{"id":29233,"date":"2021-06-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/building-a-better-workplace\/"},"modified":"2025-01-27T09:21:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T14:21:42","slug":"building-a-better-workplace","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/about\/impact\/building-a-better-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a better workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/i>Back to Impact<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\n
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Building a better workplace<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

How the Best Places to Work rankings helped NASA engage its employees and launch a new era of American space travel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In 2003, the Partnership for Public Service launched the <\/em>Best Places to Work in the Federal Government\u00ae<\/sup><\/em><\/a> rankings. The rankings use data from the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey\u2014an idea the Partnership brought to Congress\u2014to provide agency leaders, members of the House and Senate, and the general public with critical insights into how federal employees view their work experience. These insights help drive government performance, enabling federal leaders to address employee concerns and build engaged workforces that successfully respond to public needs. Today, the rankings are the most authoritative rating of employee engagement in the federal government. Read below to learn how NASA has used the Best Places to Work rankings to increase employee engagement and better serve the public.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten years ago, NASA was an agency in flux. Its flagship space shuttle program was ending, leaving employees demoralized and uncertain about the agency\u2019s mission and the future of the renowned John F. Kennedy Space Center.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NASA turned to the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government\u00ae<\/sup><\/a> rankings to boost employee job satisfaction and commitment during this period of transition. Data from the rankings enabled leaders to identify and respond to employee needs and, in turn, build an engaged workforce that has driven NASA\u2019s most recent accomplishments and pushed the agency to new heights in space exploration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of this work, NASA has sat atop the Best Places to Work large agency rankings for a remarkable nine straight years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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NASA astronauts in action with the agency\u2019s Best Places to Work plaque.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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An organization stuck in neutral<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In 2011, NASA employees sat in limbo. The agency had just ended its space shuttle program, a three-decade initiative that featured the world\u2019s first reusable spacecraft and helped build the International Space Station. As a result, the Kennedy Space Center, which powered the shuttle program, downsized its workforce, faced budget shortfalls and looked toward an uncertain future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe shuttle program was a 35-year program,\u201d said Jeri Buchholz, NASA\u2019s chief human capital officer from 2011-2015. \u201cPeople had literally worked on it since they were in college. It was just devastating to them to have that program end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople didn’t want to accept that it was ending,\u201d said Robert Cabana, NASA\u2019s associate administrator who directed the Kennedy Space Center from 2008 to May 2021. \u201cIt was a huge challenge and morale was really down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of these challenges, NASA dropped from third to fifth in the Best Places to Work large agency category between 2009 and 2010. They remained in fifth in 2011 and decreased in every workplace category that year \u2013 from effective leadership and employee skills-mission match to work-life balance and training and development. Most notably, the agency scored lowest in the Effective Leadership: Empowerment subcategory, which measures the extent to which staff believe they have a say in the decisions that affect their work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Jeri Buchholz, former chief human capital officer, NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Soaring to new heights with Best Places to Work data<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Alarmed by this decline in employee morale, NASA leaders turned to Best Places to Work to help them revitalize and reinvigorate their workforce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles Bolden, NASA\u2019s administrator from 2009-2017, admitted that he did not pay much attention to the data until Buchholz explained its potential value to him. She had previously helped make the Nuclear Regulatory Commission the top-ranked midsize agency in the rankings as an associate director for human resources and, as a result, knew firsthand how the data could help federal leaders improve their employee engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She recalled combing through NASA\u2019s older Best Places data and picking out questions and topics that lined up with the general issues she wanted NASA to tackle. Bolden was immediately sold.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce she did that and I understood it, then I really began to promote it \u2026 and let [supervisors and leaders know] that we wanted to do the best we could do and become the best leadership team we could,\u201d he said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With guidance from Buchholz, Bolden started to use Best Places to Work data to inform his leadership style and address employees\u2019 growing disconnect from NASA\u2019s mission. He made it a point to always tell staff that the work they did was important and launched an \u201cAsk Me Anything\u201d virtual program that enabled thousands of employees to speak with him directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These changes fostered a culture of transparency and accountability across the agency, and helped employees recreate the sense of community that had eroded with the end of the shuttle program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose very simple things really started helping people feel connected to each other and to the mission,\u201d Buchholz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAny time [Best Places data] talked about the agency and agency leadership,\u201d Bolden added. \u201cI took it personally. I had to clean my own leadership style up before I could talk to anybody else about getting themselves in order.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buchholz also used Best Places data to create a workplace that rewarded innovation. After analyzing data that showed employees often avoided risk out of fear that failure would cause catastrophic disaster or hurt the agency\u2019s budget, she initiated the \u201cLean Forward, Fail Smart Awards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program allowed NASA employees to nominate each other for scientific advances or accomplishments that emerged from failed  attempts at innovation. The nominations\u2014submitted in the form of one-minute videos\u2014were posted online for an agencywide vote. Winners received formal feedback on their work from NASA leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buchholz credited the awards show with making failure less of a taboo subject at NASA\u2014a critical development that has helped agency leaders build a culture of innovation that continues to enable new advances in space travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she heard one NASA leader argue at a meeting that the agency had to accept more risk and \u201cpush to the point of failure,\u201d she knew things had changed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was a different conversation than we were having two years ago,\u201d Buchholz said. \u201cYou know that you have operationalized something when you hear your own words come back to you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAny time [Best Places data] talked about the agency and agency leadership, I took it personally. I had to clean my own leadership style up before I could talk to anybody else about getting themselves in order.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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