The NCUA reported a big improvement in employeejob satisfaction ratings, ranking first for improvementyear-over-year among 22 medium-sized federal agencies, according toannual rankings released Thursday by the Partnership for PublicService.

In the Best Places toWork in the Federal Government rankings, the NCUA improved itsoverall 2012 annual ranking to 6^th out of 22 federalagencies with 1,000 to 14,999 employees, and bettered its scores innearly every survey category, the agency said. Last year, the NCUAranked 16^th out of 35 small federal agencies.

“It is very important for NCUA's employees to have a high levelof satisfaction and fulfillment in their work protecting thesavings of America's 94 million credit union members,” said NCUABoard Chairman Debbie Matz.

“Employees are our most important asset, and no organization canbe fully effective unless its workers are motivated and dedicatedto the mission,” Matz said. “Making NCUA an employer of choiceremains one of my top priorities, and I'm proud of the fact thatemployee satisfaction has grown significantly over the past threeyears.”

The NCUA performed particularly well in the area of effectiveleadership, the agency said, which the PPS describes as a primaryfactor in employee attitudes toward job satisfaction. The NCUAranked second for employee skills/mission match amongst its peeragencies, and the agency's employees also gave the NCUA strongendorsements in areas of diversity, fairness and employeeempowerment.

In other findings of the 2012 report, for employee satisfactionand commitment among medium-sized agencies NCUA:

• Ranked 1^st among Hispanics.
• Ranked 2^nd among African-Americans.
• Ranked 3^rd among whites, veterans, men, workersabove 40, and workers below 40 years old.
• Ranked 4^th among women and Asians

In its analysis of survey results, the PPS noted the NCUA'soverall score has been steadily increasing for the past few yearsand is up 10.9 points since 2009, demonstrating “it is possible toimprove employee engagement in even the most challengingclimates.”

Nearly 700,000 federal workers participated in the U.S. Officeof Personnel Management's Federal Employee Viewpoint survey used bythe PPS to compile the Best Places to Work rankings. Agencies aremeasured on overall employee satisfaction and in 10 workplacecategories, including effective leadership, employee skills/missionmatch, teamwork and work/life balance.

Federal agency rankings for 2012 are available online.