The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Government Accountability Office once again top the list of Best Places to Work in the federal government, according to a new report that will be released Wednesday.

But some agencies, such as the Veterans Affairs Department and Securities and Exchange Commission, saw steep drops in their rankings from the Partnership for Public Service's previous study in 2009. VA dropped from 12th among large agencies to 21st; SEC dropped from 11th to 24th.

The rankings are based on the Partnership's agency-by-agency analysis of responses to questions in the Office of Personnel Management's Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which was released in July. Overall rankings are based on employees' reported satisfaction with their jobs and organizations and their willingness to recommend their agencies as a good place to work. The Partnership also analyzed satisfaction with leadership and management, training and development opportunities, and opportunities for advancement to rank agencies in other categories.

VA spokeswoman Jo Schuda said the department believes significant operational changes — such as enacting the Post-9/11 GI Bill and Secretary Eric Shinseki's push to reduce the claims backlog — have stressed employees and contributed to its ranking decline.

"Both of those major new initiatives required substantial changes in technology that continue," Schuda said. Shinseki "expected this amount of organization change can be difficult for the work force, but that change has to happen if we're going to be able to meet these significant challenges."

Schuda said the survey results show that VA leaders have to keep talking to employees about how changes being enacted will benefit veterans, and how the changes will be put into action.

Partnership President Max Stier said in an interview Tuesday that communication is the right strategy. He said that the increases in rankings at the Transportation and Treasury departments and Federal Communications Commission are largely due to top leaders' willingness to speak with and listen to employees.

"It's important that leadership is paying attention to this data and reacting to it," Stier said. "Agencies that are doing well typically are invested in communication with the work force — listening to the problems and opportunities from the work force and acting on [them], and communicating how their work is connected to the overall competencies of the agency."

The complete results are scheduled to be released Wednesday morning at an event in Washington. They will be posted online at http://bestplacestowork.org.