The Office of Personnel Management has told agencies
to report on their use of category rating, an
alternative hiring practice that does away with the
“rule of three” system and allows agencies to group
applicants into broader categories and choose from
among those best qualified, rather than being
limited in their choices to those with the highest
scores.
In a memo, OPM noted that the law authorizing the
category rating required the government to submit
annual reports for three consecutive years as an
oversight control. Agencies are to report on the
number of employees hired under such a system, the
impact it has had on the hiring of veterans and
minorities, and the way in which managers were
trained in administering the program.
A report last year by the Government Accountability
Office found that agencies are making relatively
little use of the authority, which was granted
government-wide in the 2002 law creating the
Department of Homeland Security.
Separately, OPM also told agencies to report on their
use of physicians’ comparability allowances, which
may be paid for recruitment and retention purposes.
Agencies may pay up to $14,000 annually to a
physician with 24 months or less of service as a
government physician and up to $30,000 annually to
a physician with more than 24 months of service
as a government physician.