The Foreign Service Journal, April 2010

56 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 1 0 A F S A N E W S cent of the respondents gradedHR serv- ices as poor. In the 2008 survey, this fig- ure increased to 33 percent. The 2009 survey shows a staggering 52 percent of the respondents making this assessment. While it is necessary to delve into the reasons for this, the accelerated Devel- opment Leadership Initiative and the high turnover at HR may be significant causes for the degrading of services. The office’s employees will need additional mentoring, training and supervision to improve their performance and develop an improved “client service”mentality. Poor HR support may be one of the principal reasons for poor agency mor- ale. Respondents who believe morale is poor jumped from22 percent in 2008 to 31 percent in 2009. In fact, more than half of the FSO survey respondents — 54 percent — think that things are get- ting worse, not better. Clearly, raising morale will be a key challenge for Ad- ministrator Shah. A slight change occurred regarding questions about service in the Critical Priority Countries of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan. In the last survey, some 60 percent of FSOs opposed di- rected assignments, compared to 48 per- cent in the current survey. While this is still high, it is possible that FSOs are be- ginning to accept the increased likeli- hood of a CPC assignment. We rephrased the previous survey’s question on USAID’s institutional sta- tus, providing more response options. Nevertheless, once again an overwhelm- ing majority (81 percent) voted to have USAID obtain independent Cabinet- level status. Respondents seem to reject the increasing trend tomerge the agency with the State Department and are con- cerned that the fragmentation of foreign assistance is detrimental to our mission. Finally, we at AFSA are pleased that 85 percent of you rated highly our ef- forts on your behalf. That is the reason we appreciate your comments about the things still left to do, and we read every- thing you send us. Thank you for let- ting us know where we can improve. To read the survey questions and full results, please visit www.afsa.org/usaid/ 0110vanguard.pdf. ❏ USAID AFSA Members Survey Results • Continued from page 49 Poor HR support may be one of the principal reasons for poor agency morale.