Full Breakdown
OPM Proposes Decentralization of Federal Employees Viewpoint Survey
7/7/2026, 7:21:34 AM
New Rule Shifts Survey Administration to Agencies
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a proposed rule ending its administration of the Federal Employees Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) and requiring each agency to design, field, and publish its own employee-engagement survey, cutting mandatory questions from sixteen to ten and granting agencies discretion over result disclosure.
Legal Context, 2025 Gap, and Statutory Ambiguity
Congress requires an annual employee-engagement survey. OPM missed the 2025 administration, breaching that mandate, and previously compiled agency responses into a central report used for the Partnership for Public Service’s Best Places to Work rankings. The statute obliges public posting of results unless national-security concerns arise but does not dictate content; OPM’s draft regulation treats this silence as permission for agencies to set their own disclosure standards, creating a gap between legislative intent and practice.
Key Stakeholders
The proposal is led by OPM Director Scott Kupor; critics include Jenny Mattingly, vice president of policy at the Partnership for Public Service, and Don Kettl, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy.
Official Rationale
OPM argues agencies have mission-specific knowledge to tailor surveys as management tools, enabling them to spot alignment gaps and improve employee experience while meeting the statutory publishing requirement, albeit with agency-determined detail.
Opposition Concerns
Mattingly warns that dropping core morale questions “eviscerates” the Global Satisfaction Index used for Best Places rankings and blurs the distinction between engagement measurement and strategic planning. Kettl cautions that losing data series “makes it that much harder” to assess historical trends, reducing public benchmarking.
Numbers at a Glance
Mandatory questions drop from 16 to 10; the 2025 survey was not conducted; about 430 agencies will publish their own results.
Verbatim Quotes
- “Employee engagement surveys should therefore be designed, administered and acted upon by the agencies that understand their own missions, structures, workforces and management challenges—not administered by OPM as a government-wide ritual. Done right, surveys become a management tool for agency leaders to measure what matters, identify where alignment is breaking down, and take responsibility for improving the employee experience.” — Scott Kupor, OPM Director
- “There seems to be some conflation here between strategic planning and using workforce surveys as a planning tool,” — Jenny Mattingly, Vice President, Partnership for Public Service
- “Although the operative statute requires that survey results be posted publicly on the agency’s website (unless doing so would jeopardize or negatively impact national security), these specific requirements are not spelled out in the statute requiring annual employee surveys,” — Office of Personnel Management, Proposed Regulation
- “It is important to understand what’s happening right now within the historical context, but without that historical data, that makes it that much harder,” — Don Kettl, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland
Next Steps
The proposal is currently a draft regulation and has not been finalized. If adopted, agencies would be required to design, administer, and publish their own surveys.
