Fedweek

DoD soon will bring more of its civilian employees under its Defense Performance Management and Appraisal Program. The program, part of the larger “New Beginnings” personnel initiative, is designed to create a unified performance evaluation program that eventually will apply to the large majority of DoD employees, excepting mainly those under alternative personnel systems; it launched last April with an initial group, followed by another group last October. It features three rating levels–1, 3 and 5–with an emphasis on level 3 being considered a valuable, well-functioning employee, level 5 reserved for only truly superior performance and level 1 for those who cannot or will not perform acceptably. It also specifies numerous tasks for supervisors through the ratings and rewards cycle as well as opportunities for employees to provide input. While the two initial rounds mostly involved relatively small components, the phase starting April 1 will cover, among others: much of the Air Force; Army components including its European Command, Test and Evaluation Command, Network Enterprise Technology Command, and Criminal Investigation Command; the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Chief of Naval Operations, and Installations Command; the National Guard Bureau; the Defense Contract Audit Agency, Defense Logistics Agency, Defense Media Activity, DoD Human Resources Activity, and the Uniformed University of the Health Sciences. A relatively small round is set for May, and then in July there is to be another large one, mainly involving numerous other Army commands, then further phases in October, November, December, then April, May, June, July and October of 2018.