Fedweek

Three-fifths of federal employees are rated as exceeding fully successful or outstanding, GAO has said in a review of 2013 performance evaluations, adding that the exact numbers vary according to how many ratings levels apply to them. A report said that among employees below the executive level, 71 percent are rated under a five-level system, 13 percent under a two-level system (pass-fail) and the reminder under three- or four-level systems. Many agencies use differing numbers in their various components, it added. In five-level systems, 35.1 percent were rated as exceeding fully successful and 38.6 percent as outstanding; in a four-level system (where there is no “minimally successful” level) the figures were 35.7 and 52.3 percent. In three-level systems, 33.7 percent are rated as outstanding and 66.1 percent as fully successful, and in two-level systems 99.9 percent were deemed as passing. That 0.1 percent level of unacceptable performance was virtually the same regardless of the number of ratings levels, GAO found.