Are you a nuclear industry expert, technician, manager or analyst of any kind? Then you might consider working for the other side. That is, for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
The NRC announced Friday that it remained among the top-rated government agency employers, as rated by the U.S. Office of Personnel management in the 2016 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. The review probes government employees on a number of key labor relationship issues. And the outcome? “I am pleased that he NRC continues to score in the top tiers in most areas, despite a slight decline in other areas,” said Chairman Stephen Burns in a statement. “We continue to meet the challenges facing the agency, while maintaining a clear focus on safety and security,” he said.
The NRC ranked within the top 10 medium-sized agencies – ranging from 1,000 to 9,999 employees – in areas of global satisfaction and employee engagement, the agency said. NRC staff provided positive responses to a majority of the questions, consistently scoring well above government averages on all of the survey's major indices, including employee engagement, global satisfaction and diversity and inclusion, which is also referred to as the new inclusion quotient.
Under employee engagement, the NRC's staff gave the agency a rating of 74 percent, against a government-wide score of 62 percent. For global satisfaction, the agency was rated at 71 percent against a government-wide rating of 62 percent.
Each of these categories encompasses a variety of specific topics. Employee engagement is an umbrella category that covers efforts an employer makes to promote an engaged workforce. Global satisfaction measures overall satisfaction in issues like work assignments, relations with management and pay, as well as the employer's willingness to recommend their agency to others as a good place to work. The agency's inclusion quotient score was 68 percent against a government average of 58 percent.
Participation in the study was strong for the agency with 62 percent participation in the survey. Across all agencies, the government-wide average for participation was 46 percent.
Overall, the agency was given the fifth-highest score among medium-sized organizations.