Probationary Period Also Targeted

Another provision of the DoD bill would lengthen the probationary period for those hired after the bill’s enactment date from one year to two. During that period, technically the last step in the federal hiring process even though the person already is on the job, employees may be removed for performance or conduct reasons with far fewer appeal rights than apply to employees who complete it. Reports from GAO and MSPB in recent years have suggested that agencies aren’t making best use of that period to either steer new employees to better performance or to weed out those who can’t do the job; unions have argued that the shortcomings are more a failure of management. Several separate bills to extend the standard probationary period at the VA already are pending, and enacting the change at DoD would give a renewed impetus to enact that change there, and potentially then for the rest of the government. Personnel policies at DoD commonly set precedent for application in other agencies, and that would potentially be the case for these changes, since they would create substantial differences between employees of that department and other federal employees. A two-year probationary period already applies in some positions, mostly in the excepted service.