Employees of the federal consumer watchdog agency overwhelmingly like the work that they do, have the information they need to do the job, are encouraged to come up with new and better ways to do their jobs, and have feelings of personal accomplishment, according to the results of a survey released by the agency late Wednesday.
Additionally, more than 90% of survey respondents (about three in four of all employees) said they “strongly agreed” or “agreed” that “the work I do is important.”
However, there were some strong feelings expressed about how promotions and pay increases are distributed, and how employees are recognized.
The survey results released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), based on responses provided this summer (between July 17 and Aug. 25), show an “agree” or “strongly agree” response equal to 67% or more to the first eight questions about personal work experience.
To a question of “I know how my work relates to the agency’s goals,” 89.9% of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed. Nearly 87% (86.9%) agreed/strongly agreed that they “like the work I do.” More than four out of five (83%) agreed/strongly agreed they had enough information to do their jobs well. And nearly 83% (82.9%) agreed/strongly agreed that their work “gives me a feeling of personal accomplishment.”
There were areas of disagreement among the employees responding to the survey, according to the results. In the areas of “rewards and recognitions,” nearly 30% (29.1%) said they “disagreed/strongly disagreed” that “promotions in my work unit are based on merit.” And nearly one in three (32.1%) said they “disagreed/strongly disagreed” with the statement “pay raises depend on how well employees perform their jobs.” Also: 30.3% said they disagreed/strongly disagreed that “employees are recognized for providing high quality products and services.”
On the other hand, two in three of survey responses (66.9%) said agreed/strongly agreed that they were satisfied with their pay.
Demographically, 47% of the respondents were male, 41% were female (the balance did not report their sex; overall, 51% of the agency’s employees are male, 49% female). In race, the respondents were: White, 69%; Black or African American, 19%; Asian, 7%; Other, 3%. Fifteen percent did not report their race.
Nearly half (45%) of the responses came from the agency’s supervision staff, which makes up 46% of the employee total.
2017 CFPB Annual Employee Survey Results