Workforce

OPM seeks to decentralize, revise governmentwide federal employee survey

OPM proposed to revise FEVS core questions on employee satisfaction, performance and workload, as well as let agencies oversee their own workforce surveys.

Drew Friedman@dfriedmanWFED

July 1, 2026 6:36 pm

7 min read

The Office of Personnel Management plans to take a more hands-off approach to the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey this year, instead guiding individual agencies to handle the workforce assessments themselves.

In proposed regulations issued this week, OPM said agencies would be responsible for surveying their own employees, rather than the traditional practice of relying on OPM to manage FEVS, an annual governmentwide survey measuring engagement and satisfaction of the federal workforce.

All agencies, however, would still be required to include a set of core, standardized questions in their surveys, with the option of adding further agency-specific questions. The core questions would be available as a “common form” from OPM for agencies to distribute to their own internal personnel, according to the proposal.

After collecting employee responses, agencies would be required to report the results to OPM and the Office of Management and Budget within 90 days for a “governmentwide comparison,” OPM said in the proposed regulations, which are scheduled to publish to the Federal Register on Thursday.

The survey results would be made public, “unless the agency head determines that doing so would jeopardize or negatively impact national security,” OPM said.

OPM Director Scott Kupor said decentralizing the federal employee survey would help agencies achieve a higher level of detail in the results and more actionable workforce insights.

“As a centrally administered system, it’s costly, doesn’t serve as a valuable management tool and fails to enable actionable results. That serves nobody well,” Kupor said Wednesday in a blog post. “The goal isn’t fragmentation; it’s better ownership. Agencies will have the flexibility to go deeper where their missions demand it, while OPM retains the visibility to understand the broader landscape and identify where systemic challenges require governmentwide attention.”

The proposed changes this week come after OPM canceled the 2025 FEVS. It was the first year since the survey launched more than two decades ago that FEVS was not conducted at all. Despite certain survey questions being required under federal regulations, there are no clear repercussions for agencies that don’t survey their employees.

OPM is also seeking to revise and pare down the questions agencies are required to include in their surveys. Under current federal regulations, there are 16 core questions agencies must ask of their employees annually.

The new proposal would reduce that to just 10 questions starting in the 2026 survey cycle — leaving only the most “probative” questions related to views of leadership and employee satisfaction, OPM said.

As an example, OPM proposed removing the current survey question, “I am given a real opportunity to improve my skills in my organization,” and replacing it with, “My supervisor provides ongoing feedback to help me succeed and progress in my career.” OPM said the revision would yield more specific and actionable data, while still getting the same information from employees.

OPM is also looking to add back in two survey questions asking employees about poor performers. The two questions have been on past versions of FEVS but were removed from the governmentwide survey under the Biden administration.

Some of the questions OPM plans to take out ask employees about their workload, job satisfaction and if they would recommend their organization as a good place to work.

Overall, OPM’s proposal would keep four survey questions as-is; revise one question; remove 11 questions; and add five new questions. If implemented, it would mark the first time in a decade that the core federal employee survey questions would be changed.

OPM’s proposed survey revisions

Revised

Managers clearly communicate the goals of the organization. [Adds the word “clearly”]

Retained as-is

The people I work with cooperate to get the job done.

In my work unit, differences in performance are recognized in a meaningful way.

I know how my work relates to the agency’s goals.

I can disclose a suspected violation of any law, rule or regulation without fear of reprisal.

Newly added

My supervisor provides ongoing feedback to help me succeed and progress in my career.

My supervisor holds my team accountable for achieving results.

I feel empowered to get things done at my organization.

In my work unit, steps are taken to deal with a poor performer who cannot or will not improve.

In my work unit, poor performers usually (select all that apply): Remain in the work unit and improve their performance over time; Remain in the work unit and continue to underperform; Leave the work unit – removed or transferred; Leave the work unit – quit; There are no poor performers in my work unit.

Removed

My work unit has the job-relevant skills necessary to accomplish organizational goals.

I believe the results of this survey will be used to make my agency a better place to work.

How satisfied are you with your involvement in decisions that affect your work?

How satisfied are you with the information you receive from management on what is going on in your organization?

Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your organization?

My workload is reasonable.

Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your job?

How satisfied are you with the recognition you receive for doing a good job?

I am given a real opportunity to improve my skills in my organization.

My talents are used well in the workplace.

I recommend my organization as a good place to work.

Jenny Mattingley, vice president of public policy and stakeholder engagement at the Partnership for Public Service, said the biggest impact she anticipates from OPM’s new proposal would be losing the ability to understand the federal workforce from a big picture perspective.

“It breaks the ability to actually look across how the government is doing as a whole, how agencies and components are doing, and figure out what those trends are,” she said in an interview with Federal News Network.

Mattingley also questioned OPM’s removal of required survey questions that measure employee engagement and satisfaction, factors that she said are shown to tie directly to organizational performance, recruitment and retention.

“The point of an employee engagement survey, like FEVS, is to help see how employees are feeling about their job,” Mattingley said. “Removing these questions means that it’s going to be very hard to get a picture of where that is and where agencies should focus in terms of retaining the best talent.”

Since 2004, all executive branch agencies have been required by law to survey their employees annually to assess views on agency leadership; employee satisfaction; the federal work environment; opportunities for professional development; contributions to agency mission; and recognition of employees.

Although OPM is not required by statute to administer a governmentwide survey, it created FEVS in 2004 as a way to help agencies fulfill the legal requirements. For years, almost all agencies have relied on OPM’s FEVS, with relatively few conducting their own employee assessments. Each year, FEVS will contain the statutorily required questions, along with many additional questions. The length of FEVS has ballooned over time, reaching about 100 questions for the 2024 survey.

After the 2025 FEVS was canceled, Kupor told Federal News Network in May that OPM planned to revive the governmentwide survey for 2026 but noted that the survey would be slimmer and centered on “micro-level questions.”

House and Senate Democrats wrote a letter to OPM in June, urging the agency to conduct the 2026 FEVS, while also raising concerns about the lack of data and transparency from the survey’s cancellation last year.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said OPM’s proposal this week would remove “key questions that inform whether agencies are appropriately staffed with the necessary skill sets to accomplish their missions.”

“The FEVS is intended to provide critical feedback on how agencies are functioning from leadership to rank-and-file employees that can help ensure Americans are getting the services they deserve,” Van Hollen said Wednesday in a statement to Federal News Network. “The result will be less information to help our agencies operate more effectively on behalf of the American people.”

The exact timeline for administering the 2026 employee survey remains unclear. An OPM spokesperson told Federal News Network the survey would be administered by the end of the calendar year. Asked whether OPM still planned to issue a management report detailing the governmentwide survey results for 2026, the spokesperson said, “OPM is working on making that decision.”

With a matter of months left for agencies to meet the survey requirements this year, Mattingley questioned if agencies will be fully equipped to administer the revised employee assessment in time.

“Do agencies have questions lined up, beyond the ones OPM is doing, that they want to ask? It’s unclear whether agencies are going to have a robust function to be able to do what this regulation is asking them to do,” she said.

OPM is leaving its proposal on the planned survey revisions open to public comments for the next 60 days.

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