Sorry to say, the federal government is a sick patient. Many of the vital signs I keep an eye on are trending in the same direction: Down.
Moreover, it appears lawmakers don't notice the trends, or worse, don't care.
Among the troubling signs:
Morale is at record lows among federal employees. (The overall employee satisfaction score in the government's annual survey last year was 56.9 out of 100, versus 72.0 for private sector employees.) Millennials in government — e.g. the future federal workforce — are even more dissatisfied. Among the roughly 336,000 Millennials in government, satisfaction scores fell between five and eight percentage points below those of their older co-workers in many key metrics.
Government is getting less innovative. (The Partnership for Public Service's innovation index score gives the government a 59.4 out of 100, the lowest score in four years of measuring.)Only 55 percent of feds surveyed said they are encouraged to find better ways to do their job. And only a third said their agency rewards creativity and innovation.
Citizen satisfaction with federal services is at its lowest point since at least 2007. (Customer satisfaction achieved a score of 64.4 out of 100, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index).
These are all symptoms of a less engaged, less effective federal workforce.
These problems matter. One wonders, for example, if there was an index to measure the government's capacity to effectively address complex challenges — such as the effects of climate change, the security of critical infrastructure, or the rise of drug-resistant diseases — how would it look?
Lots of factors contribute to these worrisome indicators — shrinking and uncertain budgets, poor leadership, lax management, a shrinking workforce, rigid bureaucratic barriers, and a federal culture that abhors change and fresh thinking.
There are certainly no easy fixes to any of these. But a first step to fixing any of them is this: Focus.
No one in Congress is focused on the bigger problem of a government that is steadily losing its ability to serve its citizenry as it must.
It's time lawmakers look at the big picture and focus in on solutions before it's too late.
Steve Watkins
Editor
