National Security Agency Gains Employee Loyalty

How many Federal agencies or large corporations do you know of that can claim having a 96.7% employee retention rate year in year out? Not many! However, the National Security Agency bucks the trend by winning the hearts and loyalty of their employees to ensure they are satisfied in their work and career development. An article on Federal News Radio outlined some the specific reasons most NSA employees are content to stay and not look for jobs elsewhere. Career development opportunities ranked as one of the top reasons; the agency has built a culture that encourages employees to spend 10-20% of their time spent at work on self-development. Interns and long term employees alike have numerous choices to go on details within other agency departments, attend programs for interns or graduate school, and enroll in other mid-level career development classes in order to expand their range of knowledge and skills.

In the annual Best Places to Work for the Federal Government survey for 2015 the Intelligence Community (IC) was ranked #2 in overall employee job satisfaction for large agencies behind NASA. For those seeking information on federal careers within the NSA, DIA, NGIA, and ODNI you should bookmark the new website they have rolled out that provides a lot of valuable information on careers, qualifications, and even security clearance processing timelines. Obviously the competition for getting selected for these jobs is stiff, so if you can’t get a foot in the door right away, then consider getting a contractor job with a company that supports these agencies so they get to know you and your work.