When the Trump administration decided not to conduct a Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey this year, AFGE partnered with the Partnership for Public Service to ensure federal employees could still share their workplace experiences during this critical time for the civil service.
More than 12,000 federal employees responded to the survey. Now, the Partnership is asking for AFGE members to add to the discussion through focus groups being held in February.
These confidential discussions will gather anecdotes that will further highlight the federal employee experience and will be paired with the survey results when they are released later this year.
If you are interested in participating, please share all the dates you are available using the signup form.
Here are some key details from the Partnership about these discussions:
Safety Mechanisms
Focus groups will be held outside of working hours to provide a safe space for open discussion. In the signup form the Partnership will only collect personal email addresses and your agency information, which will be deleted at the end of the project. All quotes will be anonymized and potentially identifying details that are shared will be redacted before publication.
Technology Use
Focus groups will be held over Zoom and the Partnership will provide you with instructions for renaming yourself on the platform to conceal your identity. To ensure the facilitators accurately capture participant insights, sessions will be recorded and transcribed. All notes and recordings will be password protected and deleted once the project concludes. The Partnership may also use an LLM-based AI tool for analysis that operates within a secure service boundary and does not share insights outside of their organization.
Invitation Process
Depending on the number of potential enrollees, not all interested participants may be selected to join a focus group. The Partnership will determine invitations based on the need for representation across departments and subcomponents.
AFGE trusts the Partnership to effectively gather and reflect your insights, and we encourage you to consider participating. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to them directly at [email protected].
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