The annual Best Places to Work in the Federal Government® rankings showed the Bureau of Field Service at the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) as the most improved among all agency subcomponents governmentwide. Its leadership was recognized in Washington, D.C. on April 12 at an event scheduled to coincide with the release of the governmentwide employee engagement and satisfaction scores for 2022, with full rankings for all participating agencies and related analysis of several critical workplace issues.
In response to the recognition, RRB Director of Field Service Mark Blythe said, “I’m very excited for our field office and operations support employees to be able to share this moment together. While this award reinforces what we are trying to accomplish, we acknowledge that there is more work to be done to improve further. This is proof that we are seeing returns in our retention efforts, which will have a positive impact to providing improved service to the railroad community.”
For 2022, the RRB’s field service saw its employee satisfaction index score jump from 47.1 to 60.8. The 13.7-point improvement was the highest among all 432 subcomponents within the federal government; in contrast, the average satisfaction index score across the federal government declined 1.1 points from the prior year.
The RRB’s Bureau of Field Service is comprised of a national network of 53 field offices and more than 200 employees that provide frontline customer service by taking applications for retirement and survivor benefits, along with unemployment and sickness benefits, for railroad employees and their family members.
The survey results are part of the annual Partnership for Public Service Best Places to Work in the Federal Government® rankings that measure whether employees would recommend their agencies as good places to work and whether they are satisfied with their jobs and organizations. The rankings spotlight agencies that are successfully engaging employees, provide insights for job seekers considering federal employment, and identify approaches government leaders can take to improve customer service within their own organizations.
Additional information on the program and the most recent results can be found online at bestplacestowork.org.