The Farm Credit Administration (FCA) has been recognized as one of the best small agencies to work for in the federal government.

The Partnership for Public Service and Boston Consulting Group released the 2019 rankings for "Best Places to Work in the Federal Government" -- the most comprehensive and authoritative rating of employee satisfaction and commitment in the federal government. This year, for the first time ever, FCA was recognized as the second-best place to work of all small agencies in the federal government.

The 2019 rankings were based on responses to annual employee surveys completed by more than 883,000 employees. The responses provide insight into how employees view their jobs and their agencies. They reveal employee satisfaction levels for such variables as pay, agency leadership, teamwork and support for employee work/life balance.

FCA's employee engagement score for 2019 is 81.1, the same score as in 2018. Its 2019 score is 19.4 points higher than the government-wide score of 61.7, which is down 0.5 points from 2018.

FCA moved up from second to first place among small agencies in support of diversity, improving by 2.3 points over last year’s score. The survey describes this category as a measurement of "the extent to which employees believe that actions and policies of leadership and management promote and respect diversity."

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"This award reflects the emphasis that FCA places on the satisfaction and well-being of its employees," said Glen Smith, FCA board chairman and chief executive officer. "It also reflects the efforts of FCA employees to make the workplace an enjoyable environment in which we can be productive. I’m especially proud of the recognition we received for our diversity efforts, because this has long been an area of emphasis for our agency. A lot of credit goes to Thais Burlew, our director of Equal Employment Opportunity & Inclusion."