An empowered and satisfied workforce is essential if we expect to give our best service to the American people and meet the goals of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That's why Secretary Martinez and Deputy Secretary Jackson are encouraging all Headquarters and field office employees to participate in a confidential survey to express their opinions about their HUD workplace.

Beginning today and continuing through March 29th, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will make an Organizational Assessment Survey (OAS) available to HUD employees across the country. The OAS is a survey designed to measure employee satisfaction, so giving your honest opinions is important. The results of the survey will create a baseline for the Department to measure improvements in workplace satisfaction in the future. Your answers and even your participation in this survey will be completely confidential.

The easiest way to take the survey is through the Internet on OPM's secured website, and you can do this from any computer - in your office or at home, during the day, after work or even on the weekend - HUD employees can find the specific link to OPM's site on HUD's internal Intranet, HUD@Work. You also can obtain a paper copy of the survey to complete and mail to OPM. However you participate, individual responses to the confidential questionnaire will not be seen by anyone at HUD, but will go directly to OPM and incorporated into the final results.

The HUD OAS has about 140 multiple choice questions and should take about 30 minutes to complete. After the three-week survey period is over, HUD will receive aggregate summaries of the responses to help evaluate overall levels of workplace satisfaction and compare results from different HUD offices. Nothing the Department receives will personally identify you at any time. While your participation is entirely voluntary, by expressing your opinions - for better or worse - you will help the Department improve every HUD employee's satisfaction with their workplace. Ultimately, summaries of the results of the HUD OAS will be available to all employees.

Secretary Martinez and Deputy Secretary Jackson believe that employee satisfaction is critical to successfully serve the American people, and the Department will take the opinions expressed in this survey seriously. In the weeks and months ahead, the results of the survey will be used to identify and hold on to the things that are good about HUD's workplace, and begin to make changes that will improve workplace satisfaction.

HUD employees can find more information about the survey on HUD@Work under "Today's Feature." You also will receive news and on-going updates about HUD's OAS in the Daily Focus Message.