From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Federal Employee Engagement Description: Audio Interview by GAO staff with Robert Goldenkoff, Director, Strategic Issues Related GAO Work: GAO-15-585: Federal Workforce: Additional Analysis and Sharing of Promising Practices Could Improve Employee Engagement and Performance Released: August 2015 [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from U.S. Government Accountability Office. It’s August 2015. When employees are more engaged, organizations perform better. This is true in the private and public sectors. This summer, a team led by Robert Goldenkoff, a director in GAO's Strategic Issues team, reviewed recent trends in federal employee engagement and steps that the Office of Personnel Management and other federal agencies are taking to improve it. GAO's Jacques Arsenault sat down with Robert to discuss what they found. [ Jacques Arsenault: ] Employee engagement is a term that I see from time to time in blogs or news articles, but what does it really mean? [ Robert Goldenkoff: ] Well, there's no standard textbook definition, but engaged employees tend to share certain similar characteristics and they include, for example, having a heightened connection to the work that they do, being passionate about the work. They are typically more committed to the mission. They find personal meaning and pride in their work. They're more willing to go the extra mile. Think one of the definitions that I particularly like is that engaged employees stay for what they give, and disengaged employees stay for what they get. [ Jacques Arsenault: ] Now, looking at federal agencies in particular, it seems like every year we hear about declining morale among federal employees. Can you talk about what the data says and what's behind those numbers? [ Robert Goldenkoff: ] I think it's a typical bad news, good news story. For the data that we use in our report, it's comes from what's called the Employee Engagement Index, which is an index derived from the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which is a survey that OPM administers to federal employees every year. So the bad news is that government wide levels of employee engagement have gone down four percentage points since 2011. So it went from 67 percent in 2011 to 63 percent in 2014. So the trend is certainly going down. But the good news part of this is that most agencies actually maintained or increased their levels of engagement during that same time period. And so part of what's happening is that a handful of large agencies -- for example, DOD, DHS, Veterans Affairs -- they're, the engagement levels of those agencies are bringing down engagement levels government wide. So most agencies I said have stayed the same or gone up. And what's particularly interesting about this is that same time period, it coincided with things like employee furloughs, budget cuts. There was a pay freeze. And while certainly those events weren't helpful, it also shows that during difficult times, if you do have high engagement levels, it could help agencies weather those challenging circumstances. [ Jacques Arsenault: ] So it sounds like some agencies are doing things effectively. Can you talk about what they're doing to increase employee engagement? [ Robert Goldenkoff: ] Our report identified six key drivers of employee engagement. And so, for example, they include things like having constructive performance conversations, career development and training, creating a work-life balance, promoting inclusiveness. Ironically, it's all the things that our moms told us to do. [laughs] Our moms were right all along. It's basically listen to people, say "thank you," and so if you look at those agencies that have done particularly well -- either those that already had high levels of engagement or increased their levels of engagement -- they're doing things within each of those six drivers. [ Jacques Arsenault: ] So then finally, what would you say is the bottom line of this report? [ Robert Goldenkoff: ] Well, there are several important takeaways. First is that engagement matters. It's not only about making employees happy. Engagement is important because it affects the bottom line of an organization. Research has shown that it decreases absenteeism. Engaged employees are more likely to be more productive, have higher levels of performance. Secondly, it's not only what agencies do. It's how they do it. For example, it comes as no surprise that effective communication is important, but how that communication takes place can make all the difference. For example, a blast email to all employees is not going to be as effective as a supervisor stopping by and saying, "Thank you. That was a great job that you do." Or seeing a leader picking up the phone and saying, "Wow, what you did really made a difference." And thirdly, improving engagement is a long-term proposition. It's not just a matter of doing a couple of disparate activities to improve next year's engagement scores. It's about really changing the culture of an organization, and that requires a personal investment both at the, at levels of the senior leaders all the way down to supervisors and individual employees. [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] For more, visit GAO.gov and be sure to tune in to the next episode of GAO's Watchdog Report for more from the congressional watchdog agency, the U.S. Government Accountability Office.