LES - OMB supporting statement revised 7 29

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

Leadership Engagement Survey

Part A. Justification

Necessity of Information

1. The DEA Leadership Engagement Survey (LES) is an initiative mandated by the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration to improve the competencies and proficiency of leadership across the DEA. The LES is mandatory for DEA employees and is an internal DEA-only survey designed to: 1) To assess the overall climate of employees working in their respective unit throughout the DEA, 2) to measure critical dimensions of leadership among all levels of executives, managers, and supervisors, and 3) to provide direct, but anonymous, feedback to the DEA leadership. It provides an opportunity for the DEA workforce to identify the strength and weaknesses of their first-line supervisors, as well as managers and senior executives so that leadership training efforts can improve the effectiveness of the DEA workforce.

Under PRA, there is no necessity to request collection of information from Federal employees. However, this request is submitted because DEA requests solicitation of information, on a voluntary basis, from Task Force Officers and from DEA contract employees who work at DEA Headquarters and Field Offices on a regular basis, due to their significant numbers within the DEA. To ensure confidentiality and minimum number of responses, leadership profiles are not generated for those with less than 5 responses. Due to low numbers in some units, the Task Force Officers and Contractors are essential in ensuring every DEA leader can receive a leadership profile to identify training needs and increase office efficiency.

Needs and Uses

2. Information from the LES is to be used by supervisors, managers, senior executives, and their work groups have meaningful conversations about how to improve and maintain an effective workplace environment. Feedback results from the LES will also be used by supervisors, managers, and senior executives for individual leadership development.

Use of Technology

3. The LES will be automated and used online. Task Force Officers and Contractors who work at DEA locations will receive an invitation in their government email to take the survey with a link to that survey. They will take the survey on-line, using DEA’s intranet. Once the survey is submitted, no personal identifiers are associated with survey responses. The purpose of using an online survey is to ensure anonymity and to facilitate the collection and compiling information for survey analysis.

Efforts to Identify Duplication

4. Currently the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) administers an annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) to assess the working conditions and attitudes and views of federal employees. The LES is more narrowly and necessarily focused on the employees unit and his/her supervisor, managers, and senior executives and asks for direct feedback on individual leaders. Therefore, the LES provides more detailed and specific information than the FEVS regarding the employees’ working conditions and attitudes and the effectiveness of the DEA Leadership cadre. Furthermore, the LES provides feedback on the leadership competencies identified as critical to DEA that are specific to supervisors, managers, and senior executives, which the FEVS does not.

Methods to Minimize Burden on Small Businesses

5. Not Applicable to Small Businesses.

Consequences of Less Frequent Collection

6. The LES is administered annually for the purposes of gauging the DEA’s working conditions and attitudes, as well as leadership competencies. Less frequent collection of information would minimize the utility of the information to engage and empower employees to improve the federal workplace. In addition, leadership within the DEA is very mobile. Annual information ensures that each leader receives timely feedback from his or her immediate work group.

Special Circumstances Influencing Collection

7. There are no special circumstances influencing this collection.

Reasons for Inconsistencies with 5 CFR 1320.6

8. There are no inconsistencies with 5 CFR 1320.6.

Payment or Gift to Claimants

9. There are no payments or gifts to respondents.

Assurance of Confidentiality

10. The following statement is provided in the survey:

Confidentiality of Survey Data        
The following additional information about the survey is provided for survey administrators and participants:
Authorities for the collection of this information are found in 5 USC Part II Civil Service Functions and Responsibilities) and Part III (Employees).
Your responses will be held in the strictest confidence. No individual responses will be reported or results disclosed or displayed in any way that could potentially be used to identify individual respondents. Information provided will be aggregated and reported for each division within DEA.

The purpose for collecting this information is to study and report attitudes and perceptions of the DEA workforce regarding their work environments, with a focus on various management policies and practices that affect them. The results will help your organization develop strategies to improve the quality of that work environment - one of the goals of DEA's senior leadership.

Only authorized personnel that are responsible for collecting or analyzing the information will have access to raw data.  Individual surveys will be anonymous and data cannot be linked to a respondent's name or email address.

Justification for Sensitive Questions

11. There are no sensitive questions.

Estimate of Hour Burden

12. The hour burden is as follows:

1. Task Force Officers (full time at DEA offices): approximately 2600

Frequency of response = 1x annually

Annual hour burden = 45 minutes

2. Contract employees (full time at DEA offices) approximate 2400

Frequency of response = 1x annually

Annual hour burden = 45 minutes

Estimate of Cost Burden

13. There are no additional associated cost burdens as the contractors and TFOs would be allowed to complete the survey during their standard work time.

Estimated Annualized Costs to Federal Government

14. There are no estimated annualized costs to the Federal Government.

Reasons for Change in Burden

15. There is no change in burden.

Plans for Publication

16. Data will be used only internally to DEA for management and leadership development purposes.

Expiration Date Approval

17. DEA has no objection to displaying the expiration date of this information collection.

Exceptions to Certification Statement

18. DEA does not request an exception to the certification of this information collection.

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