MSPB Finds Problems in Merit Promotion System

Federal supervisors, employees, and unions “all have major reservations” about how well the federal merit promotion process works, the Merit Systems Protection Board concluded in a recently published study. For example, only 45 percent of the employees responding to an MSPB survey reported that their supervisors promote the best qualified available person when there are jobs to be filled in their organizations. Meanwhile, a significant portion of the supervisors did not think that their organization’s merit promotion process allowed them to select the best qualified applicant for the job to be filled.