NSPS Ratings Creeping Up

Performance ratings for employees under the NSPS system continued to creep upward in 2008, the third year in which substantial numbers of employees were in the program. For comparison, in 2007 about 0.2 percent of NSPS-covered employees received "unacceptable" ratings, while only 1.6 percent received "fair" ratings, about 57 percent were rated at level 3, 36 percent at level 4 and 5 percent at level 5. That in turn was generally a bit above the breakdown for the 2006 ratings—in increasing order, 0.3, 2.7, 69, 29 and 4 percent. In sum, while the two lowest-rated groups have held about steady at 2-3 percent combined and the highest-rated group has held about steady at 4-5 percent, more and more employees are being rated at level 4 versus level 3, and thus are becoming eligible for more shares in the performance payout system.