Making meaningful distinctions in SES performance “continues to be a challenge for many agencies” since almost nine-tenths of career execs are rated at one of the top two of five levels, GAO has said.
“Coupled with evidence of overlap in performance awards across rating levels, this indicates that the link between performance ratings and awards is not being consistently applied,” GAO reported.
OPM and OMB in 2012 outlined several changes in SES performance evaluations in response to such criticisms, including a general call that every agency use five performance rating levels—some previously had used fewer—and setting more clear, descriptive performance standards and rating score ranges that establish mid-level ratings as the norm and top-level ratings as truly exceptional.
However, GAO said that each year over 2010-2013, more than 85 percent of execs received one of the top two ratings, with the 2013 number actually the highest in that time, 89.4 percent.
Said GAO: “Agency officials offered varied explanations for the high concentration of performance ratings at the top two rating levels, ranging from stating that the ratings are justified to stating that the ratings may be too high, but they are reinforced by an agency culture where executives may not view a rating of 3 as acknowledgement of a fully successful performance.”
