Two agencies earn high marks from employees as ‘best places to work’; a third remains in lower (but improved) position

Two federal financial regulators were ranked in the upper echelons of “best places to work” in the latest rankings released Thursday – while a third continued to languish in the lowest level.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) is ranked fourth among 25 mid-sized agencies as a good place to work, with an “engagement score” of 78.1.

According to the agency (which issued a press release Friday touting its ranking), the fourth-place ranking is up one level from its 2018 ranking. However, the agency’s score for 2019 is down 2.4 points from the previous year. In any event: the agency’s ranking placed it in the upper quartile of rankings.

Meanwhile, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) was ranked ninth among the 25 mid-sized agencies, with an engagement score of 70 – up 2.8 points from its score of 2018. The credit union regulator’s score placed it in the “above median” quartile.

The “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government” employee poll is conducted annually by the Partnership for Public Service and Boston Consulting Group. The “engagement score” represents responses to three different questions (based on a proprietary weighted formula by the groups conducting the polling) that looks at recommendations by employees of their agencies as good places to work, job satisfaction and organization satisfaction.

The 2019 rankings, the FDIC noted, considered the views of more than 883,000 civil servants from nearly 500 federal agencies and their subcomponents.

However, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ranked 21st out of 25, with a score of 58.4 – placing it in the lower quartile of mid-sized agencies. On the other hand, that score is an improvement from 2018 when the agency scored a 51.7 score, 6.7 points below the 2019 results. The 2018 score for CFPB also placed the agency in the lowest quartile.

The Federal Reserve Board did not participate in the polling and was not ranked. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) was ranked as a subcomponent of the Treasury Department. According to the report, the OCC earned a 2019 engagement score of 70.7, ranking it at 103rd place out of 420 agency subcomponents. The 2019 ranking was 6.3 points lower than the 2018 score.

Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings