DoD has finalized a policy, ordered in a budget bill enacted in late 2015, making performance the first determinant of retention in a RIF, rather than the last.
Under government-wide policy, when an agency conducts a significant job reduction, it must follow formal RIF procedures that create four standards for determining which employees are released, and which are retained, either in their current positions or in another position. In descending order, they are: tenure (type of appointment); veterans preference; length of service; and performance ratings.
However, the 2016 DoD budget law ordered that performance ratings be raised to the top of the list for that department; while the change applies only there, changes in personnel law affecting DoD as a test case often spread later to the entire federal workforce. While that would require a change in government-wide law, an emphasis on performance is one of the hallmarks of the management philosophy of the current leadership in Congress and the White House.
It is uncertain how much of an impact the change will have even at DoD as a practical matter, since that leadership also favors building up of military capabilities, which typically translates to an increase in civilian employment there. According to OPM, DoD has separated only about 200 employees–out of a workforce of some 760,000–by RIF over each of the last two years, and hasn’t RIF’d more than 600 in any year over the last decade.
However, the policy change is notable if only because the signal it sends regarding the importance of performance–and, indirectly, the lessening of the importance of veterans preference, always a closely watched provision.
It will not apply to DoD employees under alternative personnel systems such as the acquisition demonstration project, the science and technology reinvention laboratories, or the Defense Civilian Intelligence Personnel System, provided those systems also put performance first.