Federal Manager's Daily Report

The change in RIF procedures at DoD to make performance the most important determinant of retention “is a substantial change for DoD from existing, government-wide provisions,” according to a Pentagon fact sheet.

The new procedures “provide that employees shall be first placed on a retention register based on periods of assessed performance, and will be further listed on a retention register within these categories of assessed performance, based on the following retention factors, in descending order: 1) rating of record; 2) tenure group; 3) average score; 4) veterans’ preference; and 5) DoD service computation date,” it says.

The “rating of record” will be the average of the employee’s last two performance evaluations, rounded up to the next whole number.

For tenure groups, temporary employees and those with term appointments (Tenure Group III) always would be separated before any employees with career status (Tenure Group I) or with career-conditional status (less than three years of service; Tenure Group II). The “average score” will be the average of an individual’s ratings on specific performance standards, not rounded.

Regarding veterans’ preference, first priority is for those with a 30 percent or more disability rating, then others with preference, then non-veterans–as is current government-wide standard policy. Certain other policies, for example defining the “competitive area” in which affected employees compete for the remaining available positions, also are not changing, nor are the rights of employees to “retreat” to available lower-level positions under certain circumstances.

The fact sheet says the Pentagon soon will begin training for HR practitioners and publish information for the workforce on the new policies.