Every year, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management polls federal workers and asks how they feel about their jobs, their leaders and their work culture, among other things. And now the results of the 2014 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey are in. How did the NRC do?
We’re happy to say the NRC remains as a top performer. NRC employees gave high marks to the agency in such categories as:
- Quality of Hire Q21 – My work unit is able to recruit people with the right skills. (22.5 percent above the government average)
- Resource Sufficiency Q9 – I have sufficient resources (for example, people, materials, budget) to get my job done. (21.9 percent above the government average)
- High-Quality Recognition Q31 – Employees are recognized for providing high quality products and services. (19.3 percent above the government average)
The NRC also remains above the government-wide average in all categories — with the largest increases over last year in favorable responses centering on training and our ability to recruit the right people with the right skills.
We saw an increase this past year in pay and job satisfaction along with significant progress in the area of talent management, which generally means everything done to recruit, retain, develop, and reward employees. Leadership and Knowledge Management dropped a single percentage point. The rest of our scores either stayed the same or improved.
This is the second survey in which OPM scored agencies in diversity and inclusion, which includes questions that measure characteristics of an agency that improve diversity and inclusion, such as being fair, open, cooperative, supportive and empowering. The so-called “IQ Index” for the NRC increased slightly from last year and remains well above the government benchmark.
The Employee ViewPoint Survey is anonymous, web-based, and offered to all permanent NRC employees. This year, 68 percent of NRC employees completed the survey (about 2,467 respondents out of 3,624).
Obtaining employee input and taking action based on this input is a key a component of our agency’s continuous improvement efforts and a major reason why we have a highly engaged workforce. As we have done in the past, the agency will analyze the survey results and identify focus areas. We believe that as a result of our collective efforts the NRC remains a great place to work.
We’ve posted our results on the agency website.
U.S. NRC Blog 
A full explanation of the NRC funding mechanism is available here: http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/plans-performance.html#par
Moderator
You mean, so that my contentions can be dismissed out of hand if I don’t happen to agree with (you)?
“…could otherwise be productive private land…”? Your position is that the NRC shouldn’t even exist?? Sorry, I’m doing nothing to harm your “traction.” It’s lost already.
License holders make a vital product and sell it….and then are assessed part of their earnings for the privilege of being regulated. Quite a different situation than a taxpayer having a sizable portion of his earnings confiscated.
Moderator note: Some verbiage removed to adhere to comment guidelines.
@Mod, I see your post that 90% is from license fee, what is the other 10% from.
Also, to make it very clear, Public Utility Commission set the amount of profit companies can make. Companies submit ALL of their costs as part of a rate case. These costs are added into the cost per kWH to sell power.
The license fees are added in the cost, and thus into the cost per kWH to sell power to the consumer, the rate payer. Therefore the funds to run the NRC come from the consumers of the power.
In other words, the consumers are “the boss” and the boss ought to do an annual review of it’s employees.
I request the NRC do a pilot program and ask for a public review of it’s performance.
By law, approximately 90 percent of the NRC’s budget is recovered from licensee fees. The NRC collects the fees and transfers them to the U.S. Treasury.
Moderator
Dan the “litmus test” registers an overall view, and by understanding your viewpoint we can more readily have a legitimate discussion with some empathy. However, when you are throwing insults around like “your skewed little view of the world” its hard to get traction on a real conversation.
The ratepayers foot the whole bill for the NRC, except maybe the citizens also pay some of the cost, via things like NRC buildings sitting on federal that could otherwise be productive private land, things like that. The ratepayers and taxpayers should be given a poll to see how well they think the NRC is doing their job.
@blackout
A litmus test? You’re going to pass judgment on my qualification to post on this blog??
The companies “footing the bill” thinkt he NRC is doing just fine as they allow them to leave spent fuel in pools for decades, and they get power uprates and license extensions.
But lets call a spade a spade. Those companies do not foot the bill, they just write the check, and that cost is put into the energy rate case with the local utilty comission, and the CITIZENS, the rate payers, pay the bill. How do you feel about the recent political speech that concluded “busineses don’t create jobs”….a litmus test of sorts.
But I would recommend that you keep your commentary professional. saying things like “your skewed little world” are insulting and not up to the standards of this fine blog in which the NRC is really trying to reach out to people. stock out.
To be clear — this survey is developed and administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to all federal agencies. From the OPM blog on the latest survey results: “It is one of the most valuable tools that OPM provides to agencies because it helps leaders understand how employees feel about their jobs, their ability to advance, their training opportunities and their sense of empowerment in the workplace. The survey allows employees to comfortably share their opinions and it makes it possible for agency leadership to make changes based on real data about their employees’ honest and crucial feedback.”
For the full post:
https://www.opm.gov/blogs/Director/2014/10/24/FEVS-Highlights-Employee-Commitment-to-Service/
Moderator
Here’s a little inconvenient truth for you. “Citizens” do not pay the NRCs salary. That agency enjoys a very unique funding arrangement. The very companies that hold operating licenses are the sole source of the NRCs operating budget, to the tune of several million dollars per year for each reactor. If your skewed little view of the world doesn’t allow you to believe the apparently favorable opinions of the NRC employees, you should be advocating that the companies footing the bill should be polled on how this operation is being run.
Reblogged this on Niki.V.all.ways.My.way. and commented:
Hmmmmm … i wonder what questions they actually ask. And, I wonder how this “Chief Human Capital Officer” thinks about how the NRC and the EPA put an actual dollar value on human life? are we really this far from a reality where every life is “priceless” so as to think of our federal employees as “human capital”? wrong mindset for certain for “We The People”!
And I was once foolish enough to think that the spin stopped with the agency that is supposed to be the nuclear industry’s watchdog.
Is the NRC’s pro-niclear PR department trying to outdo all the industry’s pro-nuclear propaganda folks?!
Glad the NRC is doing so well in the eyes of some of its employees. Not a single thing you can improve on. Why don’t you survey your licensees and the public at large?! You might find a few areas for improvement if you do so!
That all is commendable. Now I would like to see a poll taken of say 100 people from each state, your bosses i.e. the citizens who pay your salary. I would like to see that poll results on how well people think the NRC is doing its job.