OPM has sent a memo to agencies announcing an interagency effort to make performance ratings of SES employees more standardized. According to the August 1 memo, agencies currently "apply a vast number of different SES performance management systems and approaches to communicate and evaluate executive performance."
Continued the memo from OPM director John Berry: "This lack of uniformity complicates the federal government’s ability and success to promote simplicity and accountability in managing executive performance. The absence of a standardized system has also created complications and administrative burdens for agencies to achieve approval and certification of their performance appraisal systems."
The workgroup is composed of federal agencies, and is led by a steering committee including personnel from OPM, OMB, DoD, the DNI, and the departments of Energy, Labor, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
According to OPM the workgroup will review federal agency models to capitalize on existing practices that may be adopted or adapted, and also consider private sector executive performance management practices through consultation with the management advisory board.
It said that the group aims to complete the design by the end of September and that agencies will phase in the new system over the next two years.