Employee Communications and Outreach

Voice of the Employee

Every quarter, one-fourth of career employees receive the Voice of the Employee (VOE) survey at their work location. Participation is voluntary and employees are given time on-the-clock to complete the surveys. The surveys are returned to a contractor in sealed, postage-paid envelopes for analysis and reporting. The focus of the VOE survey changed this year from measuring employee perception to measuring engagement, a factor that directly affects service quality, customer satisfaction, employee retention, and financial results. The six index questions, which are used as key indicators of workplace factors impacting performance, remained the same for 2009, while new baseline data was gathered for 2010. In 2010, a new VOE index score will be based on the responses to the new questions. The survey results are used to identify organizational issues and establish improvement strategies. For 2009, the national employee response rate was 60 percent, with a national index score of 64 percent favorable, up slightly from 63.7 percent.