Employees ranked the Department of Homeland Security as the worst place to work among 17 other large federal agencies again this year, according to bestplacestowork.org.
Although still ranking last among large federal agencies, DHS improved its 2015 score by 2.7 points — the first scoring increase of the agency’s since 2010. The department improved its scores in all of its sub categories except the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (-8.2), Transportation Security Administration (-5.2), U.S. Secret Service (-0.6).
DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson released a statement Thursday and addressed the ranking saying in part:
“While we are disappointed with the Department of Homeland Security’s overall 2016 ranking in the Partnership for Public Service’s ‘Best Places to Work in the Federal Government,’ I am pleased that our employee engagement score increased 2.7-points. his is in contrast to an overall 1.3-point increase government-wide, and it is the second largest single-year increase of any large agency. This is also the first increase in the Department’s survey score since 2010.”
DHS was beaten out by Veterans Affairs, which was ranked 17 among all the 18 large agencies. The VA, which has found itself in multiple controversies in recent years over its treatment of military veterans, scored higher in all sub component categories of their agency from 2015 except the VA’s Office of Inspector General where their ranking plunged 3.2 percent.
On the other end, the top five large federal agencies ranked by employees, from one to five respectively are National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Commerce, Intelligence Community, Department of State and Department of Health and Human Services.