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Washington D.C.— The leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) is urging agencies to closely examine the findings of the newly-released rankings of the best places to work in the federal government and work with employees to improve workplace satisfaction—a key driver of agency performance—particularly at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) where rankings continued to be among the lowest.

The biennial ‘best places’ rankings were issued today by the Partnership for Public Service, a civil service advocacy group. The report, first issued in 2003, generates scores for agencies based on data from federal employee responses to the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) federal human capital survey. This year’s rankings were based on data from OPM’s 2008 federal human capital survey which interviewed 212,000 employees from more than 230 federal agencies and their subcomponents.

“This report cuts to the heart of what really matters to employees—issues of leadership, pay and benefits, training and a strong work-life balance,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “This year’s rankings provide an excellent opportunity for agencies to re-examine their workplaces and work with frontline employees and their representatives to make immediate and concrete improvements.”

NTEU believes there is no better place to start than at DHS where this year ‘best places’ rankings, while improved, continue to put the agency near the bottom of the list—DHS moved up to 28th out of 30 ranked agencies. “While I am glad to see DHS improve its ranking, the agency still has a long way to go to boost employee morale and build a stronger relationship between its workforce and leadership,” President Kelley said.

In addition to its overall ranking, DHS was ranked at, or near, the bottom of all surveyed agencies in 10 separate workplace categories, including employees skills and mission match; leadership; work-life balance; teamwork; pay and benefits, training and development; workplace diversity; strategic management; performance-based rewards and advancement; and family-friendly culture and benefits.

President Kelley noted that two DHS subcomponent agencies, its U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and its Transportation Security Administration (TSA), also ranked very poorly in this year’s ‘best places’ rankings. Out of 231 subcomponent federal agencies whose employees were surveyed, CBP ranked 178th, while TSA ranked an abysmal 213th. NTEU represents the entire 22,000-member CBP workforce and thousands more at TSA.

Securing full civil service protections for TSA employees is a key component of NTEU’s comprehensive five-point plan for the TSA workforce—a concrete set of goals that will ensure stability of the agency nationwide. “Only when full collective bargaining rights for TSA workers are secured and these employees have a significant voice in their work lives will we see morale improve,” said President Kelley. “The survey demonstrates that TSA employees have been frustrated by a lack of confidence in their senior leaders, a perception that the workplace is not fair, dissatisfaction with the pay system and a lack of empowerment,” she said. NTEU is working to have collective bargaining rights granted to TSA employees both legislatively and administratively.

“Inadequate training and unresponsive leadership at CBP, as well as a lack of full collective bargaining rights at TSA have directly contributed to the low morale plaguing both workforces,” President Kelley said. “In ignoring the views and ideas of frontline homeland security employees, these agencies have effectively robbed the American people of the full breadth of the skills, knowledge and experience of those who work to protect America every day.”

One agency where NTEU’s efforts to increase frontline employee input has met with success in years past is at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) which again earned the survey’s top ranking—it also was the top-ranked agency in the 2007 ‘best places’ rankings. At the NRC, NTEU has successfully negotiated workplace rights and benefits that address employee working conditions and work-life balance, such as alternative work schedules, flexiplace and student loan repayments.

A lack of employee input and the failure to recognize that a skilled, experienced workforce is the government’s greatest asset were major factors that were missing from the previous administration’s attempts to overhaul the federal civil service. “The new administration has a chance to make lasting, positive changes to the morale of the federal civil service and NTEU looks forward to working with OPM and agency heads to start today,” President Kelley said.

NTEU is the largest independent federal employee union representing 150,000 federal employees in 31 federal agencies and departments.