A memo from OPM to agencies on preparations for the next round of employee performance evaluations stresses several considerations for ratings of executives, which have been under scrutiny in recent years as overly generous.
The memo reminds agencies that SES and senior level/senior scientific and technical employees are under performance-based systems and that both pay adjustments and awards must reflect “appropriate” ratings.
Those ratings must be “based on the comparison of an individual’s performance against the expectations communicated through the performance plan (critical elements, performance standards, performance requirements), which provides for meaningful distinction in ratings,” it says, adding that “quotas for levels of performance are not permissible.”
Agencies are to inform those employees of the “the general outcome of the appraisal process, including overall distribution of ratings, and average performance awards and performance adjustments for each rating level. Special provisions may need to be made for small groups to protect confidentiality of the information.”
OPM also reminded agencies of the requirement that their systems make meaningful distinctions among levels of performance in order to be “certified”—where they are not certified, lower salary caps and lower total compensation limits apply. “For purposes of certifying agency appraisal systems as making meaningful distinctions in performance, it will be important that ratings distributions accurately and appropriately capture observed distinctions in performance,” it said.
A GAO report of early 2015 said that making meaningful distinctions in SES performance “continues to be a challenge for many agencies” since about nine-tenths of career execs were rated at one of the top two of five levels over 2010-2013. A report later in the year from OPM itself said that pattern continued in 2014. Well below 1 percent of execs are rated at one of the bottom two levels.
