What is the Federal Human Capital Survey?
Who Participated in the Survey?

How Was the Survey Administered?

What is the Federal Human Capital Survey?

The Federal Human Capital Survey is a tool that measures employees' perceptions of whether and to what extent conditions that characterize successful organizations are present in their agencies. This ground breaking survey was administered for the first time in 2002 and sets a baseline for ongoing Human Capital assessment in the Federal Government. The survey:

• Provides general indicators of how well the Federal Government is running its human resources management systems.
   
• Serves as a tool for OPM to assess individual agencies and their progress toward "green" status on Strategic Management of Human Capital under the President's Management Agenda.
   
• Gives senior managers critical information to answer the question: What can I do to make my agency work better?

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Who Participated in the Survey?

• The survey was administered to employees of 24 major agencies represented on the President’s Management Council.
   

  • Department of Agriculture (USDA)

  • Department of Commerce (Commerce)

  • Department of Defense (DoD)

  • Department of Education (Education)

  • Department of Energy (Energy)

  • Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

  • Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

  • Department of the Interior (Interior)

  • Department of Justice (Justice)

  • Department of Labor (Labor)

  • Department of State (State)

  • Department of Transportation (DOT)

  • Department of the Treasury (Treasury)

  • Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

  • Agency for International Development (AID)

  • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

  • Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

  • General Services Administration (GSA)

  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

  • National Science Foundation (NSF)

  • Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

  • Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

  • Small Business Administration (SBA)

  • Social Security Administration (SSA)
     

• There were 189 subelement/organizational components of these 24 agencies participating.
   
• These agencies comprise 93 percent of the executive branch workforce.
   
• Over 100,000 federal employees completed the survey from May to August 2002.

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How Was the Survey Sample Determined?

• A statistically valid random sample was drawn for each of the 24 President’s Management Council agencies.
   
• In most agencies separate samples were drawn for agency subcomponents as small in size as 1,500 employees or 5 percent of the agency total population.
   
• Overall 189 separate organizational subcomponents were identified in the sampling plan. 
   
• The sample was stratified by:
  • Supervisory
  • Non-Supervisory
  • Executives

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How was the Survey Administered?

• The survey was conducted electronically with employees notified of their selection for the sample by email.
   

• Accommodations were made for a limited number of employees who did not have Internet access or preferred a paper version.
   

• Electronic administration made distribution, completion and collection of the survey much easier. Some employees reported they were able to finish within 15 minutes.
   

• Of the 208,424 employees contacted, 106,742 employees responded to the survey, resulting in a 51 percent response rate.
   

• The actual numbers of completed and usable records were 100,167 from the electronic medium and 490 from the paper version totaling 100,657 usable responses.This represents a 48 percent usable response rate.
   

• Of the 24 agencies covered by the survey, 21 had response rates of over 50 percent, with five at 65 percent or better.
   

• Documents found at timeline recap the main steps in the administration.

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