Some Details Still to Come

Even after publication of the interim rules—comments are due July 12—some aspects of the new polices remain to be determined. For example, the law authorizes agencies to pay retention incentives to prevent employees from leaving for other agencies, not just for outside jobs, or recruitment incentives to attract workers from other agencies. However, OPM said that because “costly and inefficient interagency competition could occur,” the rules do not address that issue; instead, OPM is inviting comments on whether an agency should be permitted to authorize such payments and, if so, under what circumstances. OPM also invited comments on whether the payment of a recruitment or retention incentive should be limited to only employees whose rating of record is at the highest level under the applicable performance appraisal or evaluation system.