A survey of 3,500 feds by researchers at Vanderbilt University gives some insight into what employees think about how their agencies are managed.

The survey polled opinions on agencies' ability to recruit and retain the best employees, whether they had the skills to meet core mission objectives, whether promotions were based on performance and ability and whether they would recommend public service to young people just starting their careers.

The interactive above shows the top and bottom three agencies for each of six questions, as well as ratings for Best Place to Work.

More: Survey says federal agencies are stressed, HR policy isn't helping

While the graphic includes the best and worst ratings for each question, researchers warned against making definitive judgments based on the results.

"Our goal for the survey is not to point out that specific agencies are not performing well in a specific area for the purpose of drawing attention to those agencies," said Mark Richardson, a Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt who worked on the survey.

Richardson noted some agencies performed well on one metric and poorly on others.

For example, the Office of Management and Budget received low scores for its ability to recruit the best employees, however it ranked among the top three in both ability to meet the mission and likelihood that employees would recommend public service.

"We think the importance of the agency-level data is that it shows that in some areas some agencies are doing well and others are struggling," Richardson said. "This highlights the opportunity to diagnose why this variation exists and determine what can be learned from agencies that are doing well to help those that have room for improvement."

The full results for every agency can be seen in the PDF below, including the confidence intervals for true averages.

About Aaron Boyd

Aaron Boyd is an awarding-winning journalist currently serving as editor of Federal Times — a Washington, D.C. institution covering federal workforce and contracting for more than 50 years — and Fifth Domain — a news and information hub focused on cybersecurity and cyberwar from a civilian, military and international perspective.

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