Performance evaluation ratings for SES members declined on average somewhat in 2013, the first year that many agencies had in place revised rating methods ordered in 2012, OPM has reported.
The 2012 changes sought to make evaluations more comparable across agencies by setting certain standards and requiring that all agencies use five-level systems—most had done so previously, but some used three or four levels.
Among career execs—who make up nine-tenths of the roughly 8,000-member executive cadre—45.2 percent were rated at the highest level (“outstanding,” or equivalent) in 2013, down 2.1 percentage points from the prior year. Non-career execs—mostly political appointees but also a small number employed under one of several special authorities—fared slightly better, making the overall decline of top ratings only 1.3 points.
Among career execs, another 44 percent were rated as exceeding expectations and 10.4 percent as fully successful. Only 0.4 percent—a total of 24 career execs out of 6,547 whose ratings were reported were rated as minimally successful or unacceptable.
Fewer SES performance awards were granted and the average performance award amount decreased from the previous year. The average performance award for those rated at the top fell by about $1,000 to about $11,100, while the average award for those exceeding expectations fell about $200 to about $8,700 and the average for those rated fully successful also fell about $200, to about $8,200.