Army enlists civilian views

The Army is using the Internet to enable civilian employees to sound off about the service's vision, working conditions and business practices.

The Army is conducting an online survey through September, and for the first time, results will be provided to installation commanders, Army Secretary Thomas White and other senior leaders at the general officer level, according to an Army press release.

The service has conducted the Army Civilian Attitude Survey for more than 20 years, but this is the first time it has been offered online, and service officials hope to reach more workers.

The annual survey is used to track and evaluate the morale and welfare of the civilian workforce, Murray Mack, a personnel psychologist for the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army, said in the Army announcement.

The survey is voluntary and can be accessed at cpol.army.mil/survey/dasurvey.

"In the past, the survey was only mailed to employees' home addresses, and the project costs were high, primarily due to printing and postage — approximately $200,000," Mack said. "Only 15,000 people Armywide were being sampled, and last year's response rate was 40 percent."

For the $40,000 the online survey costs, Mack is hoping to receive responses from all of the Army's 225,000 civilian personnel. The survey, which Mack estimates will take someone 15 to 20 minutes to complete, is authorized to be accessed during the regular-duty day.

White signed a memorandum asking employees to be candid. To protect privacy, names will not be collected, and only group results will be reported, according to the memorandum.