The current SES performance appraisal system does not meaningfully differentiate excellent from poor or mediocre performance across the SES. Image: Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffOPM has revised the standards for performance evaluations of SES members, saying that those ratings “are systematically inflated, and poor performers are not being held accountable through a rigorous appraisal process.”
“The current SES performance appraisal system does not meaningfully differentiate excellent from poor or mediocre performance across the SES. Nor does it provide for an accurate systematic appraisal of SES performance to serve as the “basis for making eligibility determinations for retention in the Senior Executive Service and for Senior Executive Service performance awards,” says a memo on chcoc.gov.
“These defects have existed for well over a decade,” it adds, citing a 2015 GAO report finding that 85 percent of career execs had been rated at one of the two highest of the five levels over 2010-2013. In the 2023 rating cycle, 96 percent were rated that highly, it adds.
Prominent among the changes that agencies must put in place by October 31 for use in the fiscal 2026 rating cycle are that:
* critical elements and performance requirements will stress whether execs “faithfully administered the law and advanced the President’s policy priorities; promoted government efficiency; demonstrated merit and competence; held others accountable and treated them fairly; and achieved organizational goals”;
* “at least quarterly, supervisors and executives must meet to discuss, and document, progress toward meeting the critical elements in the senior executive’s performance plan”;
* for agencies with five or more SES members, no more than 30 percent generally may be rated at level 4 or 5;
* only executives rated Level 4 or Level 5 should receive a performance award or performance-based pay adjustment exceeding 5% of their rate of basic pay, while an executive rated Level 3 should only receive a performance award equal to 5% of their rate of basic pay; and
* agencies must: remove from the SES or else transfer or reassign an executive who receives a level 1 final summary rating, and remove from the SES an executive who has received two ratings below level 3 within a three-year period.
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