The Office of Personnel Management has officially canceled this year’s version of the signature survey that assesses governmentwide satisfaction and engagement levels of federal employees.

In a memo distributed to agency chief human capital officers on Friday afternoon, obtained by Federal News Network, OPM said after initially only delaying the survey, it has now fully scrapped plans to conduct the 2025 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.

“In view of President Trump’s realignment of the federal workforce, and in order to thoughtfully recalibrate the FEVS to align with administration objectives, OPM has decided not to administer the FEVS this year,” OPM wrote in the email to agency CHCOs. “Instead, OPM will update the questions and resume administering the FEVS on its regular schedule. To ensure efficient resource allocation, OPM requests that agencies consult with it before undertaking any preparations to administer the FEVS or a similar survey at an agency or component level.”

OPM’s announcement on Friday comes after the agency indefinitely delayed the timeline for FEVS to give agencies more bandwidth to focus on the Trump administration’s “urgent” efforts to restructure the federal workforce.

Canceling the 2025 FEVS means OPM will not be collecting or publishing governmentwide data on federal employees’ views this year of their jobs, colleagues, agency leaders or overall workplaces. Once the FEVS returns in 2026, OPM said it will be updating some of the survey questions as well.

Although the specific changes to FEVS are unclear, OPM outlined initial plans earlier this year to bring back survey questions on poor performers and remove questions related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA). In April, the Trump administration also combed through the past few years of FEVS reports and redacted all pages that contained DEIA-related survey results collected during the Biden administration.

“A transformed workforce requires a transformed Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a statement to Federal News Network. “We are revising FEVS to remove questions added by the Biden-Harris administration and to refocus on core administration priorities: to restore a high-performance, high-efficiency and merit-based civil service. FEVS will be back next year, new and improved.”

Generally, agencies use FEVS data to understand how their employees view their jobs, senior leaders and agencies. The survey results inform many agencies where changes or improvements may be needed in the federal workplace.

Many of the questions on FEVS yield information about how engaged federal employees are with their work, how satisfied they are with their pay and their workplace, how they view their colleagues, and how dedicated they feel to their agency’s mission. The annual survey also provides detailed data on federal employees’ perceptions of their supervisors and senior agency leaders.

FEVS results are also a key data source for the Partnership for Public Service’s Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings each year.

A former federal human capital official, speaking anonymously to be able to speak candidly about OPM’s decision, said he believed the survey’s cancellation would lead to further confusion for federal employees and their agencies this year.

“This administration’s human capital policies are routinely designed to create fear and confusion among the federal workforce,” the former official said. “It looks like the administration is fearful of seeing what the survey results would be, and how it would be a litmus test on how it is treating its employees.”

OPM conducted the first-ever FEVS in 2002 and began administering the survey annually in 2010. In most years, OPM collects responses from federal employees each spring and publishes the survey results each fall.

In certain years, the survey has seen some delays. OPM pushed back the survey timeline in 2020, for instance, to help agencies focus on high-priority work related to the COVID-19 pandemic. But prior to this year, OPM has never fully canceled FEVS.

Last year, the 2024 FEVS marked an all-time high on the employee engagement index since its introduction to the survey in 2010. Between 2023 and 2024, the governmentwide engagement score for federal employees increased from 72% to 73%.

If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email drew.friedman@federalnewsnetwork.com or reach out on Signal at drewfriedman.11

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