:00am)

A recent drop in employee morale at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has prompted its leadership to implement new initiatives to communicate with and reward the DHS workforce and to strengthen opportunities for training and advancement, officials told a House panel Thursday.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House homeland security oversight subcommittee, voiced concern that DHS earned low marks in a morale survey conducted by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for fiscal year (FY) 2011. In the OPM Federal Viewpoints Survey, only 37 percent of DHS employees said their senior leaders provided them with job motivation and only 37 percent said they were satisfied with the policies and practices of DHS senior leadership.

DHS also ranked only 31 out of 33 federal organizations in a survey of best places to work in the government, McCaul noted.

“We should also be concerned about the range of employee satisfaction in the various DHS subordinate agencies, especially the differences. The United States Coast Guard made gains this year in the survey and ranked 37 out of 240 subcomponents in the federal government while the Office of Science and Technology ranked 238 out of 240. Of course various DHS components have different mission sets but they should not have different mindsets,” McCaul stated.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) analyzed the OPM findings and concluded DHS should conduct a sweeping assessment of low employee morale.

DHS has struggled with raising morale among its more than 200,000 employees since its establishment in 2003, David Maurer, GAO director of homeland security and justice, said in testimony, Department of Homeland Security: Preliminary Observations on DHS’s Efforts to Improve Employee Morale.

In 2004, 56 percent of DHS employees told OPM that they were satisfied with their jobs compared to 68 percent across the government, Maurer said. In subsequent years, DHS continued to rank lower than other federal agencies in this area, trailing them by 8 percentage points in 2006 and improving an average of 4 percentage points in 2008, 2010 and 2011.

By 2011, DHS continued to receive lower marks from its employees than other federal agencies on average, Maurer reported.

“For example, slightly less than half of the DHS employees surveyed reported positive responses to the statement ‘My talents are used well in the workplace,’ nearly 12 percentage points less than the rest of the federal government average,” Maurer stated.

But DHS did relatively well in some areas where employees gave positive feedback. Employees reported generally average satisfaction with their pay compared to other federal agencies in the OPM survey. Some agencies, such as US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), received above average marks for overall job satisfaction. But other agencies ranked low -- like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), where employees graded their agency 11 percentage points below the federal average.

While DHS has taken steps to address satisfaction problems, the department must determine the root causes of employee morale problems, Maurer said. DHS is working on such an analysis, which is not yet complete.

Catherine Emerson, DHS chief human capital officer, told the subcommittee that DHS was moving forward with renewed efforts to improve morale. She emphasized that the 2011 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey indicated several strengths at the department, including a strong belief in employees’ work and “a willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty.”

Still, Emerson acknowledged that the survey suggested that DHS could improve in recognizing employees and providing them with opportunities for empowerment and better jobs. Senior leaders at the department also could do a better job of generating employee motivation and commitment, according to the survey results.

To address these concerns, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issued a directive on Jan. 9 to improve employee engagement, partly with an Employee Engagement Executive Steering Committee, and to strengthen employee communication, training and recognition, Emerson testified.

The directive also tasked management with rewarding DHS employees and making them feel included, she added.

“With this concerted and comprehensive approach, I expect to see DHS improve its Employee Viewpoint Survey scores in the coming years. The correlation between morale and employees’ need to feel connected to their leadership and to feel valued are unmistakable links to improving our overall scores,” Emerson stated.

Emerson chairs the Employee Engagement Steering Committee, which stood up in February to produce a strategic framework for increasing communication and collaboration with DHS employees. The committee has begun to collect best practices in employee engagement and it will continue to provide ideas to DHS management to foster engagement and to survey DHS employees on issues they face.

DHS also is centralizing its learning management systems to provide standardized training to its employees and create more of a unified culture, Emerson said.

The department’s management has sought out opportunities to increase opportunities for employees to take up leadership positions, such as in the senior executive service, and to offer them fellowships for leadership skills development.

Later this year, the department will hold an awards program to recognize and honor employee contributions, Emerson added.

Finally, DHS has stepped up its leadership development efforts to improve management skills among its supervisors, Emerson said. With efforts that began in FY 2010, DHS has been soliciting more input from its supervisors and enhancing their buy-in of DHS workforce efforts. In this way, the department plans to expand the strengths among its leadership and provide managers with the tools to recognize and communicate with their component employees.

Homeland Security Today: DHS Management Strives to Improve Employee Morale

Looking at Nappy's face everyday at work, would definitely be very depressing! If your a decent honest American and you know your government job is ripping off the American people it would make you depressed.