Federal agencies with science-related missions scored high on the latest biannual report of employee satisfaction released this week. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission received the highest overall rating among large agencies (more than 2,000 employees), with NASA, the intelligence community (individual agencies not broken out), and the Environmental Protection Agency in the top 10. The National Science Foundation also scored high–no. 5 of 32–among the smaller agencies.

The “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government” report is issued every two years, with the first publication in 2003. The non-profit organization Partnership for Public Service and American University’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation prepare the report. They draw the data from the Federal Human Capital Survey conducted by Office of Personnel Management, with the last survey in August and September 2008. The survey is sent to 417,000 executive branch employees, with 212,000 responses (51% return rate).

Respondents rate their agencies on 10 main dimensions:

Match between their skills and the agency’s mission: the extent to which employees feel that their skills and talents are used effectively

Strategic management: the extent to which employees believe that management ensures they have the necessary skills and abilities to do their jobs

Teamwork: the extent to which employees believe they communicate effectively both inside and outside of their team organizations, creating a friendly work atmosphere and producing high quality work products.

Effective leadership, with further ratings of empowerment, fairness, respect for leaders, and respect for their immediate supervisors

Performance-based awards and advancement

Training and development

Support for diversity

Family-friendly culture: telecommuting and alternative work scheduling, along with personal support benefits like child care subsidies and wellness programs

Pay and benefits

Work/life balance: extent to which employees consider their workloads reasonable and feasible, and mangers support a balance between work and life.

The report also breaks out employee satisfaction at 216 subdivisions within agencies, some of which employ large numbers of scientists. Several NASA space flight centers and EPA regional offices scored high among these operations, reflecting their overall agency ratings. National Institute of Standards and Technology in the Commerce Department ranked 19 of 216 components overall, while National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also in the Commerce Department, ranked 35th. NIH came in at no. 72, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service ranked 77th.

Other agencies and departments employing scientists received mediocre or lower scores. The Department of Energy ranked 19 of 30 larger agencies. (None of the subdivisions in DoE or national labs were broken out separately.) The Food and Drug Administration in HHS came in at no. 86 of 216 components, Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey, ranked 108, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in HHS ranked 143.

Rated dead last among the larger agencies was the Department of Transportation; among smaller agencies it was the Federal Labor Relations Authority.