Performance Appraisal for General Schedule, Prevailing Rate, & Other Employees

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published this proposed regulation which would significantly change the performance appraisal framework for the vast majority of federal employees. The most significant change is that the proposed regulation would remove the prohibition against the forced distribution of performance ratings for rank-and-file federal employees below the executive level. This would limit how many employees could receive high performance ratings, regardless of the quality of their actual performance. The regulation would also eliminate Level 2 (currently "minimally successful") on a 5-level rating scale, meaning that this level of performance would have to be rated lower as failing performance or higher. It would eliminate employees' ability to file internal administrative grievances challenging their ratings, and it would eliminate any requirement that failing ratings be reviewed automatically by higher level officials. OPM's proposed regulation would also purport to prohibit union grievance and arbitration procedures from being used to challenge performance ratings, although OPM acknowledged in a footnote that this proposed regulation would not supersede existing collective bargaining agreements. For most supervisors, the proposed regulation would mandate a new critical performance element for all supervisors. However, the regulation would allow the exclusion of political appointees in Schedule C or Schedule G positions (i.e., political appointees) from the new forced rating distribution requirement. The proposed change, and specifically allowing for a forced distribution of performance ratings, has been criticized from multiple perspectives. For example, Government Executive reported: "Federal agencies almost unanimously warned the Office of Personnel Management that its forthcoming regulatory proposal overhauling federal performance management and instituting limits on how many employees can be rated above average will worsen mission delivery and open agencies up to litigation."