How to win over Washington? Listen to your federal workforce.

As the Trump administration's new Cabinet secretaries and other top-level political appointees get acquainted with their responsibilities, some will find they have inherited high-performing organizations while others will discover that their agencies are struggling.

For those leaders interested in a quick, fact-based assessment of how employees view their agencies, a good place to start is the 2016 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings. For many years, my organization, the Partnership for Public Service, and Deloitte, have produced the rankings as a means of measuring employee engagement, alerting leaders to signs of workforce dissatisfaction and providing insights into improving agency management.

Generally speaking, there's good news and bad news.

First the good news. Most Cabinet secretaries will be inheriting a federal workforce showing signs of improved employee engagement - that is, increased job and workplace satisfaction and commitment, and a willingness to put forth extra effort to achieve positive results.

This post was originally featured on The Washington Post's website.